How retirement homes can use social media to aid in marketing and communications

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities Digital Communications Strategist April 8, 2014 Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

description

Not many retirement homes, nursing homes or senior care providers are using social media and communities to interact with and build their reputation online. There is a HUGE opportunity out there. This presentation outlines the value of online networks, how to build an online communications strategy and features two important case studies from top retirement homes using social media. Originally presented by Eden Spodek for the Comfort Life Marketing Academy Lunch & Learn in Toronto, April 8, 2014.

Transcript of How retirement homes can use social media to aid in marketing and communications

Page 1: How retirement homes can use social media to aid in marketing and communications

Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Digital Communications Strategist

April 8, 2014

Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

•  Digital Communications Strategist

•  Instructor at U of T SCS Digital Strategy Certificate

•  25 years in communications and marketing, including •  19 years in digital

•  Launched first online community in 2001

•  Ran PodCamp Toronto (5 years) •  Blogger since 2006

•  Variety industries, agency and client-side

Introducing Eden

Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

•  Internet Usage in Canada •  Online Community Building •  Reputation and Trust •  Retirement Communities

Using Social Media •  Paid, Earned, Sponsored

and Owned Content

Agenda

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Internet Usage in Canada

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

82% of Canadians use at least one social network. Canada has the the highest social media network penetration in the World. By comparison, the US ranks fourth with 75% penetration.

     

Social,  Digital  &  Mobile  Around  The  World,    We  Are  Social,  January  2014  

 

Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

64% of Canadians using social media have actively stayed up-to-date with a brand via social media and 1/3 want a dialogue with the brand (not looking for a deal or contest)

Delvinia’s AskingCanadians How are Canadians Using Social Media?

Stryve Group, July 12, 2012

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

“16% of CEOs say they use social media as a top way to engage customers. However, they expect their use of social media to more than triple in the next 5 years.”

         

Leading  Through  Connec@ons,  Highlights  of  the  Global  Chief  Execu@ve  Officer  Study,  IBM,  2012  

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Community Building

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

“An online community is a group of people with common interests who use the Internet (websites, email, instant messaging, etc.) to communicate, work together and pursue their interests over time.”

   

Lee  Lefever,  The  Common  CraM  Blog,  July  2003  

What’s an Online Community?

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Online Communities •  Comprised of people with a

common interest •  People sharing information

and ideas •  Instead of meeting in

person, people meet online (virtual)

•  Often an extension of real-life relationships

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Online Communities /2

•  Always on •  Functions independently of

time and real-world locations making participation more accessible

•  Membership can be open or closed

•  May be moderated and/or monitored by community manager(s)

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Purpose of Online Communities •  Meeting place for people

with common goals and interests

•  Gain customer insights •  Identify, cultivate and

reward brand ambassadors •  Generate leads and sales

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Purpose of Online Communities /2

•  Helps identify potential issues

•  Collaborate with customers, partners, suppliers and influencers directly

•  New customer service channel

•  Marketing, visibility, brand awareness, customer loyalty, relationship-building

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Developing a Strategy

Ask questions •  What are the goals and target

audience? •  How does community building

fit into your organization’s objectives?

•  Who is your community? •  What is the membership

criteria? •  How can you help community

members? •  How will you recognize and

reward members?

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Developing a Strategy /2

Make Decisions •  Decide how your community

will be managed •  Develop internal and external

guidelines •  Understand the objective(s) of

community members and listen

•  Choose an appropriate platform(s)

•  Determine a content strategy •  Develop a marketing plan •  What will success look like?

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Setting Goals

•  S.M.A.R.T. – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely

•  What do you want to achieve with your community?

•  How will having a community further business goals and objectives?

•  Will you have one for employees or external audiences only?

•  What is the right strategic direction for the organization?

