Social media provides a great opportunity for your funeral home to engage with families. It can help you get new client families and build your relationship with old ones.

A study conducted by Penn State University found that Baby Boomers are the fastest growing demographic on social media. According to the marketing agency Castleford, researchers have found that “older people were turning to Facebook in increasing numbers as they look to reconnect with old friends and maintain existing relationships.”

And while being active on social media is a great way to engage and meet new client families, it’s also good for your funeral home website. Actively sharing and posting interesting content on Facebook helps drive traffic to your website and boosts your search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.

But social media for a small business — especially one in the funeral profession — can be tricky to manage. There is an unspoken etiquette and certain rules that, when followed, will help you to avoid any potential social media mistakes.

Let’s look at a few:

Mistake #1: Remaining a Mystery

People like to visit a business’s Facebook Page for the same reason they visit your website. They want to learn more about you. The less information they find, the less likely they will stick around and follow your funeral home on social media.

This makes it important to include all the specifics — your business info, your hours, location, a link back to your website, and any other contact info. Don’t forget to include a nice profile and cover photo that sum up your funeral home’s brand nicely, because those photos will be the first thing someone sees when visiting your profile.

Here are three quick tips for managing your profile and cover photos:

1. Keep it simple. Don’t try to say too much with your photo or express too many ideas. A nice picture of your funeral home, your logo, or even a branded message all work well.
2. Focus on quality. You’ll also want a clean and crisp image, not something blurry or cut off. Make sure to have your photos follow Facebook’s photo dimensions for both cover and profile photos.
3. Include a call to action. When it doubt, a simple photo that draws attention to something always works best, and this includes things like “Like Us!” or “Visit our website!” You also can use your cover photo to draw attention to new services or features that you’ve recently implemented at your funeral home, such as a crowdfunding capability.

Mistake #2: Not Being Social

The main reason a family follows a funeral home is because of the content the funeral home shares. This includes things like helpful advice on grieving, updates on staff or community news, and educational articles about different types of funerals services.

If you aren’t updating your social media accounts regularly — or only posting obituaries — families won’t follow your social media accounts. You want to engage your families, excite them, share stories with them, and follow up with them when they comment on your posts or message you.

Mistake #3: Not Moderating

Another common mistake among small business owners on social media is that they don’t moderate their account. Not regularly checking the account can leave your Facebook Page vulnerable to spam, vulgarity, or other negative comments and messages.

Not only does this look unprofessional, but it can easily lose you followers and anger families. For Facebook, you can easily set it up to have email notifications sent to you for each comment — making moderating your Facebook account an instant and easy process.

Mistake #4: Using a Funeral Home Page as a Personal Page

This is a big one. A Facebook Page is strictly about representing your business. You want to make sure you and your staff represent your funeral home in an open and inviting way. Avoid anything that is controversial and have your staff keep their personal opinions on their own private Facebook accounts.

You don’t want to risk losing followers and putting off potential families. Outbound Engine, a digital marketing agency, sums this tip up nicely, stating “You are absolutely entitled [to] discuss your views in a social context, but posting them to your Business Page can alienate potential clients who are looking for your professional expertise. Your words could be misinterpreted by individuals who haven’t even worked with you yet…”

More Facebook Tips

• Make sure when you post an article or other content, include a link back to your funeral home’s website. This ensures traffic goes to your site, boosts your SEO, and improves your overall visibility with families in the community.
• Switch up your content! To keep families and followers interested, you’ll want to inject some variety to your social sharing calendar. Switch between blog articles, videos, inspirational messages and stories, photos, polls, and educational content.
• Family testimonials also make great content. If you recently got a kind message, comment, or a review, share it with the rest of your followers!

What are some of the mistakes you’ve seen made on social media? Do you have any other tips you’d like to mention? Share with us in the comments below!