Even for funeral homes, social media is an absolute must in this postmodern era. Almost everyone spends a few hours each week scrolling through their social media feeds to see what friends and family members are doing. It is a great way to keep in touch with people, and it can also be an ideal way to market your Funeral Home to a captive audience. You may not think that people are paying attention to your online social media presence, but they definitely pay close attention to the brands that pop up on their news feeds.
Instagram and Twitter are two of the leading platforms for funeral homes, but many people feel stumped regarding how to use them. Taking advantage of these platforms has never been easier. All you have to do is keep a few of these simple tips in mind, and you’ll be well on your way to a professional image:
Keep Things Consistent
Your brand is the complete identity of your business. Make sure that everything you post is consistent with your brand. If you post a picture with your logo, make sure that it is a high-quality version of the same logo you use on your business cards and the front of your building. Take a few moments to ensure that most of your photos have the same look and feel to them. You can accomplish this by using pre-made settings and filters in programs like Adobe Lightroom. Consistent images and branding are significant for a successful social media campaign.
Post Positive Pictures
Any marketing expert will tell you that photos and videos lead to the most engagement on social media. Fortunately, Instagram and Twitter are designed to accommodate both of these types of content. Most funeral homes can benefit from posting pictures, but what should you take pictures of? It can feel macabre to photograph the inside of a funeral home or an outdoor cemetery scene. Instead, you should focus on taking positive photos that are likely to uplift potential viewers.
Need some examples of positive pictures you can post? Try photographing beautiful floral arrangements from a recent funeral service. If you happen upon a unique memorial statue, share it on social media. Post pictures of the grounds that surround your funeral home if you invest in stunning landscaping. The possibilities for taking positive pictures are practically endless, so get creative with your camera and start posting pictures.
Ask Questions
Twitter only allows you to use a limited amount of characters to interact with your audience. It can be hard to pack a powerful statement into that 140 characters or less. You might find that a different approach works best to engage your audience. Try asking them a question that fuels a deeper conversation instead. Remember to engage back with your readers and respond to comments, shares, and more with your own personalized statements.
The goal here is to get your customers to engage with you without necessarily promoting your business or services. Some of the content you share should absolutely be self-promotional, but you also need a balance with other types of posts. Let your questions stimulate conversation about something in your field but they don’t necessarily have to directly relate back to your funeral home.
Share Excellent Content
People will keep coming back for more if they love the content they receive from your company. Funeral homes also have the potential to come up with original content that sets them apart from their competitors. Consider starting a blog, designing a few infographics, or writing a short ebook on grief and loss. The original content that you create should be shared across your social media platforms. Try to think about what your audience wants to see from you, and then get started creating that content. Provide it for free via links to your Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Schedule Posts
Do you prefer to keep to the standard nine-to-five business hours when possible? Unfortunately, peak social media usage times are usually late in the evening. Many funeral home directors are already exhausted after a long day at work. They don’t want to have to sign on to their Twitter account just to make a post at eight o’clock at night.
Save yourself some of the hassle by scheduling your posts in advance using social media tools like Hootsuite for Twitter and Tailwind for Instagram. They allow you to craft your tweets and Instagram posts in advance, and then schedule them to post during the hours when your audience is actually online. This ensures that you show up in their news feeds at just the right time. Keep in mind that you need to engage with your audience and respond to comments and shares in the morning!
Track Your Success
None of these tips for Instagram and Twitter are going to make any difference if you don’t actually take the time to measure your results. Both platforms allow you to see the analytics, but you may want to invest in more detailed software. Pay attention to things like which posts had the most engagement, which ones had almost no engagement, and which times of day your posts were the most active.
By tallying up all of these statistics over a two-week or one-month timeframe, you can get a better feel for what social media strategies do and do not work for your funeral home. This helps you to save time and energy moving forward. Instead of spreading yourself thin, you can focus in on the areas that are doing well for you and abandon the others. You will really be able to boost your following by working smarter instead of harder.
Instagram & Twitter Success
Instagram and Twitter are both popular platforms that many funeral homes are already using to brand their business. These platforms appeal to a younger audience who wants to see more videos and photos than ever before. Find new ways to engage with your audience on these two platforms using some of these top tips we mentioned. Remember that tracking your success is the key to unlocking more engagement!