Having an excellent social media presence is only going to continue to be important for your funeral home this year. Your funeral home’s social media accounts should engage your users to interact with your content. One way your funeral home can do this is to take advantage of the features social media has to offer.

In fact, our Social Media and Video Specialist Sam Giedris predicts that more funeral homes will try out new social media features this year, like live videos and 24-hour stories. While features like Facebook Live aren’t relatively new, they’re gaining popularity among businesses. She also predicts that more funeral homes will join Instagram this year.

Let’s go over some features that can make your funeral home’s social media accounts stand out!

Facebook Live

Your funeral home can “go live” on Facebook to show your community what you’re up to in real time. Your followers can tune in live or watch the video at a later time if they’re busy. Just make sure to give your followers a heads up when you’ll be going live. This way, they’re more likely to be free and engage with your video while it’s live.

For example, you can go live at one of your events or while you’re volunteering in your community. You also can use it to introduce your funeral home’s staff, including your therapy pup!

Check out this Facebook Live blog post for steps on how you can go live!

Facebook Stories

Facebook Stories are photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours. They appear at the top of your Facebook newsfeed. You can customize them with text, special effects, stickers, your location, and more.

To add a story to your business page, you must be the page admin or editor. You can tap your page’s profile picture to add a story. It can be a new photo or video or a photo or video you’ve already taken. Once you’re done customizing it, tap Next and then Your Story to add it to your story.

Facebook Local

Facebook Local is an app for seeing upcoming events in your area. Your funeral home can put your upcoming events on the app to reach more of your community members. Plus, it’s a great tool for finding upcoming events to potentially volunteer at with your staff. It’s still a pretty new feature, but your funeral home should keep an eye on it and see how popular it is in your area.

Instagram Live

You also can go live on Instagram and interact with users during the live video, or they can watch the video at a later time. Like with Facebook Live, you should let your Instagram followers know what time you plan on going live so they know to tune in.

To go live on Instagram, tap the camera icon in the top left corner of your newsfeed, tap Live at the bottom of the screen, and then tap Go Live.

Instagram Stories

Like Facebook stories, Instagram stories last for 24 hours, and you can customize them with filters, stickers, text, tools like polls, and other features. You also can turn them into Highlights that stay on your funeral home’s profile page. Some Instagram story ideas include giving a tour of your funeral home’s updated lobby, answering your followers’ questions about common funeral misconceptions, or showcasing your memorial products.

To add an Instagram story, tap the camera button in the top left corner of your newsfeed, take a new photo or video or upload one you already have, customize it, and tap Your Story when done.

IGTV

Instagram’s IGTV is for posting longer videos that don’t disappear after 24 hours like Stories. You can find IGTV under the TV symbol in the top right corner of your Instagram newsfeed or on the IGTV user’s profile page. For example, you can check out our weekly Funeral Home Happenings IGTV episodes about funeral profession news and trends.

For IGTV videos, you can talk about healthy grieving tips, funeral personalization ideas, funeral preplanning, and more. It gives your funeral home a platform to educate your client families and community about funerals and grief.

Check out these articles for steps on how to create an IGTV channel and upload a video to your funeral home’s social media page!