Capturing and sharing resident stories has gotten ridiculously easy and affordable — as easy as point, record, and “Create a Movie.”

By Pam McDonald

As a public relations and marketing consultant to senior living operators for over 20 years, I urged my clients to look inward to their residents for “good news” human-interest stories to share. I was (and still am) convinced that with a little probing, every community can uncover gem after gem.

And now, capturing and sharing these stories has gotten ridiculously easy and affordable with OneDay for Senior Living, a point-and-shoot video-making, storytelling app and Senior Housing Forum partner. Just ask Josh Kuchar, Marketing Coordinator for Discovery Senior Living, who has spearheaded collection of nearly a thousand video stories from residents and staff.

As Easy As Point, Record, and “Create a Movie”

Josh started with Discovery Senior Living as an intern handling their social media activity, including Facebook and Twitter. He was interested in video creation and seemed to have a talent for it, so he took video editing and production courses. Currently, he coordinates the OneDay video-taking efforts of Discovery’s 45 communities.

“It’s so easy to use,” Josh says. “The communities were able to pick it right up. We’ve gotten really good resident stories and testimonial videos for our websites and social media, as well as shout outs to Team Members. I really like OneDay.”

With training provided by OneDay’s Client Success Team, community executive directors are shown the app’s basic operation so they can teach other staff (primarily activities directors and salespeople). They’re also shown how to carve out as little as 20 minutes each week to record a resident or two.

The app is loaded with memory-provoking questions like “Tell me about the first house you bought,” “What was your military service like?”, or “Tell me about your wedding day.” Managers, like corporate leaders and executive directors, can add questions to meet their communities’ specific purposes.

Josh notes, “Our sales team also suggests questions and ‘fixes’ to the app as well as coming up with contests for communities to conduct. In fact, we’re in the process of wrapping up a special tribute to our communities’ veterans.”

A Salute to Veterans

Josh explains that Discovery Senior Living challenged the communities to encourage staff, residents, family members, and friends to make videos featuring or focusing on veterans. The company promised that $25 for each video would be donated to the organization of that community’s choosing, such as the Wounded Warrior Project or Disabled American Veterans. When the contest wraps, donations totaling $3,400 will be dispersed.

“Of course, we featured these videos on social media,” Josh states, “and got a lot of responses. Families and friends left comments like, ‘Great to see Joe out and about,’ or ‘Dad is lookin’ good.’” Several of these videos are featured on Discovery’s active YouTube channel, accessible here.

Cherished Memories for Families, Plus So Many Additional Uses

In OneDay client communities, each resident has their own private webpage where videos are housed. At any time, family members can access a link to see what’s going on for Mom and Dad. Each community also has a webpage where they can showcase their best resident stories and testimonials.

Completed videos can be tagged and sent to residents and prospects. In fact, Discovery Senior Living sends personalized thank you videos after every tour. Josh believes this is improving move-in conversion rates.

Discovery Senior Living’s next initiative using OneDay? Building a library of employee recruitment videos. Josh says they’ll ask existing staff questions like, “What do you like best about the community where you’re employed?” and distribute them to appropriate job boards and websites.

For more information about OneDay, click the button below to visit their website:

Download a PDF copy of this article by clicking on the button below: