Social media is becoming an inescapable platform for all sorts of businesses, including senior care. If you’re not on some form of social media, you’re missing out not only on reaching potential residents, patients, and their families but also creating and maintaining an engaged, motivated team.
You can safely assume that most of your employees are on social media personally. And while you may have a social media team on deck to handle your corporate presence, your employees have an average of 1,090 social connections, and about five times the reach of your corporate account. This makes their comments, shares, and reactions that much more impactful.
While posting content on your company’s account to build your brand is still essential, motivating and encouraging your employees to engage with your content can boost your visibility, web traffic, recruiting, and even lead quality.
So how do you start?
While you might be wringing your hands thinking about how you’re going to accomplish this level of engagement (especially for larger chains or multiple locations), there’s an easy first step: decide what your goal is. Do you want your employees to share your corporate posts about recruiting opportunities and job fairs? Do you want them to think about tagging their friends in the comments?
Be clear about what you would like your staff to do, but also be clear that they aren’t posting on behalf of your business. They should not be posting images or content about your residents or staff on their own profiles.
If you don’t already have one, implement a social media policy.
A full social media policy is something you should consult your legal team on to stay compliant with various privacy and health regulations, but in general, it should encourage employees to make positive or informative comments and share your content.
Lead by example with employee advocacy.
Lifting employees up and recognizing achievements and hard work on your corporate account shows that you’re invested in and proud of the success of your staff. Things like Employee of the Month, National Nurses’ Week, or even highlighting birthdays are all great places to start.
When you show your pride in your employees, they’ll be more likely to follow suit and share how proud they are to work for you.
Make social media fun.
A little competition can be a great team-building experience! Some companies have “gamified” social media for their employees, rewarding participation with things like a paid lunch, gift cards, extra time off, recognition, and more.
The people who choose to participate are the voices you want boasting your brand—if an employee feels pressured to participate, that may come across in their digital body language, so to speak.
Teach those willing to learn.
Don’t assume that everyone on your team knows the best way—or even how, at all—to comment and share your content on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Consider hosting workshops to educate people who may not be as savvy as their peers.
Another way to help those who may not be as social media savvy is to make very concrete asks. If you recently shared a job fair on Facebook, send out an email asking your employees to share it with their friends or professional network. Doing this can take the guesswork out of engaging.
Moderate with intentions in mind.
Because social media is consumed via text, the tone or wording of an employee’s comment or summary may not land well with your audience or represent your brand in a way you find appropriate—but don’t stomp on their enthusiasm.
Asking an employee to edit or revise a Facebook comment or share can be more productive than simply removing it and hoping they do better next time, or worse, removing it with harsh criticism. Appropriate tone and language can be a great talking point in your social media workshop!
Social media can be an intimidating place, but when done right, it can help your communities flourish.
By creating an engaged, positive awareness of your brand through your corporate and staff accounts, you encourage potential customers and employees to see the best side of your care, culture, achievements, and stories.
There are many more ways in which you can engage your teams on social media, and we’re here to help you get started. Whether you’ve got one location or 50, IlluminAge can help you build and maintain your online brand while encouraging and facilitating the engagement of your staff. Contact us to find out more.