Our work with Red Homes
Services:
Communications strategy
media relations
internal communications
profile raising
website review
social media strategy
press releases and thought leadership
crisis consultancy
The client
For three months we supported a Nottinghamshire-based care home to review and boost its internal and external communications activity.
Following a number of negative inspections from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the group, which owns four homes, introduced a range of major operational improvements within the settings. Confident that their care offering was now one of the best in the region, they wanted to convey this to the general public and use it as an opportunity to boost staff morale.
The campaign
We began working with the group by auditing its existing communications and content, starting with the website. We rewrote several pages of copy and added statements to address the CQC rating and to communicate all the positive steps it had made to address the inspections results. In the three months we worked together, we drafted and uploaded four blogs on fun activities taking place within the homes.
We created a social media strategy and took over the running of the group’s social media accounts, seeing a huge upswing in engagement. We also used it as an opportunity to reach out to residents’ families and staff to keep them up to date with the latest news from the homes.
We believed the communications review would not flourish without internal buy in, so we made it a priority to really get to know each respective care home manager and learn more about their priorities. We maintained these relationships throughout our work with the group, with the added benefit that the managers would frequently come to us with good news stories.
We also introduced the group to the organisers of John’s Campaign, a charity campaigning for extended visiting rights for family carers of patients with dementia in hospitals and care homes. We drafted a statement of commitment to the campaign, ensuring that the organisation was on the leading edge of best practice.
A highlight of the activity was the opening of a dedicated end of life care unit. We organised the event and hired a photographer, as well as inviting the media, the mayor and relevant community stakeholders. Following the event, we secured coverage in key regional publications and also secured three thought leadership articles in top tier care home press, focusing on taboo topics such as death and dying – and why we should talk more about it – showcasing the group’s forward-thinking attitude.
Results
- Three thought leadership opportunities in top tier care trade publications, a combined audience reach of 54,000
- Two major announcements were covered by key regional press, a combined audience reach of more than 33,000
- Doubled Twitter engagement rate and eight-times increase in profile visits
- 800% increase in mentions
- 11 retweets and 56 likes on a single post of a resident playing a harmonica
- Increased the average Facebook views by roughly 300 week-on-week
- Tripled Facebook post engagement and quadrupled page likes
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