Home Care U - How To Decide Which Social Media Platforms To Use (Nick Bonitatibus Pt. 2)

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

Social media can be a core element of your marketing and recruitment success, or it can be a discouraging time suck that yields little or nothing to show. In this episode we go platform-by-platform and channel-by-channel to talk about which ones you should be on and which ones aren't worth your time. Spoiler: some of the big ones aren't worth it.Enjoying the show? Send me a text and let me know!Learn more about Careswitch at: careswitch.comConnect with the host on LinkedIn: Miriam Allred This episode was produced by parkerkane.co

Hey, welcome to Home Care U, a podcast made by the team at Care Switch. Nobody went to school to learn how to run a home care agency, so we're bringing the education to you. Join our live audience by going to careswitch.com slash homecareu or listen on your own time wherever you get your podcasts. Home Care U is hosted by myself, Miriam Allred, and Connor Koons of CareSwitch. Enjoy the session. Welcome to Home Care U.

I'm excited for today's episode. We'll be continuing a passionate discussion from last week. But before we do that, let me just give a few housekeeping things. First off, just as a reminder, Home Care U is both a live weekly class and a podcast. If you want to join the weekly class, ask your questions, be part of the discussion, you can join that for free at homecareu.careswitch.com. And if you prefer to listen on your own time, maybe listen while you work or exercise or something, you can get this as a podcast called Home Care U wherever you get your podcasts.

Okay, so today we are going to be talking more about the power of video in making your brand and growing your home care agency. So our guest today is Nick Bonitatibus. Did I get it right? Nailed it. I just got to say hippopotamus like you, Tommy. So he is the founder of Digital Champions, which is an agency that focuses on helping home care agencies use video in their marketing. And also, I think just in general, help them to grow their brands and grow their businesses. Is that correct, Nick? That is correct.

Okay. Let me hand it off to you just for a minute to introduce anything else you want to say about you and your background and how you got here. And then I'll recap last session and then we'll get rolling into today's. Yeah. In short, in what I do, right, is helping agencies to increase sales, generate more referrals, and hire more caregivers, right? Those are the results that you want. And it's my goal to help you do that. And one of the things that I want to say as we dive into just to know a little bit more about me is one of my core values and my personal tagline is let's grow together. And it's really about this continuous pursuit of learning.

And here you are listening live or listening to this recording, listening to podcasts and learning. And we as business owners cannot succeed without the continuous pursuit of knowledge and learning. And so I just want to applaud you guys for being here to learn from people like Connor and other guests that have been on here to focusing on your own personal growth, as well as growth in things that you can implement within your business. So as we dive in, let's grow together. Awesome. Thanks for that, Nick. So to briefly recap last episode, last session. So basically, we talked about how in home care, there's this

challenge with branding because the majority of agencies are all kind of having to promote very similar brand messages, which is essentially we give great care and we're great employers. And even though those are, you know, kind of the right messages to be sending, it's hard when everybody's doing that. One of the ways around that problem is to add more credibility to your brand by using video, specifically the voices of people like your caregivers. And we kind of emphasize the voices of caregivers here because that is potentially the most powerful way to use video to extend your brand. Specifically, I think we spent a lot of the time talking about making very simple selfie style, low production quality caregiver testimonial videos regularly,

where caregivers talk about their day, what it looks like, why they like their job, why they like your agency. And it's very natural, authentic, easy to make and produce. And though there is a place for higher production quality videos, um, it's an easy way for agencies to get started. Is there anything you would add to that recap? Yeah, I mean, that was an excellent recap. The only thing I think, uh, and it's just, again, adding on is just this idea around social proof.

Social proof is one of the most impactful ways to basically, for lack of a better word, sell. And that's what we're doing here, rather we're selling to caregivers, selling to clients, selling to referral sources. And so whatever means that we're doing that, in this case, we talked about video testimonials in the last week. It's like we just need to figure out more ways to leverage social proof in your business because those stories are so powerful. Facts tell, stories sell, right? And so the more that you can incorporate stories and social proof into your general marketing,

the more successful that you're going to be. Love it and completely agree. And I think that that is becoming even more and more true as we advance further into like the social and digital age. And like, you know, just everything is more reliant on being able to hear what other people think of it and being able to engage with them immediately, instantly versus having to take a company's word for it on how they are. The whole purpose of these two episodes with Nick, if I can boil it down, is really to provide content that like, if you're an agency owner and you only heard these two episodes with Nick, if I can boil it down, is really to provide content that like, if you're an agency owner and you only heard these two episodes, and like, maybe you've heard before

that you need to use video in your marketing and you're not sure how, or like what to do or where to get started, that you could listen to just these two episodes. And it would at least give you the confidence and how to understanding to get started and to do something that will drive value for your business today. There's obviously always more you can do with video, but our goal here is like to give you what you need to at least get that first wave of results and hit the low hanging fruit from video. So with that being said, we talked last week about, you know, here's the type of video that's probably the most impactful to make

if you're only making one kind of thing. And this week, we're going to talk about what are all the places where you can be using video content you create. So we'll talk about both platforms and like talk to different social platforms and should it be posting on them. And we'll also just talk about places in your hiring and recruitment and marketing processes where it can be valuable to augment them with simple videos like caregiver testimonial videos. So I guess like jumping into things, we'll start with those different places in your existing marketing, hiring application processes and stuff and talk about what their value might be with having video incorporated there. I think how we'll do this is I'll kind of go through a list of things that either you had mentioned last time or that I thought about that might benefit from having videos used in them. And you kind of say, you know, is this a good place to use these types of videos? And when I say these types,

I'm referring mainly to caregiver testimonial videos. If so, like, how would you recommend doing it? And is there anything that agencies might not think of? To start with, let's talk about like in the application and hiring process, what parts of this process would you recommend using videos? How would you do it? And is there anything maybe counterintuitive or just hard to think of that agencies should do that they might not think of on their own? Absolutely. Yeah. And there's even a couple. So I'm going to dive into the question and then also try and add some more here. In taking through the process, right? So a caregiver applies to your organization.

