Senior Living Operators Stick With Tried-and-true Social Media Strategies Despite Shifting Landscape

Senior living operators are holding steady with social media strategies in 2025 despite shifting trends for how people share information online.

In 2025, social media companies such as Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram and Threads, and TikTok developer ByteDance are under scrutiny from lawmakers and the public. TikTok is subject to a potential ban starting this month in the U.S. that is being weighed by the Supreme Court, while Meta is facing scrutiny over its plans to eliminate fact-checking and recent changes to its moderation policies that single out LGBTQ people. At the same time, platforms such as BlueSky are serving as new competitors to companies like X, formerly known as Twitter.

Although social media is rapidly changing, senior living operators are sticking with many of the same strategies they’ve embraced for years. Videos showcasing communities and engagement on platforms like Facebook remain the top way operators are marketing their communities online in 2025, even as some companies experiment with other platforms such as TikTok.

Operators still focusing on Facebook, exploring other platforms

Among the big questions operators have regarding social media is where to showcase their services and communities to the wider world. Recent data from AARP shows most people 50 and older use one or more social media platforms. Facebook and YouTube are the top-two platforms they use, and that is still primarily where senior living operators focus their efforts in 2025.

That is why senior living operators including FellowshipLife, Watermark Retirement Communities, Priority Life Care and others focus on platforms including Facebook and YouTube in order to reach older adults using them.

“For a long time, we’ve watched what the adult children do, because the adult children were on social media,” said Elizabeth Fandel, chief marketing and innovation officer for Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based FellowshipLife. “But the boomer is on social media, and they’re watching and they’re listening.”

Facebook in particular can be a powerful tool for marketing, but it carries its own share of challenges and risks. That is no surprise to operators, but it is still a delicate balance for them in 2025.

Senior living companies have in particular grappled with how much control communities should have over their social media presence, how often they should post, what they should be posting and who to target – all in service of crafting the most effective messaging possible.

Tucson, Arizona-based Watermark has a dedicated social media manager who focuses solely on that kind of messaging. The company’s in-house media team has created standards, guidelines and “tons of training” for effective online posting that appeals to prospects.

In 2024, the operator’s social media strategy centered on more artful imagery through better quality photography and videos and bringing more detail to the text in posts for “greater emotional impact,” according to Troy Hollar national director of marketing and sales for Watermark Retirement Communities. That strategy garnered a 27.4% increase in post reactions and likes, a 40.8% increase in post comments and replies and a 21.4% increase in followers in 2024 compared with 2023.

Still, creating a compelling marketing message over platforms like Facebook can be a “huge challenge,” according to Hollar.

Other companies, including Bloomfield, New Jersey-based Juniper Communities, have even posted hiring ads on Facebook to some success. In 2022, the company built a landing page for quick applications and began tracking which Facebook users went from seeing a Juniper advertisement on Facebook to filling out an online application.

Senior living companies have in recent years also sought to look beyond platforms like Facebook, such as TikTok, X competitor BlueSky and Threads, although not many have grown their presence in a big way on them.

Still, companies including Priority Life Care are using platforms like TikTok and weighing the demographics of users there for possible marketing expansions. So far, the company has built a small presence on sites like BlueSky and Threads if only to plant its flag for now.

“We’re looking at it, dipping our toe into it, but not really putting out a lot of content until we know it’s worth our effort,” Priority Life Care VP of Sales and Marketing Jill Record told Senior Housing News.

Fandel added FellowshipLife currently does not have a presence on sites like Threads due to the lack of a target audience being there. But the company is keeping its eye on whether that changes in the future, even as it remains hard to navigate all of the different platforms it can use.

“I’m trying to see … what is going to be the next big thing that we’ll want to join early on, and have content up and have ourselves established on that platform,” she said.

Content marketing, video remain top strategies

In the past, senior living operators have marketed their services through informational posts, also called content marketing, and videos. In 2025, many companies are doubling down on that strategy.

Watermark in 2025 is experimenting with both organic and paid posts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Youtube, with plans to showcase communities in videos.

“In 2025, content marketing is going to become an increasingly important piece of how we market our communities,” Hollar said.

FellowshipLife is currently posting short-form video “reels” on Instagram, according to Director of Digital Marketing Molly Fandel. The operator uses the videos to help tell resident stories and highlight strengths, and Fandel said they perform better than written content with photos.

Priority Life Care also posts videos on TikTok. In fact, one post showcasing the company’s Lake Meadows community in Fishers, Indiana, garnered more than 1.4 million views and over 1,200 comments on the platform. Record said viewers are attracted to videos that showcase residents living well and having fun.

“We’re seeing video content be … more effective than before, so we’re continuing to get into video and animated content,” Record said.

Record added the organization also utilizes TikTok for advertising purposes too, particularly in terms of recruiting, along with showcasing the company’s expertise in senior living.

“We try to have our marketing have more expert-related posts, [with] different blogs that they have on their [community] websites, making sure that people understand that we’re the experts in what we do, and we’re here to guide people through their journey of senior living,” she said.

Additionally, the company takes a grassroots approach by allowing individual communities run their own social media, focusing on “telling stories for friends and family members,” according to Record. Community marketers are also utilizing educational content from blogs and marketing toolkits in order to build a reputation of being a resource.

However, despite the overall strength and growing emphasis on video content, operators are seemingly going to be unaffected by the upcoming TikTok ban, with Watermark and FellowshipLife noting they are unlikely to shift their current strategies due to not being active on the platform. Instead, the focus is likely going to be on building out content for YouTube or having video content available on company websites.

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