A 2024 social media power list ranking the UK’s large care home groups and their individual homes, based on their social media following, has been released
The PR consultancy Bridgehead Communications first launched their now annual survey last year with the publication of three reports ranking the UK’s top 20 small, mid-size and large care home groups respectively by their social media following.
Using carehome.co.uk’s list of the Top 20 Large Care Groups of 2024, the report, titled: ‘Social Media Power List 2024 – Top 20 Large Care Home Groups’, ranks each care home group and their respective care homes according to their social media following on the five most widely used platforms in the sector: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X (Twitter), and TikTok. The report was compiled using follower data recorded in September 2024.
As with last year’s report, the study also investigates the applications of social media in the adult social care sector. It explores the most effective social media platforms to use depending on the care group’s digital marketing objectives. It also highlights the importance of considering multiple factors in social media to boost engagement, and that striking a balance between group and individual home accounts is the most effective way of reaching a target digital audience.
Similarly to last year, Facebook accounted for the largest proportion of followers (63% – 1,022,128) among the care groups and their homes. LinkedIn accounted for 21% (346,430), a three-point increase compared to its proportion of followers among care homes in Bridgehead’s 2023 investigation into the Top 20 Large Care Groups of 2022. X accounted for 8%, TikTok for 7%, and Instagram for just over 1%.
In terms of the combined social media followings of each care group and their individual homes, Barchester Healthcare topped the charts, with 276,678 followers spread across Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn and Instagram. Their Facebook following accounted for more than two-thirds of this total and was the highest of all groups featured in the analysis. On LinkedIn, they recorded 64,911 followers, and on X their following totalled 8,875.
Barchester’s social media following stood around 25,000 followers higher than the second ranked care home group, Care UK. In close third, with approximately 230,000 followers, came Anchor, followed in fourth and fifth places by Avery Healthcare Group (137,871) and Excelcare (77,837).
Comparing the growth in the following of the Large Care Home Groups featured in both this recent report and their 2023 analysis, Bridgehead found that Runwood Homes had undergone the largest expansion in total following. Their overall statistics grew by 50% over 12 months.
Commenting on the report’s findings, Runwood Homes’ head of marketing and recruitment, Paige Murray, said that their success was the result of a “collaborative effort that brought together the marketing team, home managers, carers, and most importantly, the residents themselves.” The strategy, Murray continued, was designed to place “particular emphasis on highlighting the unique daily activities and experiences offered at each and every one” of the group’s homes.
The analysis also compared the social media following of the individual homes belonging to the top twenty groups. The graph below reveals the top ten most followed of these homes.
Marham House Care Home, which is part of the Anchor group, topped charts for the second year in a row, with its total following (64,080) divided between Facebook and, interestingly, TikTok. In second place on 29,200 followers came St Fillan’s Care Home, belonging to Excelcare. The vast majority of this following came from TikTok.
Interestingly, the top five most-followed care homes remained exactly the same as in 2023. For four of the five homes, most of their statistics were fuelled by large TikTok followings. In third to fifth place came Redwalls Nursing Home (Kingsley Healthcare – 15,246), Aire View Care Home (Avery Healthcare – 15,000) and Park View Nursing Home (Kingsley Healthcare – 13,180).
Facebook accounted for approximately 80% of the combined following of all individual care home groups within the analysis.
Lastly, the report ranked each care group by the social media following of their group accounts – excluding those of their individual homes.
On group-specific accounts, LinkedIn proved the most-used platform, constituting 62% of the overall 556,405 tally. Facebook provided 23 per cent, X 11 per cent, and Instagram for three per cent. TikTok’s presence was negligible.
With its significant LinkedIn following, Care UK topped the group-specific account leaderboards with 129,886 followers. In second place came Barchester Healthcare, who recorded 85,753 followers, again including a significant LinkedIn following. Hallmark Care Homes came in third, with 49,386 followers, divided largely across Facebook, X and LinkedIn, though with a small Instagram following also.
Commenting on the analysis, William Walter, the report’s author and managing director of Bridgehead Communications, said:
“These investigations offer fascinating insight into how care groups are leveraging social media to grow their industry and public presence, with knock-on effects on occupancy rates, reputation, and staff recruitment and retention.
“Given the scale of social media presence that the largest care groups boast – particularly among the top five in this study, the findings also offer an interesting demonstration of how social media use in social care is changing over time. The growing prominence of LinkedIn, for example, is an intriguing development, as is the prominence of TikTok, which failed to demonstrate any influence among the small or mid-sized care home groups featured in our previous analyses.
Key findings from the report:
· Facebook followers accounted for 63% of the total follower count of the Top 20 Large Care Home Groups.
· LinkedIn accounted for 21% – an increase of three percentage points compared with last year’s analysis.
· The groups and their respective homes had a total of 1,628,806 followers.
· Barchester Healthcare topped the combined group and home rankings with 276,678 followers and recorded the highest Facebook following of all groups at 201,925.
· Care UK had the largest LinkedIn following (101,272).
· Anchor topped charts on X (69,383), on Instagram (5,576) and on TikTok (40,778).
· Marham House Care Home, belonging to Anchor, topped individual care home rankings with 64,080 followers, largely split between TikTok and Facebook
