Archive for the ‘Assisted Living Marketing’ Category

Assisted Living Execs Resistant to Federal Oversight

Friday, April 8th, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

Of the many thoughts and ideas that came out of this year’s ALFA Conference & Expo, assisted living executives expressed concern over the possibility of increased federal oversight of the assisted living industry and encouraged fellow leaders to increase their involvement with state associations, according to an article on McKnight’s Long Term Care News. Increased involvement at the state level can give legislators a deeper understanding of assisted senior living and a context within which to strengthen state legislation, says Brenda Bacon, president and CEO of Brandywine Senior Living. iPads to be a part of assisted living care

Beacon served alongside other industry leaders at the Senior Living panel at the 2011 ALFA Conference & Expo. She notes that the industry to date has fallen behind the curve when it comes to regulations and says a better strategy is to proactively reach out to legislators to demonstrate the differences between assisted living and other, more institutional models of care, such as skilled nursing facilities.

Another key component discussed by the panel is the implementation of technology into their assisted living communities. Marilyn Duker, of Brightview Senior Living, says her company’s focus is on technologies that improve the quality of care over those that save money. One example is the possible introduction of iPads to direct care managers to update care plans, a concept that could save time, money and improve the quality of care by providing more accurate, timely updates to critical patient records.

As an overall view on the state of the industry, panelists see potential rate growth on the horizon and say occupancy rates have risen slightly.

Image Copyright el clinto on Flickr Creative Commons

Tags: ALFA 2011, assisted living industry
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Senior Living News | No Comments »

Jeff Jarvis Presents “What Would Google Do?” to Assisted Living Executives

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

This morning at the 2011 ALFA Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida, Jeff Jarvis, author of “What Would Google Do?” spoke to attendees about innovation and transparency in business. Jarvis is a thought leader in the new media field and runs the blog BuzzMachine. Jeff Jarvis speaks to assisted living executives

Attendees were abuzz on Twitter about Jarvis presenting at this year’s ALFA Conference & Expo, and reviews raved about Jarvis’ ability to gear his presentation to a very specific audience. One of the most thought-provoking concepts Jarvis presented at today’s conference is “Do what you do best; link to the rest,” which is an important lesson for assisted living facilities minding their media presence and a common mistake made by many businesses attempting to build a web presence. It’s not possible to be everything to everyone, and it’s critical to understand the needs of your target audience inside and out and cater to them.

Jarvis covers this concept in a 2007 blog post on BuzzMachine.com in relation to the news media. Since we’re not going to pretend we can say it better, we’re going to link to him.

Jarvis focused this morning’s presentation on tailoring the concepts presented in his book to the senior living business, asking assisted living executives to consider what search giant Google would do if it were in charge of their organization. Jarvis stresses the importance of how the internet has dramatically changed the way businesses relate to and interact with their customers and the necessity of embracing new mediums to stay ahead of the pack and reach potential customers most efficiently.

Jarvis offered valuable recommendations and insights for assisted living communities wanting to maximize their internet presence. Gone are the days of setting up a website and being done with it. An effective internet presence today requires time, commitment and an effort to engage the community. He also described his theory that your worst customer is your best friend and your best customer your partner–in no industry is this more relevant than senior living.

What valuable lessons did you learn from Jeff Jarvis during this morning’s session? We’d love to hear your favorite take-aways!

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Tags: ALFA 2011, Jeff Jarvis, What Would Google Do?
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Online Media, Senior Living News | 1 Comment »

+1: Giving Assisted Living Marketing a Boost

Monday, April 4th, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

The world of search engine optimization is ever-changing, thanks in part to Google’s continuous leaps and bounds that alter the way we search and share information on the web. The latest development is called “+1″ and is most easily compared to Facebook’s “share” feature, according to a recent post on the topic from SEOmoz. When you search in Google in the U.S., you’ll soon see a “+1″ icon next to each listing, which searchers can click on to indicate that they like a particular site. The total number of +1s will be indicated next to each listing, and any user’s +1s will be archived in their personal Google profile.

