As the nation’s largest membership organization for people 50+, AARP is leading a revolution in the way people view and live life after 50.
For more than 50 years, AARP has been serving its members and creating positive social change. AARP’s mission is to enhance the quality of life for all as we age, leading positive social change and delivering value to members through information, advocacy and service.
2011 was going to be an interesting year for AARP and was not secret it needed to jump on the bandwagon of the social media craze.
With virtually no other marketing changes, social media boosted their brand impacted during the Health Care Reform debates creating a social media strategy that added 27,000 bodies and counting in Facebook.
Do you hear that rumble in the distance? That is the Baby Boomers – they are getting ready to retire. On January 1st, 2011 the very first Baby Boomers turned 65. Millions upon millions of them are rushing towards retirement age and they have been promised that the rest of us are going to take care of them.
Organization: AARP
- Websites: http://www.aarp.org and http://products.aarp.org/
- Facebook: 27,149 fans
- Twitter: 12,077 followers
Highlights:
- 24,000 + hits from Facebook to AARP website daily during first 6 months post launch
- 12,900 coupons redeemed from Facebook giveaways
- 27,000 new social media users in 4Q 2010
- 1.8 million impressions via social media
With strong branding and PR efforts, AARP revamp its image using a landing page in Facebook. Its theme was “Savings Challenge”, which encourage fans to ask for discounts to their insurance plans and take advantage of the multiple partnerships customized to offer deals to reward their community’s participation.
Takeaways:
Know who you are – Have a strong brand message FIRST and then reinforce it through social media. AARP spent years refining its brand and then communicated those messages consistently and clearly in social media.
Measure – Establish specific objectives and a pathway to get there. Then measure every element necessary to know if you’ve accomplished your goals. AARP’s goal: to have an open forum to keep their community happy.
Stay regular – Post interesting content – often. That keeps fans and followers aware and engaged. This is achieve with perpetual Consumer Insights Analytics and Measurement.
Give things away – AARP gives away thousands of coupons and discounts through a variety of social media campaigns in conjunction with their branding and PR efforts. The campaigns help earn new loyal fans who tell their friends and return.
How do you reinforce your brand through social media channels?
Business Owner: Brian Taffur, M.D., St. Petersburg, Florida.
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