A few weeks ago I ran a survey that took a look at Senior Housing and Social media. Here are the results of that survey. For what it is worth . . . .
1. The results of this survey will be heavily skewed in the sense that the invitation to take take the survey was extended on the internet. Skewing it even more heavily is that those who took the survey will tend to be people who are more comfortable with the internet.
2. I was surprised at the relatively large percentage of people who are pretty happy with their web presence.
3. I was surprised there are almost 50% of the communities that do not use referral services.
4. Finally, The most surprising result was that the most common response on how many of your leads come from the internet was 10%-30%. I expected it to be much higher.
THE RESULTS
Role in the Community
Types of Residents Served
Community Capacity
Web Presence
What percentage of your leads come from the internet?
What percentage of your leads come from referral agencies?
How often do you update your content?
How Satisfied are you with your web presence
Who maintains/updates your social media content?
Some selected comments from the Survey?
“Social media will soon become the primary source in which we get our leads. The baby boomers are going to rely more on social media than generations before.”
“We are a small rural community. Most of our referrals are word of mouth.”
“It will be interesting how new sites like Pinterest help us.”
“Social Media is obviously a blossoming industry. With younger folks thinking about senior living it makes sense to have a presence. Sometimes it’s not the senior themselves who is looking, but an adult child or grandchild. Social media is a cheap, effective way to market. Since it’s low-cost, it doesn’t hurt!”
“It’s been a struggle to get current residents engaged, but we’re starting to see small successes. Some adult children interact with us and some local businesses who provide regular services. Lots of employee leave comments, which fine, but not our target audience. My facility-specific sm users struggle to find time to provide the hand-holding needed for onboarding current residents to social media.”
“It makes most very uncomfortable.”
“I think it’s highly important but our administration does not provide for it.”
“After taking your survey, I need to do in-house research!”
“Since I have been doing more research I believe it will be a good way for our seniors and family members to question senior housing in real time before they even decide who to tour.”
“. . .not exploited very well… boomers are tech savy…”
“We are still unsure of the effectiveness versus time to keep them up…”
“We believe it is going to bring in 60% of our leads over the next 5 years.”
“It would be a great tool to communicate to families – none of the staff members have been willing to participate.”
“Does not seem to be terribly effective just now, but, as more older people use social media, I think it will be a more effective form of advertising.”
“It takes a lot of time.”
Finally, How does this fit with your experience?
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From LinkedIn Groups
Group: Senior Assisted Living Sales, Marketing & Operations
Discussion: Survey of Senior Housing Communities use of Social Media.
This survey doesn’t surprise me at all-Social Media isn’t what people think for referrals and it is way overblown. Only the people in tech think its great–or if your 20. Which means you have 40 more years prior to assisted living-which the business model will drastically change. Because more “baby boomers” will stay in their homes. I agree the ALF will increase by sheer population numbers and our culture of broken families and kids not supporting parents through a home environment.
A small example why I’m not surprised can be seen in the Roland Park Baltimore Area, where a very well known ALF/LTC/ADD/Alzheimers Locked Unit where I did Marketing. We did a study on referrals. ZERO came from internet, social media, etc. Every referral was word of mouth, local hospital through relationship building. There is a 1 in 100 chance siblings from out of state would look on the ‘net to find a neighborhood for their loved one. But that is the internet. Not Social Media. I think if and when social media and the internet become one, maybe that will be the case. But, Healthcare is not “tech” and never will be-its people-nurses, doctors, etc.
Unless you break the cycle of the referral network and the value of neighborhoods, social media may need another ten years before its effective if at all. The one thing I agree with is as the “boomers” that are tech savvy are researching they may use social media–but I have yet to respond to an ad on SM/Websites for anything. Its a nice gesture they flash ads, I have no desire to buy from an advertisement however…but hey some people do.
The above exampe is only one-maybe there is (1) ALF in the USA that someone can chime in on and say-I get what % of referrals from social media. ?
