News Posts That Captivate Your Residents

As the new week begins, you may find yourself unsure of what news to share with your residents. It can be a challenge to stay organised and post regularly, especially when trying to figure out what content will truly engage your residents.

?But fear not, we have done the hard work for you by analysing thousands of news posts across our retirement living communities using the Pluss Communities platform.

This analysis provides valuable insights into what residents enjoyed reading and what captured the most views and interest in 2023. The top 10 posts can serve as a guide for the type of content that will resonate with your community and keep residents engaged. Additionally, we offer insights and suggestions to help you with your content creation efforts.

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10. How to log a maintenance request

Kicking off the top ten posts of 2023 is this very basic news post. A number of communities included this topic and we highly recommend it. Residents really appreciate it. Not only was it very popular but in one community it generated their most reactions and comments in 2023. It had a very simple description and a link to a PDF of the instructions. This proved to be a resource that residents came back to again and again.

Key insight:

Providing instructions on how to do things in your community should be a regular part of your communications strategy. Particularly early on when you are introducing new technology and getting residents engaged in their own resident communications app. Whilst it’s not the most exciting content, the utility value will resonate with the practical needs of your residents.?

Tip

Develop a list of how to guides that your residents would value. Use our guides as a starting point or get us to help you to create yours.

9. We need help in naming our cinema

The leaders of this community were asking for three suggestions from residents on what to call their cinema. This simple strategy allowed the post to claim position 9 on the top 10 list.

Key insight:

Why does this kind of post work? There are two key reasons. The first is when we are asked a question like this, we can’t but help come up with ideas in our minds and imagine what it would be like if the name we suggested wins the competition. Secondly, it is a good way of engaging the community and helping give them a sense of ownership and influence over decision making. It communicates that the leaders value our input.

The stronger the sense of belonging, the stronger your sense of community and the happier your residents will be. Which leads to…. less complaints, which leads to… residents talking more favourably about their community to their friends, which leads to… easier resales and reduced vacancy rates. Which leads to… happier manager and a happier board. All from one little news post. Ok maybe not just one post but you get my reasoning. Focus on news posts that encourage a sense of belonging and it will deliver long lasting positive effects in all areas of your business.

8. Important notice

Something’s important, we better pay attention, right? Yes this catchy, ok boring, title grabbed the community’s attention. It didn’t give anything away about what was important so residents had to open the post to find out what was important. It generated many more views that other posts of the same purpose but provided more information in the title. I wouldn’t recommend only using ‘Important Notice’ for the title of your posts all the time otherwise you are likely to experience diminishing returns, much like the boy who cried wolf. Maybe save it for something really, really important!

Key Insight:

Sharing important announcements in your news feed engages your residents. They like it and read it. It’s a very popular post across all types of communities. Use the this type of post in conjunction with the notifications and alerts feature. This way you can track which residents have read the important information and reduces the number of people you need to follow up on to make sure they have read and understand the information. If it’s really important information then bring it up at events and discuss it with your residents so that they can ask questions and engage in conversation.?

7. Opening hours of the kitchen or cafe

The simple message of providing some details about the opening hours of a kitchen or cafe really resonated with residents in 2023. A number of communities had this as their most popular type of post. It was influenced by the news post being a featured post within their seniors living app. This means residents could easily access the post at the top of their news feed.

Key Insight:

Make sure key information like opening hours for key facilities or services is clearly displayed and easy to access. There might be one or two facilities that need greater prominence, particularly if you have a cafe or kitchen. Your residents will appreciate it.

6. Happy Christmas from your village team

You all love posting a Christmas greeting to your residents and your residents love reading about it. One community in particular pushed this news post in into the top 10 but all of you were posting about it and most communities had high levels of engagement with a similar post.

Key insight:

Seasonal messages evoke a sense of a community and what it means to belong. A Christmas message is a time of good will, graciousness and generosity. Ending the year well and starting the new year well in your community helps to smooth over any rough spots or tensions that might built up over time and set’s you up for an engaged and happy community in the new year.

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5. Welcome to new residents post

One community uses this strategy to great effect. 9 out of their top 10 posts were all about welcoming a new resident. Typically there is really high engagement from residents who comment and make the new resident or couple feel welcome. It was a really simple post, welcoming and naming the new residents, where they lived and a photo of them in their new home.

Key Insight:

Why does this type of post work? Community members are keen to know who the new people are and the extroverts in the community are keen to meet the new members so that they can say hello and greet them when they bump into them for the first time. For the new residents it helps them feel a sense of belonging. This type of post helps build and strengthen community and should be a regular posting strategy in every community.

4. Content guidelines

This post was the number one post in a very engaged community and number 4 on the top 10 list. A very practical and thoughtful post about what residents need to think about when they are contributing content. We surmise that the reason it was popular is that is taps into what it means to feel a sense of belonging in a community. It’s a foundational element of a psychological sense of community. Knowing what it means to belong means members of a community know how to ‘behave’. This helps them feel safe and how not to make a mistake or offend other members of the community. Content guidelines for a community new to using a resident communications app in their community helps them avoid public embarrassment. The community made this news post a featured news item for a number of weeks giving the article plenty of time to be consumed by residents.

Key Insight: It’s good to share rules, guidelines and advice about what it means to belong and how to contribute in this community. It will strengthen your community and your residents will appreciate it.

3. Save the date for a Christmas in July event

This news post sounds boring doesn’t it? Nothing much to it. A few details about the event, what’s on the menu, contact details and costs involved. Well out of the thousands of news posts across our communities in 2023, this was the 3rd most popular story and the most popular post in an incredibly engaged and activity community. Go figure? This could be for a number of reasons, the information is practical with useful details. It was also highlighting an event that was very popular for residents that they were excited about, beyond that, we don’t know. Maybe you have your own ideas and are keen to share.

Key Insight:

Save the date information for big community events are really important to people. It’s why we often do it for weddings. Your residents don’t want to forget and they want to make sure they book into the event with registrations are released on their app.

2. And the winner is…

Yes you are curious by the title. Who was the winner, a resident, a staff person, what did they win? This post was actually about the organisation winning an award for best retirement village. Sharing this story reinforces that residents have it good where they live and can have a sense of pride about the village they live in. It reinforces a sense of belonging. Would you believe this was the second most popular story across all communities.

Key insight:

Share your successes, share your resident successes, they love to read about them. A simple title that doesn’t reveal the winner. Residents need to open the article to find out who won.

1. Farewell to a much loved staff member

Drumroll please….. Yes the number one news post of 2023 was a farewell of a much loved staff member. This particular post was viewed on average 3 and a half times by residents and was a clear standard out to the next most viewed post across all the seniors living organisations using the Pluss Communities platform.

Key insight:

Your residents are very interested in any changes to staff and want an opportunity to say goodbye and express their gratitude towards the staff member. The post was written by the staff person who was leaving. This added to the personal nature of the post and activated more engagement and views. Posts about staff are important because your residents feel a sense of connection and ‘ownership’ of you. Don’t be afraid to use it.

?Now those 10 top posts don't sound too hard to replicate do they/ It's even easier when you use the Pluss Communities platform to deliver the content and connect directly with your residents. You can even get them posting news themselves. Learn more at www.plusscommunities.com