Outsourcing:
- oDesk.com
- 99Designs.com
- elance.com
Outsourcing:
If you are a funeral home and do not have a Twitter presence, you could be missing out on the best, free, broadcast media ever. That might sound like a bunch of hype but for the little effort and no expense to use it, don’t over look it.
The three main reasons why I love Twitter is that it is: Direct, Instant and Uncensored. Direct in that you can connect with people directly. Instant in that information is shared in real time – no time delays. Uncensored in that messages aren’t filtered or edited, just raw information from the horse’s mouth.
Note: Although I recommend that every funeral home should have a Twitter presence, it is not a “game changer” or “drop everything and jump on the bandwagon” strategy. Having a good, easy to edit, website is paramount, followed by a LinkedIn profile next, and then a Facebook profile (personal) followed by a Facebook page – then comes Twitter.
How can Twitter be important if it only has 10% of the population using it? Because unlike other social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, traditional media like television are always promoting Twitter by saying “Join the conversation or Twitter” or “use the hashtag #HeppIsCool” to share your thoughts. Since Twitter is “open” and doesn’t require mutual consent to connect, everyone on Twitter is just one handshake away from each other. Because of this openness, conversations can be subject-based or location-based and not just based on connections.
EdisonResearch.com recently shared survey results in their article “Why Twitter is Bigger Than You Think” where they state, “89% of Americans 12+ are familiar with Twitter, while 10% use the service.” They also note that 44% hear about Twitter almost every day.
So how does this apply to a Funeral Home?
You can connect directly with local media, politicians, local movers and shakers, other business owners – and most important, the general public. You can get their attention and they can get yours – all with just 140 characters.
So how can Funeral Homes use Twitter?
I suggest having two accounts to start but it is best to have three. One for your Obits Stream, one for your Company Brand and then the third optional one for just personal use.
With the Obit Twitter account there are some real advantages for exposure; especially for some of you who are near the Canadian/US border where there are tough winters and a lot of the people may snowbird and spend their winters down in Florida, California or Arizona. They may come to your website off and on to see who died over the winter and now the hip people can say, “I can follow the funeral home obituaries on Twitter? Awesome!”
You may think that you would rather have them visiting your website but really you want to communicate with them the way they want to be communicated with. Don’t force them to do anything, instead make it easier for them because you are going to be driving people back to your website in that way.
Step by Step instructions
- First of all you want to claim you handle or your @. You want to make sure that you reserve your funeral home. You may also want to claim your towns name and obits.
- Go to Twitter.com and sign up for your 2 accounts
- You have to use 2 different email addresses
- Once you sign up you are going to Claim your Twitter handle: @YourFuneralHome & @[YourTown]Obits
- Remember that it must be no more than 15 characters
- Customize your settings
- Seek & follow local community members with the “Find People” feature in Twitter itself.
All the media people will be there like reporters. You now have a direct link with them so you want to follow those people and then they might be following you back again. Do the same with other business and other people in your network. It shows that you are up with the times.
More people will probably follow the funeral home account than the obituary account but it is just another way to convey that information out to your community.
There is also website called Twellow.com. You can go there and sign up for a free account. Login using your Twitter account and you can find people in your hobbies and your geographical area. It is just a little easier to use than Twitter.
With your personal account too, you can follow all of your favorite people too and just be a user of Twitter and getting the three benefits that I mentioned in the beginning.
Now I am not trying to create more work for you with Twitter because it can easily be integrated into most websites so that as soon as you upload a new obit, blog post or article, it will automatically tweet the link to your Twitter account. It can also be set up so that when post something on your Funeral Home Facebook page, it will be automatically tweeted to your Twitter account.
Also, to make your Twitter experience even easier, you can manage these accounts with services like HootSuite. This tools save you time by allowing you to send messages to any of your social media profiles across the web, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and many more. It also automatically shorten URLs for easier posting to Twitter because for Twitter you are allowed only 140 characters.
Overall, with its vast reach beyond its 10% saturation, with its ability to put you in direct connection with the movers and shakers of your community and the ability to automate it in many ways, Twitter should definitely be one of the arrows in your online marketing quiver.
