The number one challenge today for executive recruiters of senior living organizations is acquiring quality staff members. Fortunately, an effective and relatively new recruitment method is social media outreach, which is a service offered by many digital marketing companies.
How Social Media Works With Healthcare Recruitment
We should first understand social media marketing and how it recruits quality senior living healthcare professionals. Social media recruiting connects the senior living candidate with an agency and involves attracting active and passive candidates through any social media platform. It involves posting jobs, engaging with prospective candidates, and building an employer brand on these platforms.
How Digital Marketing Companies Reach Senior Living
In 2023, 59% of the world’s population used social media, including 40% of senior citizens over 65+ using it. This fact is even more interesting because 41% of Facebook users are 65+. As we can see, digital marketing depends on social media to be effective. And SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the most frequently used tactic in attracting more traffic. Interestingly, 65% of digital marketers stated that SEO tactics were the most effective in driving traffic, according to Visual Oak. Yet, 51% of marketers said that updating existing content will also work effectively, along with repurposing it.
So, are digital marketers and social media important to senior living organizations? The reach of social media continues to grow in the senior sector of 65+. Some interesting facts about the changing senior’s social media environment according to the Pew Research Center:
- The difference between 18-29 and 65+ smartphone users decreased from 53 points in 2012 to 35 percentage points in 2021.
- The same survey showed that in 2021, 83% of seniors aged 50-64 owned smartphones.
- Those least likely to use social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were 65+ seniors. But the senior group using social media sites has grown fourfold since 2010, while the 18-49 group growth remains static.
- According to Business News Daily, the most effective social media platforms for digital marketers include:
Why Social Media Marketing in the Senior Living Environment?
Digital marketing companies target social media for staffing healthcare recruitment for senior living healthcare workers. DiitaMarketing has shown proven results with social media in various environments, especially for senior healthcare workers.
Social media marketing companies’ success depends on various scenarios. Some of the reasons for successfully using social media are:
- Social media connects families, even across long distances
- New connections are made, especially with Facebook, for discovering friends and renewing connections
- Civic engagement is encouraged for seniors
- Social media can provide opportunities to continue education at home
- Entertainment
Digital Marketing Companies: Secrets of Social Media Recruitment for Healthcare Workers
Certain secrets are used for effective digital marketing to seniors. These include:
- Start with the 80/20 rule: spend 80% of your time recruiting and 20% interviewing
- Leverage social media to reach out with personal messages
- Optimize facility websites for Google searches
- Leverage existing residents as brand ambassadors for their community
Digital marketers depend increasingly more on social media to get their message out than ever. Approximately 93% of all interactions start with online search engines, so the importance of social media like Facebook, Linkedin, and other social sites is becoming more important.
Here are some more ways that digital marketing companies may use social media to attract healthcare workers for senior living communities:
- Create bonds with potential employees
- Develop an alluring website to attract professionals
- Use SEO techniques to maximize website posts with geotagging, keywords, and other tools for effective targeting
- Provide insights into how effective the recruitment campaign is through content
Digital marketing companies are very effective when using popular social media sites to recruit quality employees for senior living communities. Having a well-defined strategy for selling your unique brand is key!