Here's the thing that you need to know. They've applied to six other companies, minimum. If you're wondering why caregivers are applying and then not showing up for the interview, that's the reason. It's because they've chosen somebody else to either follow through in the process to actually show up for an interview because they saw something in that organization that made them want to go with that company. And so we need to do things that are different right out of the gate. And so there's a couple of ways that you can leverage video in this process. One with the video that we talked about before when the recruitment is right after they apply, right? We're trying to drive them in. Hopefully you're using some forms of automation in this process, which makes it a lot easier. And if you're not using automation, you need to start because it will save you so much time. But the aspect is,

if we can get people to know a little bit more about our organization or why we're the best right out of the gate, it's going to increase those show up rates. And at the end of the day, that's a big aspect. Because if you remember in the last session, we talked about the bucket analogy. And so often people are trying to just like, more applicants, more applicants, more applicants. But what about all the applicants that you're already getting? Why are they choosing to go to another company? And so right out of the gate, this can be a powerful tool to either automate or send directly to your applicants in a way to like, maybe you're saying, hey, we'd love to get an interview just so if you'd like to learn a little bit more about what our caregivers are saying about us, click here. Boom, now you're directing people to a video. Hopefully, you're doing texting in that same process, driving people to that same video. And so on a consistent basis, you're just driving people into that funnel with that

recruitment video. The other place is in a more obvious one, right on your website, right on your recruitment page. Hopefully, you have a good application landing page. That's something that I think is super underdeveloped within the home care industry and a whole other rabbit hole that I don't know if we're going to be able to get into today. But just the idea that your recruitment page on your website is your sales page. And so it should be filled with things that sell your business. And if it's just a form, then it's not working effectively. It needs to be something that's more impactful. And just by having that video on there, you're going to increase the number of applicants of people

that apply when they show up on that landing page to actually opt in and fill that form to apply. Okay. Love it. So basically to recap, I mean, use it both in the places where they are applying as it's possible to do so, because some websites let you in, some don't. And then potentially in the outreach, like when you're responding to them and just on your own website, basically make sure it's being used ifers for recruitment. Maybe you're going to schools and you're just like boots on the ground marketing, using flyers, having a QR code that goes directly to your recruitment page or just goes directly to the video. And so that's where we're also leveraging that tool where you can have right on the flyer, hey, watch video. People want to watch video. I forget whether I touched on this and I

wanted to say it real quick. And we'll probably touch on it a little bit today. Social media platforms will change. So I know Connor and I talked about that we may get into TikTok today, but just to plant a seed here is that new social media platforms will continue to be created and come out. But if you guys remember, there was this old platform called Vine, right? Guys, remember that platform Vine? Some of you may not even know what Vine is. May it rest in peace. Yeah. But what Vine was, was a video platform of short videos that you could watch. And so, yes, TikTok has come out and like, oh, my God, it's revolutionary.

No, it is not. It is the same. It is just video content done in a different way. And so video is the medium. And the more that you adopt this powerful medium, the more that it's going to set you up for success because this medium has not changed. It has stood the test of time from infomercials back in the day, right? Like TV and video has been around for a while and it is just what people want to consume. And so bringing that into your tool belt will be an asset for years to come. Well said. And I think it's worth reminding people of something we talked about more last time, which is that often with these videos, it's not just like acceptable to have it be like a like low budget selfie video, but it's like often preferable to make it that way.

And so you don't have to stress about like bringing in like a film crew or something because people will trust it more when it's a caregiver recording it on their phone or something. Is there anything you want to add to that? Yes. If you guys remember, maybe you guys have heard of it. It's called the Super Bowl. It's a pretty popular TV event that people watch specifically for the commercials. There was a Super Bowl ad that is literal vertical format filmed selfie style. I think it was for like KFC or something like that. And so that's a perfect example that during the biggest marketing event of the year, from a commercial standpoint, not only was it vertical, which if you remember the last episode, I hated it. But again, that was their intention is that they wanted to make it

feel more real and authentic. And that is how many creators or people are creating content and consuming content in that vertical format in the like, hey, it's just me, right? We're talking, you should go buy some Kentucky Fried Chicken. It's delicious, right? And again, that's that style. So there's a lot of value to be said in that perspective. Now, to be clear also, that was not filmed on a phone. It was only made to look like it was, right? It was filmed on a professional camera. It was made to film in horizontal and it was made to feel like it was a real person, even though in that particular case, it was not. So, side note though, just to

know about commercials in general, they say it's not actors. They're lying. It actually is actors. Awesome. Great. So I guess next question here, we talked about using videos in the application hiring process. I think an easy, like logical next step from that would be also to use these videos if the agency is running any drip campaigns to either past applicants and or past caregivers, is there anything you'd add or that they should be mindful of as they're doing that? Yeah. One, hopefully you have some drip campaigns. Hopefully you know what a drip campaign is and hopefully you're leveraging it in your recruitment process.

