Is it just me or does it seem like Fridays in July are tough days to get any work done? At least for those of us trying to work. Most everyone I know, including our clients, is out sailing or swimming. Team SCS has been using these days to work on tweaking our own site and on catching up with industry reading. Ok…Ok… I confess. We are doing it from patio tables and beach chairs. But work is work! We call them Summer Fridays. Ours have been spent reading senior care industry articles, as well as reviewing SEO and content marketing publications and webinars. Content marketing is ever evolving. We try hard to stay ahead of the curve. Even it if is done from underneath a Mackinac yellow beach umbrella. And we’ve been testing out tools and platforms to keep our content marketing innovative and fresh. 
It seemed like today – the last Summer Friday in July – would be a good day to share a few of our favorite things with our friends in home care and assisted living marketing. Hope you find them useful!
- Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help Not Hype by Jay Baer. You are going to love this book! Helpful hint – Make sure you have a fistful of highlighters handy to roll as you read. In fact, my suggestion would be to highlight the stuff you WON’T use from this book. That would be easier!
- 21 Best Quotes from Youtility – check out this slideshare.
- You’re Dead… If You Don’t Integrate Social Media & PR Into Your Local SEO Strategy You’re Dead… from the All Things SEO Column at Search Engine Land. This is great information for all of our friends in assisted living trying to market each of your local communities.
- The Senior Care Specialists on Pinterest – We’ve been adding to our boards. Check out our great resources. Don’t be afraid to pin a few to your own boards. (Yep. Shameless plug for us. We hardly ever do that despite sharing all of our best goodies with you each week for free.)
- From our friends at Moz… The Beginners Guide to SEO We’ve referred a lot of our senior living colleagues to this great resource. And we always come back to it, too.
- 5 Tips for Creating Content That’s Educational and Unforgettable – Great article at another of our favorite places… Content Marketing Institute (CMI). Reinforces our belief in the importance of providing content that helps educate. In our industry we need content marketing strategies that reach and educate family decision makers at each stage of the senior care decision journey. It is a complicated and emotional journey. Education provides the information and objectivity families need.
And finally, 3 favorite tools we are having fun learning how to use and playing around with… Two have free versions you can kick around too.
Brainshark – In honor of the summer of the Sharknado, this tool is one we are testing to add voice over to our presentations for posting. Free version seems to work great! Although I now realize I need voice lessons to overcome a lifetime spent straddling accents along the Mason Dixie line…
Blog Talk Radio – We’ve been kicking around ways to interview experts and post them to help expand our resources. I think we’ve found it!!
And from the just plain fun factory… a great way to engage visitors that won’t require you to sell a kidney or child to finance. Dry Erase Whiteboard Animation Videos – also called Doodle Animation…
Another shameless plug since I’m at it today… The subject of Summer Friday creative bursts…northern Michigan. 
It doesn’t get any better than this…
How are you spending your Summer Fridays? 
Shoot us a note if you need help crafting content for your assisted living or home care blog or website. Don’t forget our Christmas in July blog special! Its a great month to tackle the blog you’ve been meaning to start all summer…