Google's +1 may impact the way we search

You’ll also see what +1s others in your network have added. For instance, if you search for San Diego assisted living, you’ll see that others in your area or people that you’re connected to have +1-ed certain listings, almost like an instant personal recommendation. With Google now fully embracing the social nature of the web, user-generated preferences are now a major component of search engine optimization. Google first increased the importance of tweets and Facebook shares by incorporating these results in search, and it’s clear that they have an impact on search engine placement. This next step further solidifies Google’s commitment to the social web, and they’ve even made it clear that +1 will have an impact on search results.

How you can use +1 to boost assisted living marketing

The first thing to know is that your senior living facility’s reputation could now have a major impact on search engine positioning. Prior to this change, for example, any assisted living facility knowledgeable in SEO best practices could obtain good search placement by using the right tactics. That will still be possible, but if you offer stellar service and have satisfied residents and families, they’ll be more likely to +1 your listing than if your facility offers mediocre service. All those +1s can add up to a significant boost in your rankings.

Even better, the next step in Google’s +1 plan will enable publishers to embed +1 icons on their web pages so users can +1 any content directly from a website. This is very similar to the Facebook share and Twitter retweet buttons you see just about everywhere. This will be an essential step to encourage visitors to +1 your content, as users are more likely to indicate approval for content while on the page, and most won’t bother to make sure they +1 something after they’ve already hit their browser’s back button.

Now more than ever, real-world marketing and reputation management will tie in directly with SEO and online marketing efforts. We see this as a huge development, as the web becomes a more integral component of an overall marketing and brand management strategy. Senior living providers who until now ignored the importance of the web in obtaining leads and building awareness will soon be embracing the value of the world wide web for real-time customer engagement.

Tags: +1, Google, SEO
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing, Senior Living News | 2 Comments »

Visit Us Poolside at ALFA 2011 Conference & Expo for Free Cocktails

Thursday, March 31st, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

Our leadership team is headed to the great city of Orlando Monday, April 4th through Thursday, April 7th for the ALFA 2011 Conference & Expo. This year’s event is being held at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, Florida, and is sure to be packed with interesting information on the changing assisted living industry in light of recent changes in legislature and health care reform.

Pre-conference activities begin on Monday, April 4th with exhibitor and attendee registration and executive roundtables. The official start of the conference is Tuesday, April 5th, beginning with breakfast followed by the General Session/Greater than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership.

Stop by our booth (#1013) and say hi to Chris Rodde, CEO, Jay Goldstein, COO, and Ron White, Vice President of Sales for SeniorHomes.com. We’re giving away an iPad2 this year, and all you need to do to enter is drop your business card by our booth!

Join us for free poolside cocktails Tuesday evening!

If you’re ready to unwind after a busy first day at the ALFA 2011 Conference & Expo, come visit our team at Cantina Del Sol, Poolside Bar between 5:00 and 6:30pm. Cantina Del Sol is located just outside the convention center, en route to the hotel. You can print an invitation here for details.

Wednesday’s events include What Would Google Do? Coffee with Author Jeff Jarvis and a General Session on The Politics of Aging in America. On Thursday, you won’t want to miss The State of the Industry 2011, Discussion with Visionary Leaders. We know we’re excited to see the great thoughts that come out of this year’s ALFA 2011 Conference & Expo, and we’ll be weighing in with feedback and updates on our blog and Twitter. If you’re not following us yet, be sure to do so now and don’t forget to stop by booth #1013 to chat with Chris, Jay and Ron! We look forward to seeing you all there.

Image Copyright ALFA.

Tags: ALFA 2011, ALFA Conference
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Senior Living News | No Comments »

Google’s New Algorithm: Effects on Assisted Living Marketing

Thursday, March 10th, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

Big news in the search engine optimization world last week: Google has announced a major change to its algorithm, designed to push lower-quality content mills down further in the rankings and improve the overall quality of search results users see when entering search terms. According to Rob Fore’s blog, this is bad news for sites that depend solely on user-submitted content and ad revenue, such as Ezinearticles.com, other article directories, and sites known as “content mills,” which typically pay freelance writers to write short articles on broad topics packed with keywords to gain high search engine rankings, and thus boost ad revenues.