So I'll say that first because you bring up a great point. Real fast, just because we get listeners of all levels of knowledge on this in like 10 seconds, what are we talking about with drip campaigns? Yes. So basically, whenever a new prospect and or caregiver comes in, we want to make sure that we're staying top of mind, we're staying in front of them. And so a drip campaign is basically a series of emails and or texts that is automated in a process that is designed to stay in front of them, get them to come back, get them to take whatever action it is that it is. And it's done in an automated fashion, whether it's a series of emails based on a timeframe, like based on when they apply in a certain amount of days,

and or based on certain days that maybe are going out or certain actions that maybe they take. Is that a good explanation of that? Yeah, that's really good. Go on. Thanks for letting me interrupt you. Yeah, absolutely. So from the automation standpoint and leveraging this in your content is you can now input this video content into your drip campaigns and bring it back in. Because as we touched on at the beginning of this video, social proof and stories become really impactful. And so this is a way where you actually can leverage two forms. So one thing that we've been talking a lot about video, and I think it's important to mention that not everyone is a video person. And so we always want to make sure that we're leveraging multiple assets, right?

You can't take a text and turn it into video, but you can turn video and turn it into text. And so with that being said, in your drip campaign, if you remember on part one, we talked about interviewing your caregivers so that you have, one, a compilation of all of the testimonials in one core video. But then you also have each video testimonial or each person as their own testimonial. And so then each of your testimonials can now be then input into your drip campaign, where you can either take the transcription, maybe even... Ready? Here's a little tip here. How can we build curiosity to get people to take the next step? So this is an email marketing tip, but I'm going to share this because I think this is one of the most impactful marketing strategies that you can use and leverage in every single aspect of your marketing, which is understanding that we need to draw people

in constantly and understand like, oh, I spent all this time creating this email. Great. Did they open it? The subject line is the most important part of the email, right? The same thing goes with any social media posts. The first line that you say, every single goal is to get people through that first step and drawing them in. This is the hook, right? Every successful TikTok, a YouTube video, they start in the beginning and they draw you in to getting you to want to watch more. And so for this example, using the testimonial, you may consider saying something, you start part of the testimonial where it's intriguing. And then you do something like a dot, dot, dot. All my clients know that I love the dot,

dot, dot. If you follow me on social media, I do a dot, dot, dot all the time where I say a first line and then I do a dot, dot, dot. And then I elaborate more because then people want to know. You're creating this curiosity. And so you could do the dot, dot, dot and then have, hey, get the rest here. And now they're clicking. And so you're drawing people in to wanting to see more. And that's kind of the process in how you can leverage this in your drip campaign, leverage these written testimonials and leverage these video testimonials in your automated sequences. Awesome. Okay, similar question, but shifting gears a little bit.

Let's talk about using videos in efforts with referral sources, what that might look like. And I think specifically too, is it still relevant to use caregiver testimonials with referral sources? If not, what should they use? If so, how and why? The first part in regards to leveraging your caregiver testimonials, yes, it's powerful, but I will say that that video is more geared towards just attracting more caregivers. I was actually talking with one of my clients earlier and like, hey, if your clients see your caregivers talking about how great you are, it's a great representation of you and does have its place in being valuable. However, when it comes to referral sources, there are a couple ways that

you can leverage video. And the first one is really your story, right? Your why video. Simon Sinek says, people don't do business with what people do, but why you do it. And so leveraging this video with prospective referral sources, prospective clients can be so impactful in just sharing why you got into this business. The one thing that I'll say, so I got into the home care industry in 2014. And so through my time, oh my gosh, so much been 10 years. Amazing. Through this time, I've met so many home care owners and heard their stories. And it's like, hey, what got you into this business?

And sometimes there's a mix, right? But often, the common story is I had a terrible experience and I knew that I could do better. Right. I wanted to do better. Some people would be like, I had a great experience and then I wanted to do more of this, too. Right. So there's a mix of what those stories are. But regardless, every story that I've heard is always so powerful. And it's so funny because I'll ask people, like, do you share this story? And they're like, oh, no, not really. I'm like, why not? It's so powerful for people to get to know you, who you are, and what your intrinsic values are. What's your motivation in being in business? And when people ask, how do I differentiate myself

from other agencies? And a lot of people have a ton of different answers. If I were to ask you, they're like, oh, my caregivers are the best, or we have great service. No, you don't. I'm sorry. You don't have the best caregivers. You can say it all you want. But if you're in a room full of 100, and you ask that same thing, how many people think you have the best caregivers? Half the room is going to raise their hand. So if half the room is raising their hand, then clearly that's not your differentiator. But the one unique thing that makes you different from every other agency out there is you and your story. And so the more that you can leverage and input that story, whether you're doing an in-service or whether you're doing a client

intake and you're just sharing your story, it becomes really powerful. But it becomes even more impactful when it's in that video format, because now you can use it again really powerful. But it becomes even more impactful when it's in that video format, because now you can use it again and again. And so one of the ways that I instruct my clients and everyone that I work with in utilizing this video for referral sources specifically is when you meet somebody at a networking event, this is one of those ways. Hey, I actually have a video where I share my story. Here it is. Maybe you go on LinkedIn after you've connected with them. That's a whole other strategy when you're leveraging referral sources and making sure that you're connecting with them on LinkedIn. But now you send them this

video, hey, check out my story, I go over. And so now you have this way to share your story on a consistent basis again and again. And if you remember last week, I talked about, this is not about making videos to post on social media. It is about building assets that you can use and leverage again and again and again. And so with this formula and utilizing your why video, you can just send this to referral sources constantly. Every time you meet them, you're putting it on brochures, you're putting it on flyers, you're putting it everywhere for clients, for referral sources, because when they know who you are, they get a better feel of what you're about. They're going to want to do business with you. They're going to want to refer you. Okay. That's a great response. I appreciate that.

