The vision for this blog is to create a community of harmonious professionals across the care continuum who encourage each other in exploring digital media as a way to support businesses and families dealing with elder care.
Written on June 7th, 2011 by tasha
Cross-promoting is not a new concept in marketing. But many people have distinctly different teams, or mindsets, when handling their newsletter/e-newsletter and their social networking. While the communication styles, and in many cases the type of viewer within these communication channels, are quite distinct, you can easily expand your reach by promoting content in one medium to the audience in the other.
Here are 8 tips for integrating your campaigns: Read the rest of this entry »
Written on May 10th, 2011 by tasha
Those of you who know me know I’m a bit of a data wonk. I like data. I don’t think that our reality can be completely represented by numbers. But just as we prefer to make evidence-based health decisions, I think it is wise to make evidence-based marketing decisions.
So what should you keep track of in terms of measuring the “success” of a social media endeavor? I can share what the standard marketing approach is, but I also think that we have a slightly different critter in the context of our older audience and elder care/health care focus.
This will be a two-part blog, with the first talking about realistic goals or outcomes of a social media campaign and then next covering ways to measure those outcomes.
Read the rest of this entry »
Written on September 16th, 2010 by tasha
Use by seniors has doubled in the last year. In a recently released report on Older Adults and Social Media, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reveals that the percentage of Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn users who are 65 or older rose from 13% in April 2009 to 26% in May 2010. And this is up more than sixfold over November 2008 figures, when only 4% of online seniors participated in social networking.
The study, compiled from phone interviews, shows that usage is fairly regular, with many repeat visits. For instance, in a typical day, 13% of online seniors will log on to their social networking site, loosely implying an average visitation rate of once every other day.
Boomers (persons age 50-64) also reported significant growth, with an 88% rise in social networking use. In April 2009, only 25% of online Boomers logged on to Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn. By May 2010, 13 months later, that number had swelled to 47%. Again, there is solid “stickiness” to their participation, with only a little less then half of all participants checking in on a typical day.
As impressive as these numbers sound, there is an important caveat. Read the rest of this entry »
Written on May 27th, 2010 by tasha
Whether you are sending emails to network with your referrers, connect with donors, or reinforce your relationship with existing clients, it is a perennial challenge to get the recipient of your email to open your message. People are as sensitive to junk in their inbox as they are to junk in their regular mail.
Usability experts indicate that you have between 2-8 seconds to convince your readers not to hit the delete key. Yikes! You need to convince your recipients, quickly, that your email message is of value and worth their time.
Your three best tools are the Sender’s name, the Sender’s email address, and the Subject Line. Read the rest of this entry »
Written on May 18th, 2010 by tasha
A lot of people ask me to explain social networking. It is certainly a different kettle of fish. Sometimes the easiest way to explain something unfamiliar is by comparing it to something that is well known. In that light, I thought I might describe a blog, which is one of the top social networking platforms, within the context of two other digital media you may know better: a website and an e-newsletter.
There are several different points of comparison:
- Style and tone
- Content
- Audience
- Who is in control of the message
- Time & Pet Equivalent
Read the rest of this entry »
