Build trust
Care Home Social Media
Social media rarely produces enquiries directly for a care home. What it does is far more useful: it lets a family who is already considering you scroll back through six months of ordinary days and see what life there is actually like. That is reassurance no brochure can manufacture.
Get My Free AuditThe two failure modes
The first is silence — a page with four posts from 2021, which reads as a home that has stopped paying attention.
The second is a feed of corporate notices and stock graphics about National Smile Month, which tells a family nothing about your home at all.
What works is unglamorous and consistent: the garden in each season, the Thursday singalong, a new member of staff introduced by name, the chef's Sunday roast.
What's included
How we approach social media
Channel strategy
Usually Facebook for families and Instagram for recruitment. We would rather do two channels properly than five badly.
Content planning and creation
A realistic monthly plan built around what genuinely happens in your home, plus the scheduling so it does not depend on anyone remembering.
A workable capture process
How your team gets photos and moments to us in thirty seconds on a phone, because any process that takes longer will quietly stop happening.
Consent management
A clear register of who has consented to appear, reviewed regularly, with a simple route for families to withdraw it.
Community management
Replying to comments and messages promptly — including the ones from families asking whether you have a room available, which do arrive here.
Consent, capacity and dignity
Why this matters specifically in care
Posting a photograph of a resident requires their informed consent, or a properly documented best-interests decision where capacity is lacking. Consent also has to be revisitable — a family who was comfortable a year ago may not be now, and someone's capacity can change. We set up a register and a review rhythm so this is managed rather than assumed, and we err firmly on the side of not posting.
Straight answers
Social Media — frequently asked questions
How often should we post?
Two or three times a week, consistently, beats a burst of daily posts followed by a month of silence. Families reading back through your page are judging whether the home feels alive, and a steady rhythm communicates that better than volume.
Can you run it without bothering our staff constantly?
We need a small amount of raw material from the home — nobody outside the building can manufacture authenticity. But we make it as light as possible: a shared album, a few photos a week, and we do everything else.
Should we advertise on Facebook?
Paid social can work for recruitment, where it is often excellent. For resident enquiries it is weaker than search, because search catches families at the moment they are actively looking rather than interrupting them.
Start here
See exactly what's costing you enquiries
Free, specific to your home, no obligation.