When a family starts looking for a care home, they search. They look at your Google listing, scroll your Facebook page, and check whether anything has happened there since last spring. What they find shapes whether they pick up the phone.
Good social media for a care home isn’t about going viral. It’s about showing, week after week, that your home is a warm, busy, well-run place where people are known by name. This guide covers what to post, where, how often, and how to keep everything safe and respectful.
Why it matters
- Families are looking. Choosing a home is a big, emotional decision. Recent posts show daily life in a way a brochure can’t.
- Relatives stay connected. Families who live far away love seeing the garden party or the birthday cake. It starts conversations at the next visit.
- Recruitment. Carers choose employers too. A page that celebrates staff helps you hire.
- Your community. Local schools, churches and businesses are more likely to get involved when they can see what you do.
Which networks to use
| Network | Who it reaches | Worth it? |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Anyone searching for care homes near them | Yes. Often the first thing families see. Post updates and events here too. |
| Relatives, local community, former staff | Yes. The main place families follow a home. | |
| Younger relatives, local people, job seekers | If you have good photos and short videos. | |
| Nurses, managers, professionals, commissioners | For recruitment and news about the group. | |
| TikTok, YouTube | Wider audiences, especially for recruitment | Optional. Only if someone enjoys making video. |
Start with two, do them well, and add more later. It is far better to post regularly to Facebook and Google than occasionally to six networks.
What to post
The best posts are small, real moments. Aim for a mix:
- Daily life: activities, music, baking, gardening, outings, the visiting dog.
- Celebrations: birthdays (with permission), anniversaries, seasonal events, awareness days.
- Your team: staff of the month, long service, training achieved, a day in the life of the chef.
- Your community: school visits, local groups, fundraising, thank-yous to suppliers and volunteers.
- Useful information: open days, visiting arrangements, how to arrange a look round, job vacancies.
- Your inspection rating: share a good report, and link to it.
Need more? We’ve put together 52 post ideas for care homes, one for every week of the year.
How often to post
Two or three times a week is a good, sustainable rhythm for one home. What matters most is consistency: a page that posts every week for a year builds far more trust than a burst of ten posts followed by silence.
Plan ahead where you can. A simple monthly calendar, with the known events and awareness days filled in, means nobody is scrabbling for something to say on a Friday afternoon.
Dignity, privacy and consent
Residents’ dignity comes first, always. Before any photo or story goes out, ask: would this person be happy to see it? Would their family?
- Get clear consent for photos, and record it. Review it regularly, and respect it if someone changes their mind.
- If a resident can’t decide for themselves, follow the Mental Capacity Act. If in doubt, don’t post a recognisable photo.
- Avoid anything that shows care being given, medication, personal moments or anyone in distress.
- Never share health details, room numbers or full names without consent.
Our photos and consent guide covers this properly, with a free consent form you can print.
Who posts, and who approves
The people with the best moments to share are usually the activity team and care staff, not the manager. The manager is the person who should check them. A simple routine works well:
- Draft: a member of staff writes the post and adds photos.
- Check: the manager (or someone they name) reads it and checks the photos against consent.
- Approve or send back: approved posts go out; anything that needs changing goes back with a note.
Doing this by text message and screenshots gets messy fast. Tools like Ribbon build the approval step in, so staff can draft from their phone and nothing goes out until a manager says yes.
Comments, messages and reviews
- Thank people for kind words. It costs nothing and others see it.
- Answer questions within a day or two, even if it’s just “we’ll call you tomorrow”.
- Take complaints or anything personal to a private conversation. Never discuss a resident’s care in public.
- Reply to Google reviews, good and bad. Calm, polite replies reassure future families.