A few weeks ago, I was killing time on the internet when I came across an interesting piece of content from a few years ago. It is an infographic from Hubspot titled “The History of Marketing.” It is definitely worth the read if you have a few minutes. It made me wonder how newer channels, like social media, came to become one of the most effective marketing avenues.

At the beginning of the timeline, marketing consisted almost entirely of outbound marketing. In other words, marketing that interrupts the customer by talking at them. As time went on and technology improved, this type of marketing started to become ineffective. Why? Because people got really good at ignoring these types of marketing messages. People don’t want to be talked at or interrupted — they want to consume relevant, informative information and share it in their own networks, which is why social media is a great channel to include in your inbound marketing. Instead of the interruptive marketing approach, inbound focuses primarily on information sharing, user-centered design, and collaboration.

As a Marketing Coordinator at an inbound marketing agency in Cincinnati, I have seen the power of inbound transform the quality of leads our clients obtain. Believe it or not, I have seen a lot of inbound success with our retirement community clients.

In this post, I want to take a look at how social media fits in the inbound process for retirement communities, as well as how it can be utilized to put you ahead of the game and beat your competitors.

1. Pictures are Worth a Thousand Words

Like I mentioned above, social media is a key component of the inbound methodology. Social publishing allows you to share the remarkable information you work so hard to create and engage with potential prospects. This is an effective strategy, but I think you should go above and beyond if you truly want to make a social media impact. I think the best possible way to do this is by creating compelling click-worthy graphics to go along with your social posts. There are a few different ways you can do this. I love Canva, a free and simple-to-use graphic design software which allows you to easily create click-worthy images in a matter of minutes. Be sure to incorporate pictures of the fun activities you put on for your residents so your social media prospects can see how you invest in the lives of your residents.

2. Do Your Research

One of the most important concepts to understand in inbound marketing is buyer personas. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on data about your existing customers. In order to become a social media superstar, you need to know where your buyer persona hangs out. For instance, did you know Facebook usage among seniors continues to increase? According to a recent article published by the Pew Research Center, 56% of internet users ages 65 and older now use Facebook. If you know where your audience is present, you can focus your social media strategy accordingly instead of spreading yourself too thin among all of the different social media platforms.

3. Invest in Expanding Your Reach

After you create remarkable content with a compelling graphic and find the right social media platform, you are ready to allocate a little of your marketing budget to expand your social reach. The best part about this is that the social media algorithms allow you to target the right people based on demographic information and behavior. If your plan is to target an older demographic on Facebook, you might want to consider investing in ads on that platform to increase the amount of preferred users that see it. A small budget can get you a long way and expose your content to the right people.

4. Be the Most Helpful, Not the Loudest

Inbound marketing is all about being the most helpful to your potential prospects. This same principle should apply to your social media strategy. Let’s say a potential lead is interested in your retirement community. If they go to your Facebook page, what will they find? Will they scroll through your feed and see how your residents enjoy your community? Your social media presence should show the emotion of your brand, not clutter users' newsfeeds with irrelevant content that doesn’t meet your prospects’ needs. If your content is helpful for the audience you desire to reach, it will get clicks.

5. Lead Prospects to Your Website

Social media is a very powerful tool for you to target and engage with potential prospects during the awareness stage. Make sure your social media pages have accessible links that can drive traffic to your website so you can capture their information and continue marketing toward them. The strongest power of social media in the inbound marketing process is utilizing it as a component that positively impacts your overall marketing strategy.

Be an Industry Front Runner

Including social media in your retirement community’s inbound marketing isn’t difficult if you’re already producing content that’s relevant for your target audience. Social networks then become another tool for you to reach prospects and ramp up your lead generation results. To get ahead of industry competitors, start small, stay focused, and create posts that will grab the right person’s attention and direct them to your website.