Now that you are going to sign up for your free Twitter account, you can start by following yours truly at: http://twitter.com/funeralfuturist (or @funeralfuturist). See you on Twitter!
On January 1, 2010, I posted my Funeral Futurist Predictions for 2010. In that article I introduced to you a new kind of competitor for funeral homes, that I dubbed: Online Call Poachers (see the original excerpt at the bottom of the article). In a nutshell, “Online Call Poachers” are websites that put themselves in between someone looking for a funeral home and the funeral home themselves.
Since the time of my first warning, more potential call poachers have come onto the scene. And what boggles my mind is that some of them become darlings of the industry. They get press and endorsements from associations, consultants and online media.
Let me explain their business model…
They create a website that offers helpful information to the general public about death, grief, funerals and funeral homes. The information could be in the form of FAQs, Videos, Price Quotes, Funeral Home Ratings or being a Funeral Home directory. Now, not all of these information / directory sites are bad – it’s the next step that’s important to note…
How do they make their money?
If they are just selling advertising – that’s ok. It could be Banner Ads or Google Adsense and if the site is good, it will make enough money to stick around, and if it sucks it won’t be around (in the eyes of Google) very long. Google doesn’t like directory sites anymore. Over the last couple of years, Google has devalued online directories as they – Google – want to the be the directory and want your funeral home to be one of their directory listings – that is why they gave you Google Places.
However, if the site becomes a CPA (cost per action) site – then the Rangers and Game Wardens should be alerted. You see, CPA is where the big money is – not in selling banner ads. How this works is that the website gets paid when an action is taken, such as filling out a form requesting funeral costs. This is a “textbook strategy” taught by online marketing gurus.
Who pays them? You do or your competitor, or both depending on the model. They will either sell the lead to the highest bidder or have you and your competitors pay to have your prices listed with them.
Then it is up to consumer to choose and if that is the case they will probably choose a funeral home based on price since you are two handshakes away from being able to explain the value of the services you offer.
The bigger problem that I foresee is their exit strategy… because I doubt they are in it for the long haul.
What they have done is studied the demographics and worked the numbers – the backroom conversation goes something like this… Since there are X number of people are going to die in the next 10 to 20 years and if we just get X% of the market we’ll make a ton of dough! NOTE: Venture capitalists don’t invest in startups unless there is the “ton of dough” potential!
So this is what really worries me…
In the short term, these call poachers will drive up the costs of your online advertising whether it is banner ads or pay per click.
And in the long term, since it is more than likely that the “ton of dough” won’t happen (because both you and I know how hard it is to win that call); they are going to pack it in and they will have an online property that they will try to unload at a discounted price but there are only a few potential buyers – maybe funeral corporations or larger suppliers – and the smaller funeral homes helped fund it.
So my critics will now say that this article is self serving, that I would rather have you do business with me instead of them – well, duh! But here’s my angle…
I would rather help you create your own online property where the only handshake is between you and your potential client family – no middleman.
The other difference is that you and me – we’re different – we’re not like them – we’re lifers – we’re in it for the long haul! And if something ever happened to me, you still own that online property that we created.
So my advice to you is just BEWARE – ask yourself how are they making their money now and in the future. The only thing that you have control over is what hangs on your own domain name – make sure that you are in control!
If you are interested in “cutting out the middleman” and building your own online market domination program, send me an email and I will let you know what to do next!
Also, I would love to hear your comments about my Call Poachers article – positive or negative, just leave your comment below…
…Hepp
Original Comments about Online Call Poachers: January 1, 2010
Online Call Poachers. You probably haven’t heard of this term, but I couldn’t come up with a better way to name this “new player” into funeral service. These are information and resource websites about funeral service. They provide helpful information to consumers, answering questions, and maybe even providing a directory of funeral homes. These were once thought of as helpful directory sites but as they continue to add more information to their websites, they will become “funeral information juggernauts” that will rank at the top of Google and the other search engines for funeral related terms – even local terms.
Some of these sites may charge for featured listings in their directories, but what will be inevitable is that they will start receiving first calls (as people hit the Internet for information upon learning of the death of their loved one). At that point, they hold in their hand a Call that could get passed on to whoever they want to give it to – in some cases the highest bidder. They will become the online equivalent of the minister or hospice worker who can steer a family to one funeral home over another.