Let me kind of ask the same question for like the intake process or like, especially maybe like when someone has sent in an inquiry, but they haven't necessarily converted to being a paying client yet. Like what's the role of video there? And is that somewhere where you can use any of the existing videos we've already talked about? Or again, is that one for kind of a different type of video? Yeah. So this video is really what I call like your number one video, because it can also be used in your recruitment process and getting people in your caregivers and using in your funnel automation and your sequence, which we already touched on, right? So this is one more video that can be implemented into that process. But the best

place that it's going to be is right on your website. And so often people underutilize what their website is. They make it once and they're like, great, all right, my website's up, but not actually realizing how many people may be going to your website and not calling you. Do you even know that stats? Do you even know the data on how many people? Because at the end of the day, people like to shop. We're in this digital age now where, yes, if you get referred to somebody, you are more likely to go with that company. That's why referrals from friends and family or referral sources is always going to be the highest conversions. You're getting the most sales out of those referrals. But from a more digital aspect of people coming to your website, and they're going to different

home care agencies, which let's be honest, if you they're going to different home care agencies, which let's be honest, if you look at the majority of home care agencies, they all say the same thing on it and they are so lame. I mean, come on people, we got to do better. We got to input more personality. We got to get rid of these stock photos. We got to get real people onto our websites. And so just by having this video front and center on the page, you're going to notice an increase in people actually contacting you. They may or may not say, hey, I watched the video and that was why I contacted you. And that's where the ROI becomes a little more difficult to track in cases like this. But you'll see more and more, the more that you share the story, the more that you put it out here, people are going to know your

story when you didn't even tell it to them. And that's where it starts to become really powerful. And so when you have this on your website, you're going to notice that increase in conversions front and center on the page. You can pin it to the top of your Facebook page. So it's the first thing that people see. You can put it in your email signature, right? I mentioned sending it to referral sources when you first meet them. You create it as a featured video.

So it's the first thing that people see when they go to your YouTube channel, right? So there's all of these applications and where you can put the video as well as into your automation. So to go back to the intake form, hopefully they already watched the video, which you can then ask them, hey, did you see the video about our owner? Yes or no, right? So now you have that opportunity to send that to them. The other aspect of this, and maybe this is going to go down a whole other rabbit hole, so I'll put it in your court there, Connor. But there are a number of other videos that you can send in the inquiry process that can be more geared towards that specific inquiry and intake. So let me know if you want me to go

down that rabbit hole. Maybe real quick. Yeah. I mean, let's not spend a ton of time there, but what do you mean by that? Yeah. So let's say for example, this is my favorite. I'll give two examples. Okay. First one, dementia, right? A lot of people, when they're calling you, they maybe have some, their loved one was just recently diagnosed with dementia, which becomes, you know, it's a very tough disease that people need to manage and learn about different things. And so an example that I'll share, one of my clients, his name's Skip, and he made a video that he posted about how to better communicate with someone who has dementia. Because you know, if you've been in this business long

enough that most people are not equipped to handle someone that's going through dementia, they get super frustrated really easily, and they don't know how to best communicate. And so if someone calls you and they're talking about dementia, you can now say, hey, I understand that this is new for you. We actually have a series of videos that we can send you that are based on how to manage and care for your loved one who has dementia. Would you like me to send them to you? And so now you have this resource that's geared specific to whatever it is that they are struggling with. And there's a number of other different videos like how to transition from the hospital after a stroke, different things like that.

But what I love about Skip's example and why I wanted to bring it up from the dementia standpoint is that he posted that video on Facebook, actually. And what ended up happening, his cousin watched the video and she commented, she actually shared the video and said, I love this so much. I can use this with my son who has special needs. And so here, this video had nothing, right? She doesn't even have someone that she knows that has dementia, but the content was so valuable. And I asked Skip, I'm like, what's the price tag on this? How valuable is this for you? He's like, this is priceless, right? To know that you helped his cousin to better communicate. And so it just goes to show you that content like this is so valuable to be able to share this could

just make a lasting impression. Another topic that you may consider creating in your intake process. One of the most common things that I'm sure you've heard, again, if you've been in business long enough, someone calls you, you give them your whole spiel, and then they say, okay, yeah, thanks. I just want to shop around, look at some other companies. And you go, I get it. I totally understand. You want to go, you want to see what else is out there. So we actually created a video on questions to ask a home care agency so that when you're going to these other companies, you know what to ask. Would you like me to send it to you? Oh yeah, absolutely. That would be great. So now you're sending them this

video and each question is geared towards selling your services, selling why your business is better based on the questions that you're telling them to ask. And then who do you think they're going to be thinking about when they're asking all of your questions for these other companies? You. So this is just, again, and there's a whole list of contents and topics that we could dive into, but those are just two examples that can be really powerful in your intake process in driving more business, getting more sales, right? So that you can grow your business. So I really like that last idea, but I do want to kind of make sure and see if there's a clarification on one part of it. I think it could be easy to kind of hear the way

you describe that and take it in like sort of a tricky way of like, you know, you're trying to feed them the right questions that will get them to realize that you're the agency to go with, even if they're, you know, might get really good or bad their help somewhere else. And I think the way to take that is like, if you're confident in your services, that's not really the issue here. You're feeding them questions that will help them to make the most educated decision possible, but you're by the act of being the person to give them the questions they have or that they shouldn't ask and like being the one to help them feel confident in their search, how much more does that help in them considering you as the authoritative source of home care? Is that like a good way to rephrase or recap that part?

