Summary
To broaden awareness of AARP amongst African-American men and women aged 50+, AARP recently began its Black Community Initiative. Part of that effort was to create the AARP Black Community web page and the Black Community Voices online group. To further enhance the organization’s outreach strategy, we introduced using social media as a tool.
The Approach
- 1. Realizing the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is aged, 65 and older, we created the AARP Black Community Facebook Fan Page with a “Welcome” tab to greet new fan page members. The page was used to attract potential African-American AARP members on Facebook to the Black Community web page and inform them of AARP benefits.
- 2. Content Creation. Allowing target market to see just how active AARP is in the black community is important. Posting links to AARP web content, photos and videos not just on Facebook, but also through Twitter was a key factor to raising awareness. Uploading content to the existing Black Community Voices group also played a valuable role.
- Training. We trained key members of AARP Black Community to not only use computers, but also mobile phones in content creation.
Results
- New Facebook fan page “likes” and Twitter followers increased 100%.
- 50% increase in membership of Black Community Voices on AARP website
- Increased engagement and awareness of the AARP Black Community online
