Mastering Social Media: Creating Engaging Campaigns for Direct Lead Generation
Social media has quickly become an effective means for senior living communities to connect with their audiences and promote their unique offerings. Ultimately, it’s also a great tool for attracting potential residents. But, it takes a mix of creativity, authenticity, and data-driven, strategic thinking to get your senior living community to stand out in a crowded digital landscape.
In this article, we’ll explore the thinking process that helps unlock creative social media content for senior living communities that inspires engagement and drives lead generation.
Take Time to Understand Your Audience
It’s essential that you recognize you’re not just competing for your target audience’s attention with other senior living communities. Instead, you are facing off against all sorts of brands with stories vying for attention on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Target audiences are inundated with content designed to get them acting. Only the most resonant will succeed and it is critical that your content hits just right in order for success.
Get to Know Them
An integral component of creating compelling social media content is knowing your target audience. That starts with knowing where and how your audience likes to spend their time consuming media is crucial to the success of your social media campaigns.
Older adults are spending more time than ever before on social media platforms. According to one survey, Americans aged 65 and above report spending an average of 47 minutes a day on social media. That accumulates to 300 hours a year per individual. The same survey showed that Facebook wins out as the platform of choice with a whopping 75% of respondents saying they spend time on it, with YouTube a distant second at 28% and Instagram at 10%.
A report by the World Economic Forum shows that Baby Boomers are adopting social media usage at the highest levels, while their adult children, Generation X, spend the most time on social media than any other age group.
Next, you should take time to understand how best to segment your audience into “typical” groups who are coming to you driven by a specific purpose. An adult child searching for an appropriate senior living community for their older parent is one such example. Another example might be a recently widowed older adult seeking solace in community, or a recently retired couple wanting a more active, social experience. Each type could be “grouped” or “segmented” and your messages and marketing materials can be tailored to resonate specifically with them.
Take time to research demographics, interests, and preferences of each one. Where possible, conduct surveys so you can get to know each persona. Ask yourself: what are they looking for; what are their biggest fears, passions or favorite subjects of discussion? Keep their circumstances in mind too – for instance, an older adult living alone will have different motives for researching a senior living community to someone whose partner died recently. By understanding their needs and desires you can tailor content that resonates on an intimate level.
Showcase Authentic Stories
Use your social media platforms to share authentic stories directly from your residents. This captures attention, engages audiences and ultimately, builds trust, providing opportunities to humanize your brand through emotional connections with your target markets.
Instead of solely touting community amenities or features, sharing real experiences from residents and staff demonstrates why your community stands out among competitors. Include testimonials from your residents as well as testimonials from their family members to give your social media audiences a glimpse into daily life at your community. These narratives will help create emotional connections that lead them to choose you over competitors.
Senior living brands sometimes shy away from creating such content because it may feel daunting to convey this level of honesty. It certainly isn’t how traditional marketing would have us create content around a brand. Yet data shows us that social media audiences respond far better to realness and honesty in storytelling compared to overworked, overdesigned narratives. Trust the process and bear in mind that it is the people in your community more than any other aspect who will attract prospective residents. Share stories honestly, then be ready for audience interaction. Authenticity is truly the cornerstone of successful social media marketing; share with care, then engage attentively.
Encourage User-Generated Content
Involve your followers by inviting them to contribute experiences, photos, or stories related to your community. A senior living brand that understands the importance of authenticity in story-telling will encourage their residents to share their experiences. This is because experiences shared directly from your resident’s point of view are as powerful as word-of-mouth advertising. In other words, it indicates a stamp of approval from the people who are experiencing your services directly.
To encourage your residents to participate, you could use branded hashtags and offer up spot prizes. This will also enable you to pick up on gems that you might want to amplify.
User-generated content not only increases engagement but serves as authentic testimonials that demonstrate its worth for both engagement purposes as well as authentic testimonials for its value in real world situations.
Highlight Community Events and Activities
Social media provides an ideal avenue for highlighting community events and activities, whether fitness classes, art workshops, holiday celebrations or anything else you feel your senior living community should highlight. Share engaging posts such as photos, videos or live streams so your followers get an idea of all that awaits them at each activity or celebration.
Educational Content and Resources
Establish your senior living community as an authoritative source by sharing educational content and resources related to aging, wellness, and senior care. Provide tips for healthy living and advice for retirement as well as insights into senior care options.
By doing this you not only establish yourself as a thought leader but also attract residents seeking guidance or support. You can do this authentically by having staff members share thoughts and tips on short video snippets. This kind of creative gives a social media follower a sense of your staff contingent along with enriching their knowledge with the information they are sharing.
Think Creatively and Unconventionally
Don’t be intimidated to think creatively and differently when showcasing what makes your community special. Brainstorm ideas with your team regularly to find ways to capture your brand’s personality, culture, values, and character – whether that means hosting themed days for residents to show their artwork, spotlighting local partnerships or finding differentiating strategies aimed at captivating your target audience.
Community Management
Once your content has been created and delivered to its intended target audience, engaging them becomes crucial. Your stories might attract viewers that pose many interesting questions which require answers. Don’t neglect this step in creating great stories.
Be ready to respond promptly and graciously in all interactions if you wish to foster good will with your social media followers. Doing this requires meticulous training and strong emotional intelligence skills. At times, responses might require you to “read between the lines” to address someone’s specific concern that is difficult for them to express verbally. Creating “standardized” responses can run the risk of frustrating a person while doing damage to your brand. Therefore, your community manager’s role should be to ensure your social media presence remains humanized.
Wrap-Up
Social media lead generation campaigns featuring authentic stories, and which are combined with compassionate community management, are the recipe for success. By understanding your target audience and crafting engaging stories that resonate while following up with human responses when responding to queries, your senior living community can create an appealing online community that resonates with its target market for years. With strategic planning and creativity at work behind each post made on these networks, senior living communities will build lasting online communities which attract prospective residents over time.
