Do you want to get people passionate about your community and passionate about passing the word along that you are a community that is caring, compassionate and worthy of consideration for their loved ones?
Get face-to-face once in a while.
“How” you say? Try and get out in the community for a while and meet people. Hold or get involved in a community fair, or several small ones.
You’re likely to meet two kinds of individuals:
- The ones who carry their day into media – the ones who post, blog, tweet and chatter on technology that is such an integral part of business these days.
- Those folks who do not partake in the technological world of Facebook, Twitter and Internet research. Either they are the ones who need the care, or they are the caretaker whose days are filled with care-taking and worrying about where their loved one may end up.
Both worry about conditions, money, and all the other aspects of long term or short term care. They have questions and they don’t know who to talk to. They are unable to research facilities in their area to any real extent. And furthermore, they do not trust the internet. Try and have a sit-down conversation with them and you will hear that.
There’s still a generation out there who prefer face-to-face contact and to be able to talk about their impending future to the professionals who might be caring for them. Once they feel they would like to consider something, they will, in turn, take that information to their family members, the next generation(s) who will be instrumental in making decisions for them. And what’s the first thing this generation is doing? Checking out the institution on the internet. It serves the purpose of connecting to social media and it also helps give the loved one a feeling of autonomy when making decisions about their future.
By getting out in the community, you have accomplished two things. You have made contact with the generation that does not always do or trust social media; and you are giving a nod to the extending decision makers when it’s time to help mom get a place. You are also putting a face to a name. People like what is familiar to them.