Natalie Morris Morris MC

Social Media in the Eldercare Industry

December 21, 2009 at 11:03 am · Filed under Facebook, Social Media, Get involved, Change your life, how to, LinkedIn, blog

For those of you who are following my weekly posts - So you need a plan - you have your accounts set up, you reviewed you weekly events, important dates, etc and now you need to write a blog. So what do you write about? Go back to you list and see what are you doing? I am giving a presentation to the University Hospitals Bedford Senior Network at the January meeting. I have an outline complete and just need to work on an intro and a conclusion.

How Social Media works in the Eldercare Industry

First let me do a quick overview of the primary Social Media venues

LinkedIn - Corporate, professional networking community. People in this group are primarily interested in business related information.
Facebook - Personal, social networking community. People in this group are primarily interested in entertainment and connecting with friends and family.
Twitter - Primarily young tech savvy individuals, professional and personal, as well as everything else.
Blogs- Most people follow bloggers that are providing them with information they are looking for - either personal or professional
You -Tube - Great venue for providing information to individuals who prefer not to read or where a personal/emotional connection is required

So the overwhelming question I get from the eldercare realm is how can social media help my business, my industry, my facility, how can social media help me?

Every business is going to be different but here are a few ideas for using social media in the eldercare industry.

Use LinkedIn and Facebook to invite the community, residents, family, or friends to upcoming events.
Use LinkeIn's Events Module to post Continuing Education seminars your facility is hosting
Drive people to your website by update your status with links to important documents on your website
Search LinkedIn "Answers" for questions you can provide more expert information on
Use You-Tube to talk to visitors who may find reading difficult
Use You-Tube to answer common questions for those who may be intimidated or embarasses - be friendly and approachable
Use Facebook's fan page to keep families involved with your residents - let them know what's going on, and how they can become involved.

The next big question I get, and sometime I think I should get this one more is how to handle Social Media in the work place. There are a few major areas that you need to think about - especially if you have "patients"

HIPPA compliant - Social media regarding residents have completely different rules than those regarding patients
Policies for using social media in regards TO the work place - can employees talk about work when they are off the clock? If you don't have a published policy in place then it might be too late if something does happen. Are you sure your employees would make the same judgement call you would?
Policies for using social media IN the work place - with the Internet in people's pocket, and social media being one of the most common forms of communication for the younger generation, what is you policy for employees using technology in the work place? Don't wait until there is a problem.
Monitoring what other people are saying about your company - Of course it's impossible to watch everything on the Internet but by using Google Alerts you can at least have an idea if people are using you or your company's name directly in the media.

Social Media is definitely here to stay, the changes it has made are a revolutionary to the way people communicate, it is now up to you to manage how it affects you.

Be sure to visit us again next week!

Natalie

http://www.morrismc.com

http://www.myteamsocialmedia.com

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So how's the plan going?

December 14, 2009 at 1:01 pm · Filed under Social Media, LinkedIn, how to, blog

Hopefully you read last week's post and are on your way to being a Social Media Star!

Still need some help?

If you didn't do anything yet at least set up one profile. Since most of my clients are professionals let's start with LinkedIn.

For now all you need is the basic information that LinkedIn asks for, just fill in the questions and your new profile will be ready to use. You will want to go back to your setting sand update them to be more precise, but for now just get an account set up.

Now go to your calendar and see what you have scheduled for this week, here's what I have:

Monday

work on my business process
work on my weekly calendar
write blog
riding party at stables

Tuesday

UH Bedford Senior Network Holiday Party
Andrews Moving - schedule meeting with Sue
CERT Party

Wednesday

My weight watchers meeting
Make cookies with mom

Thursday

Check to see if Alpine Valley is open for the season!