Yes, 100%. And to even simplify it even more, the idea is you being a resource. And that's the whole goal is being a resource. And so, yes, the idea with video in many cases is to drive more business, more leads, more sales your way. But the whole focal point is really just being a resource. And so, to use a different example, like let's say for the dementia one, you may say, as one of the tips for dementia, I recommend getting support, hire a home care agency, a caregiver to come into your home. So maybe that's tip number six on how to care for your loved one with dementia. So you're saying get a home care agency. You're not saying hire my home care agency. You're just

saying you should consider getting support because it's going to really help. And that's that idea of basically selling by simply being a resource. You don't need to talk about how great you are. Just let your education, let your leadership, your resources, your knowledge be the tool that gets people to want to work with you. Love that. Thanks for sharing that. So before we move on to talking about specific social platforms, we do have a question here that I think is pretty good. Let me answer this and then see if there's anything you would

add to that. So someone says, do people click links to videos and emails? I know that I'm cautious and have been told not to click any links from unknown people. So my understanding of this, and this is coming from both a background in email marketing and at several software companies where we had to take lots of cybersecurity trainings, is that cybersecurity has basically advanced to the point that there's really not very much danger at all in just accidentally clicking a link. There's not a lot that that can do these days to hurt you or your phone or your computer.

It's like what that link might get you to do. So it might get you to like it might be a phishing scam that can get you to give personal payment information or your social security number, or it might get you to download something. And so you do need to be extra mindful if you are clicking on a link that is then prompting you either to download something or to submit your information. And the best way you can check that is by looking at the URL and making sure that it is the URL and the right extension. So dot com or whatever that is, is the official one of the organization who should be sending you that content, but that there's largely not much to be afraid of just from clicking a link, especially from an email that appears reputable and that this is like a very safe, widely used method of marketing and sending out content. Is there anything you would add to that, Nick? Yeah. I mean, that was perfectly

well said. The one thing I will say is most of the time when we're sending us this content or links to somebody is people that we already know. This isn't necessarily a cold outreach campaign. It's people that maybe you've just met or introduced. And like Connor said, if you're sending them a YouTube link, then they know that it's pretty safe. But what I'll also say is, I wonder what would be a good video, maybe how to prevent scams for seniors, right? What an important topic. Now you can be the resource to helping people because obviously this is a big issue in senior community. I know I have to tell my grandmother all the time, I'm like, stop answering phone numbers that you don't know. Let it go to voicemail. It's just like, it could be the doctor.

I'm like, save it in your phone. If it is the doctor, they'll write a voicemail and then you call them right back. But that's a great topic because people need to know this information. There's a lot of things that go into that, but yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about the links. Like Connor said, the good rule of thumb is like, don't download anything, you know, or give your personal information. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks for that. And I mean, we might just bring on someone for future podcast episode about that. So thanks for the question. So let's go into specific social media platforms and talk about if and how they should be used by home care agencies, especially in the type of context we're talking about.

So we already talked about YouTube in our last one. So if you're interested in that discussion, that's kind of toward the end of our last episode. You can get that on the podcast, Home Care U. So let's jump in and talk about TikTok. Should home care agencies be using TikTok or if it depends, you know, like what factors should they use to decide whether it makes sense for them or not? Yeah, great question. So there's a couple pieces to this. And the first one kind of ties into the whole theme of this, right, is video. And so if you're creating video content in general, more often than not, you can share it on multiple platforms. So one of the things that I do with my clients is we create a three to five minute YouTube video, but then we convert it into a one-minute version that can also be then shared on TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels. And so now you're working smarter, not harder,

where it doesn't feel like, oh man, TikTok, here we go. It's just like another platform that I need to do, another platform that I need to learn. More often than not, you can actually just create and repurpose the content for multiple platforms. The other thing to keep in mind about TikTok is that there's certain things that are really important. So number one, and we talked, we touched on this a little bit in the last episode about just like vanity numbers. And so sometimes we want to get tons of views on TikTok and we think that's going to be valuable, but you got to keep in mind that this is like worldwide content. And so people are consuming everywhere and you have a very localized business. And so it's really important that you're using those localized tags because that will help focal the attention based on your own geographic location.

But that being said, just by having some and any consistent posting on TikTok can share as a really asset on just your recruitment process and being like, hey, we're hip. Right. I love using that word. It's so funny. Oh, it sounded funny even coming out of my mouth, right? But it's just- The surest way to tell that you aren't hip is if you say hip, but go on. Yeah, exactly. And so by having a TikTok

and leveraging that as a promotional tool in your recruitment efforts can be powerful because your target demographic more often than not is on TikTok. That being said, in addition, if you're like, oh, I'm not on TikTok, my audience is on TikTok, do your own research. But if you look at the data and the demographics of people that are on TikTok are 100% in your demographic and TikTok continues to grow in popularity. And I see every day more and more people moving over to TikTok. And so it is a great medium. But again, the thing I'll circle back to

that's the most important is that if we are creating content that we're not just sharing it to one platform, how are we getting the most out of the content that we're not just sharing it to one platform? How are we getting the most out of the content that we are creating? Love that. So it sounds like definitely one takeaway from that is that there can be value in simply having a presence on TikTok to kind of speak to the forward thinkingness and being tech savvy and everything of your brand. I'm going to give the question and potential pushback that you've been expecting from me, I think, at this point. So which is to give a little bit of background, there is definitely value as a home care agency in helping to educate people about care, how to get good care,

how to give good care, even if they're not people who will ever buy services from you. Maybe they're located in another state or something. And there is value in that. That being said, as a business, your objectives and where you put your resources do need to be built around what is going to drive results for you and what is going to bring in new clients um which i think in terms of like a video on social media means there needs to be some part of it that's location based so you know that you're reaching people in your area um who might be potential clients or families of clients um can tick tock do that is it likeically based? Do you have the ability to do anything on it to make sure that you're reaching at least some people who are in your area?

