The GlynnDevins blog serves as a great tool for sharing information regarding the world of senior living. We will be presenting a series of Q & A interviews with some of our associates who can offer their insights on a variety of topics. The first installment is an interview with Jim Glynn regarding the challenge and importance of keeping senior living communities full.
In the course of a day, I probably use the term “senior living” a hundred times. I am sure many of us do. In a recent discussion about a community’s brand position, someone said senior living as casually as I do those hundred times a day. However, this time, when I heard it in the context of the conversation, I didn’t hear senior living, I heard senior
LIVING.
Not really a light bulb moment, as the trend toward wellness and successful aging has been moving our field in this direction for more than ten years. But it got me thinking again about the power of words and their ability to communicate. When I heard LIVING, I heard enrichment, engagement, freedom, independence, connection, comfort and security. I heard all these ideas in that single word, because I know what this particular community and organization does for residents. I have experienced the culture when visiting the community. I have been told, firsthand, about what living at this community means to someone.
The term senior living caught on many years ago to replace senior housing, a term that best describes the business rather than the benefit. Yet how many senior living providers changed the word, but not the experience. Can you convey living as LIVING? If you think you can, do your communications materials project that? Does a visitor to your community experience it? Are residents telling others about it? Is your marketing focused on bringing this to life for those who don’t know your community?
At your next staff meeting, write Senior LIVING on the board and ask, “If we made that claim, could we stand behind it?” If you can, you have something special.
Deade Jayne: A Facebook Requiem
There were tales from her birthday party, a Fourth of July gala and a trip to the lake. She wrote about a handful of relatives fighting over her possessions. And she described how she felt about her future. By the end of the month, more than 115 Facebook friends were following the posts penned by her former neighbor on her behalf — Facebook friends who quickly grew fond of the woman whose Facebook page appeared after her death, when Jane became Deade Jayne.
She had been an accountant, a Republican, an evangelical Christian, a fervent gardener who installed lights so she could work in the flowers after sunset. It was a 6,000-square-foot house, a dilapidated maze of rooms, sagging ceilings and worn, stained furniture. She’d moved there in the ‘30s, and through the years, relatives had taken rooms with her. Some moved on. Others relied on her care for their last days. Their belongings were stacked in the damp, buggy basement. She grew old, watching friends pass away, speaking with her far-away brother and sister occasionally, relying on her neighbor for trips to the doctor, pharmacy and grocery store. And she resisted suggestions to move into assisted living, in the end even declining the surgery that might have prolonged her life. She died on her own terms, aged 91, in June.
It was a small obituary. A nephew came to cull a few family heirlooms, but no one in her family wanted her cremains. That’s how the neighbor came to have them: He was charged with scattering them around the house after the estate sale. And so for the month of July, while Deade Jayne awaited her scattering, her Facebook friends slipped past the grim idea of relating to an urn and grew to honor and love a woman who was undeservedly slipping away too quickly and quietly.
Deade Jayne wrote to them: Oh, darlings. I have had such a fun time tonight on this new-fangled internet, and my fingers are so tired they’ve turned ashen. I love you all!
One commented: What are your weekend plans, Jayne? The weather should be lovely.
Another: Jayne, honey, you are lamenting the good old days, aren’t you? Just a while until life feels like a breeze again.
At the end she wrote: My last night before scattering. I will be watching tomorrow, with a smile, a giggle and maybe a tear, for you will be honoring my earthly pathway. For this, know that you are loved and will forever be a part of me for being my friend.
On August 2, nearly 2 dozen friends gathered to place Jane’s cremains in her rose beds and vegetable gardens and beneath the towering pin oak she planted 40 years ago. They said farewell to Deade Jayne, and there were tears.
Postlude.
Deade Jayne’s 115 Facebook friends, some of whom lived half a country away, bonded and shared her journey to her final rest. It’s in our nature to look for ways to connect. We text, email, comment, tweet and post because online connections bridge time, space and generations to create community.
While reading an article in Fast Company called Brand Storytelling: Connecting with Your Audience, I was reminded of the importance of storytelling. A theme we’ve touched on regularly in this space, storytelling is a tried-and-true method at the very heart of marketing. And who better to tell your story than the people who live and breathe it each and every day: residents.
The first-person experience is something your audience desires. But finding these stories takes some initial legwork. It takes dedicating time and resources to conduct interviews with residents; talking with them about their lives, family, hobbies and new pursuits; and ultimately uncovering unique story ideas.
For operational communities, oftentimes we facilitate what we’ve dubbed as a “story engine session,” in which we visit with residents and key staff members to discover the community’s untold stories. Our goal of the session is to communicate the community’s brand story to the media through the residents’ eyes. This technique instills trust, builds brand awareness, and better connects with your audience of readers and viewers.
Recently I’ve had the opportunity to visit communities and dedicate a full day to interviewing residents and associates. It’s amazing how many human-interest stories are uncovered by simply spending 30 minutes talking with these folks. Following each session, I walk away with a bank of media-friendly stories that can be used to enhance each community’s brand, which inevitably results in articles published in prime news publications and features aired on TV.
At one senior living community alone, we’ve identified a variety of brand-building stories by talking with its residents. The following are examples of some of the media coverage we’ve garnered:
To take it a step further, we encourage communities to develop a Facebook page in which residents can convey the brand story online, by posting photos of community events and interacting with their neighbors and associates. Adding videos that bring residents’ testimonials to life can also greatly enhance a community website, and position residents as brand ambassadors.
So, who are the eyes and ears of your community? If you listen and do a little digging, I promise you’ll find a goldmine of opportunity.
Why not let residents help tell your brand story? The positive stories shared by satisfied residents who have adopted your brand might just make all the difference. And always remember the power of storytelling, as it will continue to be an essential component of any successful senior living marketing plan.
Join us tomorrow, August 25, at 11 a.m. CST via the web for our ESP product demo. Click here to register. If you can’t attend this product demo, we will be offering a second product demonstration on September 9, at 12 p.m. CST.
Extreme Site Productivity (ESP) is a new service from GlynnDevins that uses our proprietary GlynnDevins Digital Knowledge database to 1) guide your site’s continued development, 2) produce continual growth in website traffic and 3) increase inquiries. The GlynnDevins Digital Knowledge database has captured and analyzed millions of real CCRC searches nationally, adding thousands every day. Your site can leverage and grow 24/7 with the power of that knowledge. The result? Higher-quality leads, in greater numbers, flowing from your site. ESP is available only through GlynnDevins.