Friday

Lakewood Chamber of Commerce

OK so that's pretty much a quick overview of the scheduled items in my calendar. As you may be able to tell, not all of those items need to be shared with my LinkedIn community. Below is what I will share and when

Monday - Blog
Tuesday - UH Bedford Senior Network Holiday Party
Wednesday - nothing yet…
Thursday - nothing yet…
Friday - Lakewood Chamber of Commerce

Now I need some information for Wednesday and Thursday…

January 19th I am speaking at the UH Bedford network so I will use that to fill the spaces, I will also mention the chamber meeting on Thursday and the UH party on Monday, and mention my blog a couple more times if possible.

So here is my tweeting schedule:

Monday - Blog
Tuesday - UH Bedford Senior Network Holiday Party
Wednesday - Mention speaking engagement
Thursday - Lakewood Chamber of Commerce - mention Blog
Friday - Mention Speaking engagement - Mention Chamber meeting
Saturday - Mention Speaking engagement

And Here are my Tweets:

Monday PM - just finished writing this week's blog! "So how's the plan going?" A follow up to "So you need a plan… Don't we all" http://ow.ly/LYmM
Tuesday AM - Looking forward to the UN Bedford Senior Network Holiday Party! For more info - http://morrismc.com/info.html
Tuesday PM - don't forget to check out my blog "So how's the plan going?" A follow up to "So you need a plan… Don't we all" http://ow.ly/LYmM
Wednesday AM - Want to know more about Social Media in the elder-care industry? Come to the Jan UH Bedford Senior Network - http://morrismc.com/info.html
Thursday AM - Looking forward to the Lakewood Chamber Meeting tomorrow at 11:30 http://morrismc.com/info.html
Thursday PM - don't forget to check out my blog "So how's the plan going?" A follow up to "So you need a plan… Don't we all" http://ow.ly/LYmM
Friday AM - Looking forward to the Lakewood Chamber Meeting today at 11:30 http://morrismc.com/info.html
Friday PM - Want to know more about Social Media in the elder-care industry? Come to the Jan UH Bedford Senior Network - http://morrismc.com/info.html

Now all I have to do it drop these in my LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook (if I want) on the days, and times I have scheduled.

As an FYI - there are tools that will schedule these posts for you, however be very AWARE they need to be closely monitored and do not work as consistency as expected. That will be another blog

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So you need a plan… Don't we all

December 8, 2009 at 3:15 pm · Filed under Facebook, Social Media, Get involved, LinkedIn, how to, blog

One of the most common questions I get about social media is "Yeah but, what should I DO?"

First of all social media isn't about writing a 4 page dissertation on the molecular significance of the bouncy ball. If you wouldn't talk about it at a networking event then you probably don't need to add it to your social media plan.

Second, social media isn't about adding anything to add anything, it's about providing useful information to people. In other wordsif you wouldn't talk about it at a networking event then you probably don't need to add it to your social media plan. OK those were the same words…

What you should do:

Set up a blog, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter account
Dedicate 1 hour at the beginning of the week to social media. During that hour:
1. Write a blog about your upcoming week
2. Write a tweet about your blog with a link to your blog
3. Copy the tweet to your LinkedIn status
4. Copy the tweet to your Facebook page
5. Write 5 specific tweets about your week (see below)
Dedicate 10 minutes every morning to update your profiles with the tweets you wrote at the beginning of the week (see above)
1. If you have an important meeting
2. If you are going to a networking event
3. If you are going to a fundraiser
4. A proposal you sent out
5. A new service you are offering
6. A date your readers should remember (i.e. tax day)
7. New legislation that may affect your readers
8. etc.
Dedicate 1 hour in the middle of the week to update your profiles
1. Add new connections
2. Ask and Answer questions
3. Comment on/to other people
4. Join groups and fan pages
5. Join discussions

That's it. That's all you need to do to get started in Social Media. Now once you get started you will need to tweak what you are doing. Maybe LinkedIn doesn't work for your business, maybe Facebook takes up WAY too much time for you, maybe your target audience thinks tweets are for birds. But this will get you started and will only require about 3 hours a week.

Have a terrific day!

Natalie Morris

http://www.morrismc.com

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Archive for December, 2009

Social Media in the Eldercare Industry

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