Yeah. So one of the ways that TikTok can actually be more effective, and I'm not an expert in this particular area, but using it as an ad platform, right? Because then you have that ability to really target exactly who you want to utilize. And so if you're doing an ads, ads are one of the most impactful ways to grow your business, both from a client base or from a recruiting base, because everything can be tracked. Right. If you have a proper funnel or way of tracking everything, then you know, I've spent X amount of dollars, it generated X amount of caregivers or applicants, which then went to X amount of hires, or, hey, I did this and it generated X amount of clients based on this particular ad.

So that's where the location can be effective. But as far as top platforms that home care agents should be using, TikTok is not one of them. Okay. That makes sense. A couple of questions with that, because I think the ads point is really interesting because you can target ads geographically. And depending on the type of ad and the platform, you can often do more targeting than that. What would you say to the agency owner who is listening to the podcast as you're saying this and saying, okay, that's great, but TikTok is for Gen Zs who are not the ones looking for care for their parents and certainly not seniors themselves who might be looking for care for themselves. What's your response there? So from your target audience, more often than not, the target audience, like you said, Connor, is the parents or the adult children looking for care for their parents.

Yes, occasionally you get the senior that's getting care for themselves, but that's a lot less from a percentage standpoint. And so from an audience base, if you look up... So that would put our target demographic from somewhere between, let's say... And correct me if I'm wrong here, Connor, but let's say 35 to 55 would potentially be where people are looking to be care. We may even could bump it up to 60 if we want. If you look at the demographics on TikTok, that continues to rise more and more, the age demographic. So here's a great example. I'll share this real quick. I remember way back when I joined a little platform called Facebook. And I had a brother, an older brother. He's five years older than me. And when I joined Facebook, he yelled at me. He said, what are you doing on

Facebook? That's for college kids. You're not supposed to be on Facebook. And now what do people say? Oh, well, that's for old people. Right? And so every new platform that comes out, there is this transition and trickle effect that more and more people are going to move over to TikTok. And so by the time the senior generation, they're like, your target audience is going to continue to gradually move over to TikTok. And then a new platform is going to come out for all the younger generations that they're going to jump on and they're going to be like TikToks for old people. And that's exactly what the transition... That's what we've seen.

And so these trends are just going to continue to happen. That's why I said social platforms don't matter as much because they're going to continue to change, which can be often stressful. You're like, oh gosh, I feel like I'm just getting a hold on Facebook. And then you're telling me, you know, it's going to change again. It's like, well, this goes to how I started this call is that we need to be in a continuous pursuit of learning and growing and changing. And if you want things to always be the same, your business is going to fail. Things are going to constantly be changing and we need to be able to adapt and grow. I completely agree with all that. So thanks for putting it that way.

Something I would add is that because the algorithm on TikTok works so fast and is so good, it becomes easy to think that whatever type of content you first see when you get on is like what it is. So like the most common example here is like TikTok is known for like, it's like dance videos. Right. And so like, I like have friends and family who have like been on there and they've like looked at like maybe trying to do TikTok for their business and they get on and they're like, well, it's just dance videos. Like that's all I see on there. And I'm like, that's because it's an algorithm. And that means you just watch the first couple of dance videos. And now TikTok thinks that all you want is dance videos, but like there is a community on there, you know,

something talk with a hashtag for every conceivable topic you could imagine. And so the people are already there and they're moving there increasingly more. So I completely agree with what you said that on, I think just to recap all that too, like I would agree that since it's not very location based on the just posting content side of things, it probably doesn't make a ton of sense for home care agencies outside of having a presence on it. But the place where it is worth it for some agencies to look at it and consider it is on the ads side of things and actually doing paid ads on tick tock um so love that i think that's really specific useful advice um let's talk about facebook and instagram uh specifically i think like instagram reels are

going to be most relevant here most of what we we've already said about TikTok, I think applies to Instagram Reels. What I'm kind of most curious to hear, Devon, before I maybe add any thoughts of my own is like, is there an increased ability to keep your content focused geographically, locally with Instagram Reels? And if so, how do you do that? And what are the ramifications of that? Yeah. So a few quick points. So the first thing to understand about... And this goes into the TikTok thing and just understanding social media in general, is that often when people think of successful social media campaigns, it's based on this virality and getting tons of views across all platforms. But the thing to always remember is that the fundamental aspect of social media is building relationships. And so if you have 20 TikTok followers, but there are 20 of your referral sources, it's going to be a great platform for you. So it's not so much about the followers

of how many you have, but who is following you. And so that's that avenue of like, oh, well, ads or views and all that stuff. None of that matters if the right people are watching. And so that's where like Facebook and Instagram. And a lot of times we try and look at engagement and our viewership and that becomes our metric instead of understanding that that smaller is actually better because that's the target that we're looking to attract and the people that we want to watch what we're creating. And so that being said, to kind of dive into the other aspect in regards to Facebook and Instagram, and this is a really important note, is that if you're just posting regular images on Facebook and or Instagram, you're already losing, unfortunately.

