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 April 18th, 2012 by tasha
Multimedia is near and dear to my heart. In fact, I began my computer career in Oregon working with a research institute that created interactive programs for behavioral health education that were funded by the National Institutes of Health. In the early 1990’s, this meant video discs. We eventually graduated to CDs, and then the Internet came along.
As a behavioral scientist the data were clear: People listen more to folks like themselves than they do to folks not like themselves. This was before social networking. So, we included video to convey the information and help viewers realize they weren’t alone.
Written on March 13th, 2012 by tasha
One of the joys of teaching is the opportunity to review and update my knowledge base. In this case, I’ve been reviewing the Four C’s of Marketing, plus a 5th one of my own.
The last blogpost was on the first 2 C’s: Customers and Convenience.
This one is on Cost, Competitors and my personal addition: Contribution. Since the impetus for this article was to teach new entrepreneurs in the field of geriatric care management, the “Cost” section is geared for the private pay sector (e.g., private duty home care, GCMs, etc.). But the other two C’s (Competitors and Contribution) apply to anyone in the elder care industry.
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Written on February 28th, 2012 by tasha
Sometimes it helps to go back to basics. I’m preparing to give a webinar about marketing and website development for the Building a GCM Business series of the National Association for Professional Geriatric Care Managers. Although my thoughts are currently looking at geriatric care managers and the private pay market, you will see that these basics apply for hospice and home health as well.
When I first took marketing classes, the standard was “The 4 P’s”: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. While these are still relevant, they are more geared to manufacturing and selling products than they are to marketing a service.
A newer version has been evolving called the 4 C’s. I’ve seen several permutations, but the four that strike me as most relevant for elder care providers are:
And to this, I would add
Written on November 28th, 2011 by tasha
November has been National Family Caregiver Month, which means the press was especially open to stories about family caregiving. It’s a great time to do something special to honor family caregivers. While they may not be your clients directly, they are key decision-makers and are often the ones to initiate, and in private duty contexts, actually pay for your services.
Plan November activities that make the family caregiver’s life easier and let the press know.
Sponsoring educational events or launching an educational service is known as “content marketing.” Ideas for content marketing include a workshop or webinar you can record and make available later. An e-newsletter, or an online library of educational articles (we call this an “e-library”) is another form of content marketing. If you follow best practices for Facebook or blogging, 80% of your posts will be educational for your audience; only 20% will be about you and your service.
The wonderful part about content marketing is that you have a great resource that others will be likely to share, including the press.
Here are ways that some of my clients have been getting media coverage:
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Written on November 2nd, 2011 by tasha
In honor of National Family Caregivers Month, we’re completing our series on search engine optimization by reporting on the topics family caregivers seem to be searching for on Google, Bing, etc.
To begin with, according to Pew Internet and American Life, health information seeking is the third most popular Internet activity, preceded only by email and using a search engine generally. Eight out of every 10 Internet users seeks health information online. Family caregivers are more active in their searching than any other group (including patients), often by a double-digit margin.
An analysis of health information searches relating to elder care revealed that: Read the rest of this entry »