Posted by Stanford F. Phillips
From LinkedIn Groups
Group: LeadingAge
Discussion: Survey of Senior Housing Communities use of Social Media.
Interesting, Steve! I think the Boomers and next generations will have a huge impact on these results.We are very comfortable using the Internet and will surf the web looking for information on just about anything. In fact, we even attempt to diagnose our own illnesses, much to the dismay of many medical professionals (and rightly so!).
Posted by Lori Miller, CPSM, PC
From LinkedIn Groups
Group: Elder Care Professionals
Discussion: Survey of Senior Housing Communities use of Social Media.
Executive Directors tell me that most of their residents are generated from word of mouth. They all have websites, but you really can’t tell much from looking at them. Most people wait for the last emeragency and then ask someone where to place Mom or Dad, What surprises me is how little elder care facilities use email to communicate with families.
Posted by Lorie Eber
From LinkedIn Groups
Group: Senior Assisted Living Sales, Marketing & Operations
Discussion: Survey of Senior Housing Communities use of Social Media.
We recently created a per-presentation for LCS that addresses this using our solution rather than social media. You might want to check it out http://youtu.be/CG2LMXTUKA0 . Make sure you use the HD tool to view it clearer.
Posted by Steve Zasio
There exists another position: “Community Relations Officer” and/or “Executive Director of Community Affairs/Liaison”. There are business situations where the developer/equity owner of the building, who often times is a local citizen and community leader, after completing the construction or re-hab, works directly with the Assisted Living Facility Operator and/or Independent Living Operator in achieving high resident occupancy. I suspect there may be many incidents where the selected operator “hired” the developer due to his/her knowledge of the local community and beyond to assist in reached occupancy goals and to work with the local community to enhance and solidify community spirit. It would be interesting ro know of any statistics in this area for this function and situation.
From LinkedIn Groups
Group: LeadingAge
Discussion: Survey of Senior Housing Communities use of Social Media.
This is great information Steve. Thanks for compiling it!
Posted by Diane Masson
Missing from the survey are residents and prospective residents. Many younger residents are appalled to find that most senior housing communities still rely on costly telephone communications.
Prospective residents are beginning to discover that they can be better served, even for their health and safety needs, by developing technology that they can deploy more readily if they stay in their homes than if they move to senior housing.
It’s interesting that Executive Directors, in your survey, are the most complacent about their existing web presence and the status quo, since in an hierarchical system that rewards long and loyal service they are likely to have been in the industry on average longer than most.
Promising is that the lower level, frequently younger categories are not as satisfied, so maybe change will finally reach this industry 35 years or more after the ATM revolutionized the banking business.
Hi Jack
You make some great points. A week or so I was talking to the COO of a large regional assisted living company who told me that 80% of their residents are on-line at least 3 times per week (some of them with assistance from staff). I wish I had asked how many make internet available to their residents.
Steve
Thanks, Steve… we have to make progress slowly. For now there is a divide between residents (and the pool of prospective residents from whom they come) and the upper level management. Management views residents as customers which allows executives to fantasize that they are businesspeople entitled to commensurate compensation rewards.
Residents came to their CCRCs to retire, trusting in the provider to shelter them, and they don’t want to be stirred out of their complacency, nor do they want to concede that they may have misjudged the provider’s competence when they made the move. Ideally, they would be treated as participants in the organization that succors them as they age but nurturers are inherently patronizing. The day will come, and likely soon as the generation of 1968 grows older, when residents will demand to be participants, but we’re not quite there yet.
This is a “feel good” industry that tends to favor nurturing over competency, but that is beginning to change. The accountants are now in the ascendancy, though I expect their reign will be shortlived since there are problems with the accounting methodology and that will eventually bring them into a shadow. Both callings, i.e. nurturers and cost containment types, are inimical toward the advantages that technology can bring forward. The nurturers believe that the personal touch is the highest calling and technology seems impersonal and detached to them. The accountants don’t want to spend the money and hope to get everything on the cheap.