Google’s official blog reports that the algorithm change has noticeably affected 11.8% of search queries. You’ll notice by searching for a few key words that sites that used to regularly appear on page one, such as eHow.com, are now pushed back to page two or three.

Google's algorithm changes search results

So what does this mean for assisted living marketing?

Well, if you’re not focused on your web presence, it means nothing. If you are–and you should be–the change has a number of advantages, provided that you approach your content in the right way. If you have high-quality, original, relevant content, your assisted living website will benefit. Eliminating content obtained through article directories or that is otherwise non-original will reduce the odds of being pushed back in the rankings. Sites with niche content (content that offers in-depth information on a narrow topic) should perform better than those with broad content covering hundreds of topics.

If you use article marketing as part of your web visibility strategy, it will be important over the next few months to measure any performance changes. You’re likely to see less traffic from these sites as they no longer dominate the first few pages of Google search results, but many assisted living marketers use article marketing strictly as a means for generating backlinks. It’s not yet clear whether the value of these backlinks will be affected by the change.

That said, you should focus the majority of your efforts on creating value-added content for your assisted living niche and publishing it on your own website. Don’t rely solely on article directories and content farms for backlinks, and don’t spend tons of time crafting original content for publishing on these types of sites. If you’re going to make the effort to create quality, original content for publishing elsewhere, try placing those articles (as guest articles or blogs) on other industry-related niche websites that will now be more visible in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Tags: Google, guest blogging, niche content
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Online Media, Senior Housing Marketing, Senior Living News | 3 Comments »

Social Media Metrics for Assisted Living Providers

Saturday, February 26th, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

Major players in the assisted living industry are touting the benefits of internet lead generation, including the use of social media marketing. One of the biggest questions assisted living providers face when trying to incorporate social media into the marketing mix is measurement: All this buzz is great, but how do we know if our time investment is paying off? Social Media Examiner recently posted a collection of 22 of the hottest new social media tools for businesses; among them, a few gems worth investigating that can help you manage and track your social media efforts.

Argyle Social: A bit pricier than the others, starting at $149 per month, assisted living marketers just getting into social media might find it a bit much budget-wise. Argyle Social integrates all your social media profiles in one place, so you can authenticate and access all your accounts from one interface. A collective inbox helps you maximize customer engagement by allowing you to respond to comments, retweets and mentions directly from your Argyle profile. Argyle allows you to break down your social media marketing into “campaigns” and print out a report outlining your engagement and data from all related posts. You can also download raw data into an Excel spreadsheet if you want to do more with the numbers. Downside: In addition to the price, LinkedIn isn’t yet a part of their package.

TwentyFeet: You can try TwentyFeet for the first 30 days free, and you can have one Twitter and one Facebook profile free forever. Can’t beat that if you’re looking to try out a social media analytics tool! Other accounts, such as YouTube and Google Analytics, start at 1 credit per year (1 credit = $2.49). We find the “credit”-based pricing a little unnecessarily complex, but other than that, the pricing is attractive; however, the website doesn’t offer much in the way of a solid description of how their analytics work, other than saying you’ll be able to access your metrics in one place. They estimate that their “live” version will be available in August 2010, but, well…it’s February 2011, folks.

PostRank and PostRank Analytics: PostRank Analytics integrates data from over 20 of the most popular social media networks, the most of any service on the list so far. You can track your marketing efforts by learning what posts your customers are engaging most with, allowing you to target your efforts and ramp up interaction and followers. Google Analytics is also in the mix, so you can track both your on-site and off-site conversion rates in one place. Bonus: You can also track your competitors’ engagement! The best part: As an assisted living provider, you’ll be using PostRank as a solo company, so you can track up to five sites and 10 custom pages per site — free!

