Here's the Marketing Cheat Sheet Every Community Needs

What you don’t know about social media can hurt you. And there is a lot that most of us don’t know!

By Susan Saldibar

What you don’t know about social media can hurt you. There is a lot that most of us don’t know, especially in the senior living community environment where caring for residents is an “all hands on deck,” number one responsibility. And who can argue that? So, what happens is a haphazard approach to social media; one that consists of sporadic posts and images usually sent to a Facebook page or maybe Twitter and Instagram if you have the time. There is no master plan, no strategy behind social media postings.

That means that your staff may not know that a certain image will make a greater impact on Instagram as opposed to Twitter. They may not know the ideal posting frequency for each channel. Instead, it’s a “when you get a minute, maybe you should post . . .” kind of thing.

Here’s the problem with that, according to the folks at G5 (a Senior Housing Forum partner), not only does it negatively impact your community, you are basically handing over the reins to more capable, social savvy competitors. And they’re out there, in greater numbers than ever.

I spoke recently with Celena Canode, Marketing Campaign Manager for G5, who works with communities to educate them on social media and help put programs together that keep their social machine running. She, along with the G5 marketing team, has put together a useful social media introductory guide; I call it a “cheat sheet” because it’s short and easy to get information at a glance. This is something you really should download and tack up on your bulletin board. Frankly, I’d even include it in the employee manual. Everyone should know this stuff.

Here is a taste of what’s in the guide:

Facebook:

Best used for: brand awareness and driving website referral traffic. Ideal for sharing blog content, business updates and other information or entertaining content
How often to post: 1-2 times per week
Days to post: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Recommended image sizes for social posting: 1200 x 630 pixels
KPIs: Impressions, reach, engagement, clicks, audience growth, website traffic

Twitter:

Best for: Driving referral traffic via blog shares or promotion of website content; bills itself as a “news” or “what’s happening” platform
How often to post: 7-10 times per week
Times to post: 12 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Recommended image sizes for social posting: 506 x 253 pixels
KPIs: Impressions, reach, engagements, audience growth, website traffic

Of course, the guide also covers other key channels, such as LinkedIn and Instagram.

Celena tells me that it’s also important to understand that social media changes every day. And that means more than just the posts and images that flow across its channels. The capabilities, rules, methodologies, and basically the way the channels operate are in a constant state of flux. So you need to keep on top of it. That’s where being connected to an expert like G5 comes in handy. They keep track of all the crazy social media twists and turns so that you don’t have to.

You can download G5’s “Intro to Social Media Channels & KPIs” guide here.