It's a sad thing. Do I say don't do it? No, not necessarily. I think there is a place. But you will find very quickly that if you start posting reels on both platforms, which basically is to sum up real quick, a reel is a one minute video in vertical format. That's like the easiest way to kind of summarize that. You will see a greater reach on your existing following just based on that. And so there is... To jump in here real quick, sorry to interrupt. Just to make sure that we're clear here, what you're saying is that the platform boosts reels and videos to your followers

more than it sends them or shows them your regular posts. Is that correct? Yes. And a big part of that is the reason why TikTok has been revolutionary in certain aspects. It's the first platform that continues to show you people that you're not following. And so whereas Facebook and Instagram, the way that they were built on is that you're seeing the pages that you follow. And so if you're just doing regular posts on Facebook and or Instagram, the only people that are going to see those posts are people that are already following your page. Contrary to people searching hashtags, but I don't think people even do that. I'm not a huge... There is a place for hashtags, but not in the discoverability.

It's actually more effective in the Reels standpoint because Reels are now being shown to the general public based on their own viewerships and whether or not they may or may not like your content. And so just by posting more Reels, you're going to see that one, your existing followers actually are seeing the content and you have the potential to open you up to new followers and key contacts that are relevant to your audience. Interesting. So a couple things to unpack here. I want to make sure that I understand. So there are at least two things you can do to make your posts or reels or videos be geographic on Instagram. And that is to tag a location and also to use hashtags that are local to the area. It sounds like a natural kind of implication of

what you're saying is that like, neither of those are super great for getting found by new people most of the time. And so it's kind of better to think more about like, are you, you know, being seen by the right people, having the right people following you initially, and then also using video to get post or so that the platform will put your content in front of more people. Um, so first of all, is all of that accurate? accurate. Yes. There's something I'd like to say. I don't know if we have full time, but I'd like to... This will be a good transition into other potential platforms and the relevancy and why they're so impactful based on less viewership and more targeted audiences. So real quick, one of the most underutilized platforms within this industry is LinkedIn. Because it's the one platform. Yeah, Connor kills it on LinkedIn. If you're not following Connor on LinkedIn, go follow him. When you're not utilizing LinkedIn, you have to think about it that your referral sources are on

LinkedIn. So one, don't post stuff that you would post to your Facebook business page on LinkedIn because it's a totally different audience. So one quick caveat there. But when you can start to collaborate with other industry partners, referral sources, now you take a photo at a coffee shop with the marketing rep for a hospice company. Now, somebody who you just tagged that knows that person from the hospice company that maybe works at an assisted living now sees you and is like, oh, who is that? Is that someone I should know? Who's Connor? Can you tell me more, right? And so now, you're actually leveraging your referral partners and getting in front of the right people because you have mutual connections. Most of your connections are probably local based, right? Your referral sources are local based. And

now you have that opportunity to now find new people that are specifically geared in your territory and potential referral sources for you. Love that. A couple just like tips I'm going to drop in there super fast uh with linkedin um because it's kind of like tick tock in the sense that like the right things get get like super boosted by the algorithm and the wrong things will just like have your post get killed by the algorithm um so linkedin really likes uh pictures and video in posts and it will boost those to more people. It will also boost it more if it gets like more engagement in the first hour or two. And so like it's just important to have something that asks people for their feedback or ask them to give their thoughts,

something like that. And finally, if you're sharing a link in your post on LinkedIn, don't put it in the post itself. Add that link in a comment on the post after you post it because LinkedIn doesn't want to incentivize people to leave their platform. And so if a post contains a link in the actual post itself, it will really downgrade that in the algorithm. So just a few things there that are useful to anyone listening and thinking from the LinkedIn perspective. Can I add to that real quick? Yeah. Yeah. Go for it. So this is, I mean, one dramatic thing that will change your social media. Stop sharing links. Like Connor said, so all of the social media platforms make money by keeping people on the platform. So anytime that you share a link on your social media, specifically like,

oh my gosh, Facebook really hates links to the highest level. So I see people in home care posting articles constantly. It's like, stop. It's the worst type of post. The algorithm doesn't want to show links. They don't want to take people off the platform. And so no matter where you're posting, one, do your best to not record to post any links. If you do put them in the comments, are uploading your content directly to the design platform. So it's the funniest thing. If you've ever shared a YouTube link on Facebook, you'll notice that nobody sees it. I mean, you're literally sharing a direct competitor of Facebook on their platform. Of course, they're not going to show it to anyone. So you always want to make sure that you're creating content exclusively for the specific social media site that you are looking to increase engagement and viewership in. Love that. I've got one more thing I'm going to add to this really quick, then a couple last questions for you. I know that we're like almost at the end of our time. Thanks to those who are staying. This has been a really good session. Just something I want to add here really fast while we're talking about different platforms is posting to Facebook from your business page is almost worthless. And tell me afterwards if you like agree or add anything, Nick. But basically basically since 2017, Facebook changed its algorithm so that

almost no one gets shown posts from just a business's Facebook page. If you pay to boost it, that's different. And if you run ads, that's different. But basically it just sits there. And so it is good to have some posts on there to have a presence so someone doesn't look up your page and have it just look dead. But like that is not where you're going to get shown to new people. And it's hardly where you're going to get shown even to the people who theoretically follow you. Anything you would add, change or argue with on that, Nick? I was kind of just laughed because it is sadly true in many aspects in that your posts getting shown and seen by people is just so pathetic and sad. And it's unfortunate. I mean, when you have to think about it like this too, from the algorithm and if you have like, I don't know how many

Facebook followers I have. I have 2,000, I think, Facebook friends or more. And I'm following, I don't know how many pages. If each of those pages are posting every single day, then I'm getting 3,000 to 4,000 posts every single day. Of course, I can't see them all. So that's why you're not seeing so many of your posts. And now Facebook keeps trying to show you suggested and every other post is an ad. So it's like, of course, you're not getting that content. And so you're not getting much reach. So again, this goes back to the reels aspect. But then one thing I did want to say that Connor mentioned too, it's good to have a presence because I've actually had clients that caregivers have told them in an interview that, hey, I checked out your Facebook

page and I loved what you had to say and that's why I came to work for your company. So there's that merit talking about what I mentioned earlier, like pinning some of your top videos or pinning that one main video so that people see it when they go to it. But what I will say this is that I think you will get a lot more value from the Facebook platform from a personal relationship building story. If you guys are friends with me on Facebook, and I'm curious to see how this happens when I go to speak at an event in November, but I want to do a test where I ask how many people know that I recently went on a road trip. And because I guarantee that a ton of people that are going to be in that room, that are friends with me on Facebook, saw that I went on a road trip.

