Top 5 social media channels for seniors housing

Wanting the best situation for a loved one drives seniors housing prospects to seek referrals—and there’s no quicker way to source referrals and reviews than on the Internet through social media channels.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the

“

Top 5 Social Media Channels

”

for engaging with

s

enior

s

h

ousing prospects:

1. In the past year, Facebook has become synonymous with

s

ocial

m

edia. And with good reason

—

this site boasts the largest online community with 3000,000,000 members and users across every demographic (the oft-quoted fastest growing demographic on Facebook is the coveted seniors housing decision-makers: women 55+). Having a presence on Facebook is a necessity; ignore it at your own peril.

2. Twitter has buzz. And buzz, particularly on the Internet, goes a long way. It’s growing even faster than Facebook, but its user base (more than 20,000,000) is much smaller. Twitter is not only a great way to push content to prospects, but it’s also a great way to respond to brand concerns about your communities. You can monitor conversations here as well as any other social media site, giving you a chance to hear the chatter about your brand across a heavily used medium. Think of it as reputation management—online.

3. This is the professional networking site. One of the more established social networks, it has succeeded by targeting businesses and business professionals

—

active and retired. For

s

enior

s

h

ousing

,

this is a great place to pick up valuable ideas and news (by joining relevant groups), find talent (via your company portal) and find the answers to questions that have been plaguing you professionally (via Questions & Answers).

4. MySpace

has p

eople. And lots of them. While MySpace is considered by some industry followers as the

“has-been” of the social networks, its user base of 125,000,000 makes it hard to ignore. Recent demographic data shows users of all ages but skews toward rural areas. For communities based in rural areas, MySpace could be a boon.

5. Blogging is a great way to talk about your community—events, amenities, what sets you apart from other local seniors housing providers. The best part? Once you get that nicely worded blog out on the Web, you can push it to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace—giving you extra content and building blog awareness. Blogging software makes this process simple.

WordPress happens to be a personal favorite because it’s intuitive and easy-to-use.

Next up: “Social media best practices”—the do’s, the don’ts, and the why nots.