Postling: The claim to fame for Postling is that it’s designed with small businesses in mind–and, it integrates with WordPress. You can publish to any available social network from the Postling interface, and even schedule posts in advance. An analytics dashboard lets you know how well your posts are doing, and you’ll receive notifications when someone engages with your content (for the paid plans only). You can also respond and engage with your customers directly from the Postling interface. You can get a starter plan for free (one user, one account per social network and one brand), but the other plans are also reasonable: up to $49/month.

If you’re starting out in the social media world, you’ll want to track the effectiveness of your efforts. Check out one of the free or low-priced plans, or try a more advanced plan for a free trial period. Measuring your results is the best way to refine your efforts and make the best use of your resources.

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Tags: Assisted Living Marketing, social media
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing | 3 Comments »

Assisted Living Industry Emerging from the Recession: ALFA 2010 Summary

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

As the 2011 ALFA Conference and Expo approaches (to be held April 5th – April 7th at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, Florida), ALFA takes a look back at last year’s conference with a summary of last year’s education session, Emerging from the Recession. During the session, leaders from two of the largest assisted living providers in the U.S. (and SeniorHomes.com customers!), Chris Hyatt, Executive Vice President and COO of Emeritus Senior Living, and Jeff Patton, Vice President, Procurement of Brookdale Senior Living, discuss financial strategies they learned as their companies emerged from the 2008-2009 recession. Assisted living revenue strategies for recession

Hyatt and Patton share some of the strategic tactics they utilized during the economic downturn that enabled their assisted living communities to emerge from the country’s recession stronger and smarter. These takeaways aren’t just useful during times of economic turmoil, as Patton points out, “I don’t think we’ll ever return to business as usual.”

Protecting revenue is a major focus of any corporation during a recession. Emeritus Senior Living accomplished this by differentiating their products and services from the competition and reducing barriers to sales. Offering financing options encouraged residents who otherwise might not have had the capital to make a move possible. The company also created a central database to maintain better control over rents, which were once determined on a community-by-community basis. Hyatt notes, “You have to sell services, not real estate. There’s nothing you can do to sell a 200-square-foot apartment to a married couple leaving a 2,000-square-foot home after 50 years.”

Also interesting to note is that 10% of all leads generated via the internet resulted in a move-in during 2010 for Emeritus Senior Living. Recommendations include increased use of both search-engine marketing (SEM) and search-engine optimization (SEO) to boost both visibility and leads.

Brookdale Senior Living was able to protect revenues by re-allocating the company’s resources. By consolidating staff hours among various communities, and essentially utilizing a combined labor pool, Brookdale was able to preserve jobs and make more efficient use of trained staff.

Read the full summary from ALFA for a complete list of key takeaways from the ALFA 2010 Conference & Expo Education Session.

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Tags: ALFA, assisted living, strategic marketing
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Senior Living News | 3 Comments »

Mature Market Sales Source Offering Benchmarks for Senior Living Sales Chat

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

Mature Market Sales Source is offering an “Open Discussion of Benchmarks & Best Practices for Senior Living Sales & Marketing” this Thursday, February 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. PST. The live chat format of this session allows participants to connect and interact with other top performing senior living leaders and sales executives.

The chat will take place monthly, and participants can attend via phone or internet conference. This is an opportunity for industry leaders to share their knowledge and best practices as well as learn from other senior living professionals. Through the open chat, participants can get their questions answered and seek advice on the biggest challenges they face as a senior living sales or management professional. Whether your question relates to sales and marketing or business practices in general, other attendees are likely to be experiencing the same struggles–or, they may have found an innovative way to overcome a common obstacle that you can learn from.

Don’t have a specific question in mind? You’ll still benefit from the sharing of ideas and resources. Typically, The Open Source monthly chats are limited to members only, but this month Mature Market Sales Source has opened up the lines to all industry leaders with an interest. Space is extremely limited; only 20 open lines are available on each call, but an additional 100 “listen-only” spots are available. Listen-only participants still have the opportunity to ask and answer questions via text chat.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to connect with like-minded senior living sales and marketing leaders! Reserve your seat here.