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Reputation and Trust

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

“…the understanding or influencing of an individual's or business's reputation. It was originally coined as a public relations term, but advancement in computing, the internet and social media made it primarily an issue of search results. Although it is often associated with ethical grey areas, such as astroturfing review sites, censoring negative complaints or using SEO tactics to game the system and influence results, there are also ethical forms of reputation management, such as responding to customer complaints, asking sites to take down incorrect information and using online feedback to influence product development...”

– Reputation Management, Wikipedia  

Reputation Management

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

“The only way to build trust … is to develop relationships and provide valuable educational information. That information should help your customers and prospects solve the problems they’ve been having… Whatever it happens to be, harvest stories that humanize the company in order to sell.”

– Gini Dietrich, Spin Sucks: Communications and Reputation Management in the Digital Age

Building a Culture of Trust

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

•  Community manager – a trusted and transparent part of the community

•  Trust is built by: •  Answering complaints and

questions •  Correcting incorrect factual

information on sites he/she helps to maintain the company integrity

•  This helps demonstrate the community manager cares about the community because he/she is invested in it

•  By improving services through member feedback, the organization provides better client service by better fulfilling client needs

Reputation and Community

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

•  Essential consideration in strategy development

•  Define role of community manager

•  Cultivate community ambassadors •  Engage, feature and highlight

your biggest fans •  Role of other community

members (active participants, lurkers, etc.) •  All members need to feel like

they belong •  Be transparent

Building a Community of Trust

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

•  Starbucks tracks interactions and progress on the site and shares them with members

•  Transparency helps build: •  A community of collaboration •  A feeling that members are

partners •  Customer/brand loyalty

•  Building community around the brand creates an environment of trust between Starbucks and its most passionate customers

Case Study: My Starbucks Idea

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•  Launched iPhone app (2012), there were problems; publicly admitted their mistake, customers were overwhelmingly supportive

•  Lessons learned: §  Knowing when to admit

mistakes builds trust and customer loyalty

§  Ask customers to come to them with problems and give the company a chance to provide a solution instead moving to a competitor

§  How to turn problems into opportunities

Case Study: FreshBooks App

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Retirement Communities Case Studies

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

HCF Management, Lima Ohio

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd6mfUHlMqs Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

•  Hired a NOW Marketing Group for a pilot project for seven of their 27 facilities

•  Learned from digital audit that it was more important to focus on engagement than numbers

•  Developed a three-pronged approach

Case Study: HCF Management

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

1.  Be Hyperlocal •  Launched individual

accounts for 24 facilities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest – all are accessed centrally through a “Social Hub” on HCF’s corporate website

•  Use Scoreboard Social to track engagement between the facilities

Case Study: HCF Management /2

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

2.  Reach Out to Decision-Makers •  People who make the decisions

aren’t necessarily the people receiving their services

•  Facebook posts are designed to educate, engage, entertain and show their expertise mixed with general interest posts so prospective decisions-makers feel included

•  Created virtual tours and staff introductions for YouTube

•  Harlem Shake videos received 10K views first week and garnered media attention

Case Study: HCF Management /3

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

3.  Reach Out to Employees •  Uses social media to build

employee engagement (FB, Pinterest, email newsletters)

•  Led to increased engagement between employees and residents

Case Study: HCF Management /3

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Highlights* •  24 facilities across two states

now on social media, web hub •  A series of “Harlem Shake”

videos filmed at 13 facilities received more than 35,000 views

•  Quarterly average of 27% increased engagement across facilities since launching social media

•  2,252 combined subscriptions to email newsletter

Case Study: HCF Management /4

*3 Ways Social Media Creates a Social Local Community, Social Media Examiner

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

BMA Management, Illinois

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

•  Leading provider of assisted living in the Illinois, #16 overall in the United States

•  Nominated Best Senior Living Blog and Social Media Rockstar – in the 2014 SeniorHomes.com Best Senior Living Awards Contest

•  Targets children of current and future residents

•  Uses pop culture to stay relevant (e.g. selfies, Wii competition)