Other industries have gone through similar transitions. Eventually, if the industry is to thrive, the generalists emerge as the natural leaders and they are more open to innovation and the potentialities of the future. They are also better able to manage change and they are less wedded to the status quo. I think that the difference is between people who are educated from textbooks — repositories for what appears to be Bible-like truths — and people who are educated from orginial sources, allowed to discover how human endeavor has developed over the centuries.
Textbooks record the status quo and indoctrinate people in current practice. There is little regard for potentialites and the distant horizon that the future offers. The sweep of history though is littered with discarded and distant statuses quo and the tragedy that can sweep over people ill-equipped to adapt over the course of their careers and who often end up idled and rendered prematurely anachronistically obsolete.
Senior housing as it has evolved since Revenue Ruling 72-124 is still a nascent industry and the leadership group is not now, and may never be, the kind of visionaries who can give us the internet or an Amazon.
If I had to place a bet, I would say that congregate senior housing is likely to fall by the wayside as a choice for people short of end stage decline, not because congregate living isn’t the better choice — it is and many of us were happy to live communally while in college — but because the industry leadership is unlikely to make it an attractive choice and because the leadership lacks the imagination to counter the challenge that comes from the “stay in your own home” crowd.
It’s a sad tale because it makes the human living experience less than what it might be and what it ought to be.
From LinkedIn Groups
Just because we can doesn’t mean we should. We consistently ask clients to make sure they understand the content, resources, commitment and follow through to be successful in this space. The heavy lifting on this occurs daily and clients have to be ready to dedicate dollars and people across the board. Social media is not free, nor is it a “set it and forget” medium. It is part of strategic integration of how your brand is experienced.
Posted by Jeremiah Treacy
Hi Jeremiah:
You make a great point. The wonderful thing about social media is that in terms of dollars out of pocket the cost is very low, but this can be deceiving. In order to do social media well, it takes considerable human manpower. To maintain my blog and LinkedIn presence I spend probably close to 10 hours per week which means lots of evenings and weekend time.
I made a commitment to post new content once a week on my blog and have not missed a week, because I know that if I miss once I will miss again.
Steve Moran
From LinkedIn Groups
Group: LeadingAge
Discussion: Survey of Senior Housing Communities use of Social Media.
The audience needs to get educated quickly. Too much press on the wonders of “free and viral” has colored the segment and medium. As you noted, this is a big time commitment and strategy. Big brands have the horsepower.
Posted by Jeremiah Treacy
I used to work for a couple Senior Facilities (CCRC’s) at the Executive Level. Also, I used to work with a person who is a Housing Director at a large CCRC Corporation. From my experience, these people who run the facilities at the Corporate Level are only concerned with the money for the rental spaces. They are trained to lie to adult children of seniors and seniors looking for a community to live and enjoy. They over pay their executives and under pay, and under-staff their care-givers, dining people, everyone at the lower levels that have direct contact with the seniors. They speak poorly about the seniors behind closed doors. The Government and Advocate Groups need to be pro-active in exploiting the real problem with these facilities. Check out the salaries of the upper management (way over 6 figures). Check out the commissions of the salespeople, marketing employees. People need to take action; most seniors cannot afford these places because the Exec’s are taking advantage of a nitch they can persue their greedy lives with. Another person I know works for a large corporation and she has a few credit issues, has had large liens against her and her husband, etc. Actually had to leave the state of California because of owed royalties to a Franchise Corporation. One of the liens is for a prominent Hospital that services the very facility she works at. She has no intention of paying the money owed to this hospital and laughs about “getting away with it.” The corporation she works for does not look into employees credit issues. That’s very irresponsible. These companies only want to employ ambitious self-self-rightous greedy people who want to make their bosses more money and play the game. The Exec’s get great perks, have too many meetings just to hear themselves talk, and, they slash the budgets that affect the senior residence’ livelihood and enjoyment.
, please take charge and stop the Greed. Seniors deserve better. Thank you.