Tags: Assisted Living Marketing, Mature Market Sales Source, Nursing Home Marketing
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing, Senior Living News | 2 Comments »

Assisted Living Industry Gets Creative in Tough Economy

Monday, February 7th, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

A sluggish real estate market means many seniors are getting a deal on assisted living and other types of senior housing — at least in Detroit, according to an article posted yesterday on Crain’s Detroit Business. Seniors who have made the decision to move into assisted living may have to face selling their family homes for less than what it was once worth due to an abundance of properties on the market. Often, seniors rely on proceeds from the sale of a home to finance long-term care. Seniors may struggle to sell their homes in the current market

One assisted living facility, Fox Run (in Novi), has gotten creative by offering an on-site real estate professional to help potential residents sell their homes. They’re also offering a few hundred dollars off the monthly fee for a period of one to three years, depending on the location of the living unit. This particular facility requires an entrance fee of $99,000, a sum most seniors fund by selling their homes. Monthly maintenance fees average around $6,000 per month, although this fee varies widely depending on the type of care an individual is receiving.

Earl Parker, vice president of senior living for Singh Senior Living, says many seniors are fearful of depleting their retirement funds too soon or being unable to sell their homes, so many are putting off moving into assisted living for another year. Thom Hosinski, COO of Presbyterian Values of Michigan, says health care reform is leading to the availability of more community-based resources which enable seniors to remain in their homes longer.

Seniors who are making a move are demanding more care and flexibility, due in part to an increasing average age: In 2009, the average age of assisted living residents was 86.9 years old, a significant increase from the average age of 80 just ten years ago. Savvy adult children — the Baby Boomers — are also adding pressure for adequate services and amenities. To keep up with demands, many assisted living facilities are offering reduced rates, flexible levels of care, such as both on and off-site services, and increased opportunities for socialization.

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Tags: assisted living finance, long-term care financing
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing, Senior Living News | 2 Comments »

Brookdale Senior Living Offers Social Media Insights

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 by Angela Stringfellow

About a year ago, Brian Geyser of CareNetworks interviewed Eric Marsh of Brookdale Senior Living on the company’s social media usage. At the time, Brookdale was among the first of the larger senior living organizations to embrace social media as a core marketing tool. In a blog post appearing on ALFA Exchange, Geyser revisits Brookdale’s social media strategy to find out how the company’s methodology and reach has changed over the past year.

Brookdale utilizes several channels as part of their overall social media strategy. The company has a Twitter account, a YouTube channel and LinkedIn account, and two Facebook fan pages. The second Facebook page was added in 2010 specifically for the Ultimate Chef program, a nationwide contest in which more than 430 chefs from Brookdale Senior Living communities competed in a first-class cooking challenge to win the coveted “Ultimate Chef America” title.

Brookdale’s company policy dictates that social media is handled through the corporate office; individual senior living communities aren’t permitted to create their own social media profiles or accounts. This is common to larger corporations who wish to maintain control of the message delivered via social media and it becomes impossible (as in Brookdale’s case, which has 560 individual senior living communities) to monitor every individual account.

Marsh says the company’s social media strategy hasn’t changed much over the past year, and Brookdale has been using social media for a total of about two years. He says that the addition of a second Facebook fan page coupled with follower growth means there’s more to manage, although they still spend on average a few hours per week on social media. He also reports that the addition of Facebook recommend buttons has brought the company positive results. (A Facebook recommend button is a tool that allows consumers to share content with their Facebook connections through the click of a button — the reach of a single piece of content is easily multiplied when shared by a few people on Facebook.)

Marsh reports that Brookdale has tracked a number of leads resulting from Facebook fans linking to the company website and requesting information. He says that while this tracking is in its infancy, it’s a positive sign that social media could prove to be a valuable lead generation tool.

Tags: Brookdale Senior Living, CareNetworks, social media
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing | 2 Comments »