BMA Management, Illinois

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

•  Establish a response protocol •  Monitor and actively listen at

all times •  Engage when it makes sense •  Address issues, not

the rants •  Don’t over engage

•  You may want to provide more information than is really necessary in a situation

•  Doing so isn’t always best for the brand and can lead to other issues or further questions

Engagement & Issues Management

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Paid, Earned, Social and Owned

• Social Media • Word of Mouth • Referrals/Reviews

• Your Website • Your Blog • Your Content

• Media Relations • Blogger Relations • Influencer Relations

• Social Advertising • Traditional Advertising • Sponsored Content • Google AdWords

Paid Earned

Shared Owned

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Paid Content

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Earned Content

Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Shared Content

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

Owned Content

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

•  PAID: Comfort Life continuously speaks to a highly targeted audience, Typically that adult daughter that is researching retirement living and care options for her father or mother.

•  EARNED: Some partners, such as Comfort Life, will allow you to post articles directly to the website (earned media) and will highlight you in photo, article or video features.

•  EARNED: You can also build relationships with influencers who may help co-create and share your content.

•  SHARED: You can pull feeds from your Facebook and twitter conversations onto your Comfort Life online community profile to amplify your message

•  SHARED: If you're looking for great content to share, such as eBooks, reports, stats, checklists or calculators, Comfort Life produces new sharable content every month.  

Amplify your message

Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

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Online Marketing for Retirement Communities

•  Canada leads in Internet usage •  Build community around a common

goal •  You don’t need a huge staff or do to

huge things to be remarkable •  Collaboration, listening, problem-

solving and sharing of meaningful content builds community

•  Community managers are the eyes, ears and voice of an organization

•  Integrated approach to content distribution – “PESO” opportunities help build relationships and amplify your message

Summary

Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

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Questions?

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Thank you!

Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

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Continue the Conversation Online

Connect Eden Spodek Digital Communications Strategist Eden Spodek Inc. [email protected] EdenSpodek.com

@EdenSpodek LinkedIn.com/en/EdenSpodek

Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

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3 Ways Social Media Creates a Social Local Community http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-ways-social-media-creates-a-social-local-community/ Delvinia’s AskingCanadians – How are Canadians Using Social Media? Stryve Group, July 12, 2012, http://stryvegroup.com/how-are-canadians-using-social-media FreshBooks, http://freshbooks.com Guide To Online Community Management, ReadWriteWeb, eBook, http://www.slideshare.net/readwriteweb/rww-community-report-12107798 How are Canadians Using Social Media?, Stryve Group, July 12, 2012, http://stryvegroup.com/how-are-canadians-using-social-media/ Leading Through Connections, Highlights of the Global Chief Executive Officer Study, IBM, 2012, http://www-935.ibm.com/services/uk/en/ceostudy.html The Common Craft Blog, Lefever, L., July 2003, http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000208.html My Starbucks Idea, http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ No Bullshit Social Media, Deckers, E., Falls, J., 2012

References

Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.

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Reputation Management, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reputation_management Seven Trends in Community and Social Business for 2013, Community Roundtable, Leanne Chase, January 3, 2013, http://community-roundtable.com/2013/01/seven-trends-in-community-and-social-business-for-2013/ Six Revisions blog http://sixrevisions.com/mobile/design-mistakes-iphone-app/ Social, Digital & Mobile Around The World, We Are Social, January 2014 http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/social-digital-mobile-around-the-world-january-2014 Spin Sucks: Communications and Reputation Management in the Digital Age, Dietrich G., 2014 "Structuring a Social Media Team”, Ragan/NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions white paper, http://www.ragan.com/Main/StructuringaSocialMediaTeam.aspx The Can't-Miss Social Media Trends For 2013, Ryan Holmes, Fast Company, November 29, 2012, http://www.fastcompany.com/3003473/cant-miss-social-media-trends-2013 What is an Online Community, Lee Lefever, July 2009, http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000208.html

References

Copyright © Eden Spodek, Eden Spodek Inc. 2014.