Senior living operators can struggle to show how rewarding and fun community life can be with prospective residents. Social media can help communities showcase their strengths – if they are fast to the draw, that is.

Venice, Florida-based LifeStar Living often holds events where residents can showcase talents and skills, like senior olympic games; and seeks to join larger conversations online. Those events and trending topics are a great way to join the conversation, and in the process show prospects what they can gain by moving in.

These moments can happen in the blink of an eye, but are well worth seeking out, according to Jessica Kraft, executive vice president of marketing for LifeStar Living.

“You have to be quick. You have to be nimble. You have to be able to say, ‘We’re just going to take out our phone and we’re going to capture this,’” she said during a panel discussion at the recent Senior Housing News Sales & Marketing Conference in Bonita Springs, Florida. “It gets people talking.”

In 2025, senior living operators are still using platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Youtube to reach prospects and their families. At the same time, they are dabbling in Reels, Tik Toks and other short-term video content formats to keep their messaging direct and interesting.

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Optima Living in recent years has pivoted to offering “educating and inspiring” content. To date, the company has put on webinars ranging in topics from sex and aging and fraud prevention to posts regarding daily community life and sports fandoms.

According to Karim Kassam, co-founder and principal of Optima Living, a key strategy is to think of social media as an extension of the communities themselves.

“We often think about digital media as separate from what the communities do,” he said during the panel. “This amazing content that gets created, but then doesn’t get tied in to real people doing real things in our communities.”

Burlington, Massachusetts-based Northbridge Cos. has found success in its 20 communities with campaigns that showcase community caregivers, both in attracting prospective residents and recruiting staff, according to Jennifer Hastings, vice president of marketing.

“Our marketing team comes in and we film the associates giving testimonial-style videos,” Hastings said during the panel. “It’s been a wonderful synergy for families.”

Joining the conversation, residents as ‘influencers’

One popular strategy of standing out on social media is to join a larger conversation. Senior living operators are not newcomers to this trend, and communities have for years showcased their residents celebrating holidays, rooting for sports teams and talking about celebrities.

Optima, which manages 39 communities, learned this lesson firsthand last year after a campaign centered on the 2024 Stanley Cup, in which the Florida Panthers faced off and won against the Edmonton Oilers.

Hockey is “huge” in Western Canada, where the company’s communities lie. So Optima recorded videos of residents dressed in Oilers jerseys to cheer the team on and posted them to its social media platforms. The campaign attracted the attention of television networks – and even Canadian singer Justin Bieber, according to Kassam.

These kinds of moments can be found all over senior living – if operators look for them, he added.

“We go out of our way to create content, but the content is in front of us,” he said. “The residents get super excited, and that really helps us then develop the necessary social media content to be able to say, ‘Come live in one of our communities, because this is us living our best life.’”

Optima currently is planning for the upcoming World Cup, which Kassam said will include highlighting the various countries represented within by resident in its communities.

LifeStar Living similarly has used sporting events, Kraft said. In 2024, the operator joined the buzz around Taylor Swift’s appearance at the Super Bowl by asking residents what they knew about the singer. The results were “hilarious” and made for a fun and engaging social media post that “got people talking” and translated into more web traffic and prospect referrals, Kraft said. by

“Some people absolutely knew who Taylor was, others had no idea and could come up with some pretty creative responses,” Kraft added.

By latching onto larger trends, operators are ensuring more of their content is seen by a wider audience. That was the approach that Northbridge took when it hosted its own senior olympic games and posted about it during the 2024 Summer Olympics.

“Algorithms favor trending content like the Olympics, like the Stanley Cup,” Hastings said.

Hastings added the social media team also captured a trend on TikTok called “Doug’s winter party” by going around to the various communities and asking residents what they would wear, which performed well on the platform.

Community staff are not always equipped with the knowledge or tools to make good social media posts. That is why Lifestar coaches its teams, particularly in what to include or not in photos and the backgrounds of them.

At the end of the day, the company thinks of its residents as potential influencers – lawyers, financial planners, other people of local import – to show prospective residents what they would gain by moving in.

“You have them speak about living in the community, and it gives that third party endorsement,” she said. “They’re able to say, ‘Wow, if that community is good enough for Dr Smith, then it’s certainly good enough for me.’”

Social media a key tool in the digital marketing toolbox

Social media is an important part of the senior living operator digital marketing toolbox, made evident by how much operators are investing in it.

Nearly 60% of Northbridge Cos.’ budget is spent on digital marketing. Of that, around 15% is dedicated to paid advertising on social media platforms.

Hastings said its primary paid social media platforms are on LinkedIn and Facebook, with a smaller amount going to Instagram. However, with those paid posts, the goal isn’t to get prospects to the social media channels first, but instead get them to the company website.

“The faster I can get them to the sales director, the faster we can really close that appointment,” Hastings said.

She added Northbridge has increased its social media budget over the years, with performance metrics evaluated on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. As the organic posting strategy grows, the “lever can be pulled a little” for additional funding, she said.

LifeStar Living varies its paid social media budget depending on both the community and the season due to properties being in Florida. The company is developing a new community in St. Petersburg, a market with a “tremendous amount of paid advertising happening.”

“We’re spending thousands of dollars each month on our digital campaigns,” she said

According to Kraft, budgets for communities on SEO and reviews alongside social media can range anywhere between $30,000 and $100,000 per year. Digital marketing and paid Google ads as a whole tend to range between $5,000 and $7,000 per month, depending on the location, due to the sheer number of senior living communities located in Florida.

Kassam noted that while Optima Living doesn’t spend any money for advertising on LinkedIn or Instagram, it does primarily focus on paid content for Facebook and Google AdWords. Most social media platforms, he said, are driven by the individual community for the community.

The company focuses its fire on Facebook to reach customers and their family members, which often translates to easier sales. Engagement from family members and residents is more critical than simply tracking how a post performed on a social media website.

“It’s commensurate with the number of residents that live in our communities, and we’re looking for about a two-to-one ratio at any given day,” he said. “If that’s happening, then we’re pretty happy with it.”