And so again, it's this idea that has nothing to do with business, but I'm staying top of mind. I'm staying in front of people. I'm building relationships with people. And so if you want to get results from Facebook, you will get greater results in building your own personal brand, showcasing things like you're doing, what you're doing, traveling, showcasing you out in the community, having a mix of your own personal brand, both business, both personal foods you like to eat, trips you like to take, activities you like to do, and a mix of business in there.

And really focusing on that, hey, I want to see what's going on in your life. You want to see what's going on in mine. That's how relationships are formed. That's how referral sources are formed. That's how you remind people, hey, I own a home care business. Hey, I own a home care business, without just posting constantly about your home care business. So to sum up, because I know we're running along, yes, business pages on Facebook are not great, but there is some aspect. But if you really want to leverage social media in general, how you're leveraging it from a personal relationship building aspect is where you're going to get your greatest ROI. Awesome. Thanks for that. We have a follow-up question to that. So someone says, do you mix the business on the personal page or the business page? So generally, I always

recommend that you post to the business page and then share to your personal page because it's just helping from that viewership and getting more brand awareness. Going the other way is always kind of weird, but it's an important reminder that your business page is a business and you as your own personal page may share and post different aspects of what you're sharing. And so by building your own personal brand, by getting people to actually enjoy what you're sharing on a regular basis and seeing what... And there's the whole other rabbit hole on what you're sharing on your personal brand and how to create engaging content that's not like, hey, look at me and making it valuable for your audience. But you'll see a greater reach on your business pages when you share content from your business page to your personal because now you're getting your personal

brand following to now engage with that post because you've built your personal brand following. Does that answer that question? I think it does. I mean, if I can just try and like restate part of that, it's like, you can, like, if you're doing two posts on your personal page, and like one of them is your post about a road trip you went on. And the other one is a post about how much you love the career you're in, which is home care. It's great, generally speaking, to share the second one from your business page because it takes the part of you that's relevant to work and shares that in a way that's personalized. But it's a bad idea to share the first one because people who are there for home care or to learn about a home care agency don't care about your

road trip. There's nothing to do with home care. Is that accurate? Cool. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And to clarify too, and this might answer part of the question, is that you don't want to post the same thing on both platforms. So you're not going to post one thing and then also post it to your personal and your business. You're going to post it to the business, then share to your personal so that they can build off of it. If you post them as two separate posts, now them as two separate posts, now they're two separate posts, two different viewerships, two different audience. And so it doesn't have the ability to come compound. And so that's an important distinction of understanding

that if it is something that maybe you would share to both, that you share to the business and then share to your personal, which obviously the downside to that is not being able to schedule the share. You actually have to go on live, share that content. And so I think that should, based on what I said earlier, what you said, and what I just added, should answer that question. Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for that. And it, I mean, use judgment with this, but it also makes sense to be involved in Facebook groups, potentially, as it makes sense not to spam people, share your business post into the right, you know, local Facebook groups, if it gives something people are looking for there, and just being involved in those groups too. Those are

generally a lot more active than a lot of other parts of Facebook these days. So, um, that's one to think about. What I want to add this when you're sharing post to get more reach, don't just share it, add your own personal thoughts. And that goes on all platforms, especially LinkedIn, like, cause so many people do the reshare and I hate the reshare. It's like, you have to put your own thoughts on it. So make sure that like, if you're sharing it to a group, that you mention the group, mention pieces of the group, and you're not just taking a post and sharing it in 10 groups. Be very intentional, add more context, add more on

why they should even look at that post that you just shared. Awesome. Thanks for that. Okay. Well, there's more we can talk about as always, but this is probably a good place to end here. So a couple quick reminders. First of all, to answer the people asking this, yes, we will have the replay. You can get that. It'll be available next Monday or Tuesday on our podcast. You can find that as Home Care U, U as in university, wherever you get your podcasts. And then also a reminder for those who find it there and are listening to this as a podcast first, you can join the class live, add your questions in the chat and Q&A by registering free at homecareu, that's usununiversity.com. And we do this every week.

So thanks for all the participation. This was great. Nick, last question for you, for those who are listening to this live or afterward, love what you have to say and want an expert's help to implement video into their marketing and recruitment efforts. How can they get ahold of you? Absolutely. My website is thedigitalchamps.com and you will see on there, there are a ton of resources. I have a free training, a brand new free course that I just launched called Home Care Brand Mastery.

There's also a home care brand audit that you can schedule if you're just like, hey, I want to talk to you right now. And so, but if you're just like, hey, I want to learn a little bit more, thedigitalchamps.com, where you can find more information about who am I and how I can help. Great. Thanks for that. Thanks again for being part of this, Nick. We've gotten some really good content dug in really deep. I think this will be useful to people. So thanks everyone for joining and have a great rest of your day. That's a wrap. This podcast was made by the team at CareSwitch, the first AI-powered management software for home care

agencies. If you want to automate away the menial of your day-to-day with AI so that you and your team can focus on giving great care, check us out at careswitch.com.