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Hi, I’m Sam Giedris, the social media and video specialist here at Frazer, and today I want to talk to you about Instagram. Instagram may seem like something that doesn’t apply to your funeral home, because unlike Facebook, it’s an entirely visual medium. But, with 1 billion people on Instagram, and over 80% of users following at least one business, it might be better for your funeral home than you thought.

As you know, Instagram is a very visual platform, so you want to make sure you’re posting interesting images. These can be photos of your staff, funeral home, events, grief therapy dogs, or even stock photos. And if you want to use Instagram as another way to share obituaries, consider using a template to share service information, rather than relying on obituary photos.

When sharing on Instagram, hashtags can help your posts be seen by more people. So, like on Twitter, you want to make sure you add hashtags to all of your posts. For example, you could include hashtags like #Grief, #Memorialization, and #Mementos for a post about your funeral home’s memorial products.

But unlike Facebook and Twitter, Instagram doesn’t allow clickable links in the body of your post. So, if you want people to follow a link, put that link in your Instagram bio, and tell people to “click the link in bio.”

With Instagram Stories, you can post content that disappears after 24 hours. Stories can be a fun way to ask your followers questions or answer their questions! Instagram has question stickers, polls, and so many other great ways to engage with your community! And if you want to create some fancier content for Instagram, apps like Canva are free and give you the opportunity to create unique designs that fit the Instagram dimensions.

And if you create any Instagram Stories that you want to save for more than 24 hours, you can add them to your highlights! Highlights appear on your Instagram profile above your photo grid, so they’re easy to access. Some highlights that could help personalize your funeral home’s Instagram are Frequently Asked Questions, Q&A’s, or a Meet the Team section.

If you want to learn more about the basics of Instagram, download our eBook.