I am not saying that all directories and resource websites will do this but some will. This form of Lead Capture – or what I call in our industry “Call Poachers” – is actually an Internet Marketing Strategy that I have seen be taught and used in other industries where these marketers become conduit for leads and then direct them to the highest bidder. For some funeral homes, they be happy paying the “finders fee” to these companies, while others may want to control the “virtual real estate” in their market by being the go-to source for funeral information in their area.
When I was young and visiting my Grandparents at the family funeral home – EganFuneralHome.com in Bolton, Ontario – I would spend a lot of time with him walking into town, going to the post office and running other errands. I was always amazed about how many people knew him and that he knew them. His success – just like other past generation Funeral Directors – could be attributed to being a helpful member of community, whether professionally or in other activities. They knew, they liked him, and when they needed his services, they could trust him.
Since life is different nowadays and there are a lot less people in the “social hubs” than there was 50 years ago, it doesn’t mean that you have to go to the same places that Gramps hung out – he was where the people were. You should apply the same philosophy – Go To Where The People in Your Community Are!
Now, I’m not saying quit all of the groups that you are currently involved with – but you should take some quick inventory on your time invested vs. the exposure and reach that you get.
If you think that I am just pushing this Facebook stuff on you because I am a bit of a techie – you’re wrong. I’m trying to tell you that it is probably one of the biggest networks in your town and you need to be there!
Do you know how many people in your market are on Facebook? Would you be surprised that I could tell you exactly how many to the individual, gender, age? It’s easy to find out – and also you can advertise so directly it would blow you away!
But before we get into my Funeral – Facebook Formula, you have to make sure that you have the basic foundation of Facebook Profiles and Pages. So we are going to build off of the 7 Mistakes Funeral Directors make with Facebook article, I want to outline what the Best Practices are for Funeral Directors for using Facebook.
The purpose of this “Best Practices” is to cut through all of the noise and give you the straight goods and short-cut the learning process for you as I teach you to nurture your online relationships to build your community, increase your credibility and visibility because people want to do business with people that they Know, Like, and Trust – Facebook can help you achieve that!
I don’t want Facebook to be a new time-waster although I must warn you: if you are new to Facebook, it is easy to get sucked in, connecting with old friends, checking photos, playing games, taking quizzes, etc. Anyway, after the initial rush wears off, it will be back to business – relationship building business that is!
This Best Practices is really going to get you up and running, but when you want to kick it into hi-gear, you should check out my Funeral – Facebook Formula seminar <– Click for more information
Before we get into the Nuts & Bolts, we need to know the difference between Profiles and Pages.
Facebook Profile Pros
Facebook Profile Cons
Facebook Fan Page Pros
Facebook Fan Page Cons
Ok, now that we know some of the differences, let’s build both a Profile and a Page – leveraging the Pros to our advantage.
Profile Set Up – Phase 1 (1 hour):
Profile Set Up – Phase 2 (1 to 2 hours + ongoing):
Notes: When entering a website address (URL) make sure that you use the “http://” before the www… as that will make the link clickable.
Fan Page Set Up – Phase 1
Please remember, Facebook Pages and How Funeral Homes Can Use Facebook are a Work in Progress, these are some general best practices (for now). Here are some examples of Facebook Pages that you can use as a guide to creating your Page:
There are others that I would have like to list but they haven’t used the “Memorable Page” application.
If you are interested in learning how to USE Facebook for your funeral business, I know you will get a lot out of my Funeral Home – Facebook Formula seminar that is going to be held Thursday, May 28. Replays will be available if you can’t make it. This seminar is going to be the first of my monthly training course called: FuneralFuturistU – Internet Marketing for Funeral Professionals. For more information and registration details visit: www.FuneralFacebookFormula.com.
It seems like Funeral Directors are going “Facebook Crazy” – every day I am receiving friend requests from Funeral Directors and seeing Funeral Homes creating profiles, pages, and groups.
The problem is that I see a ton of mistakes being made – most inadvertently because there is not a lot of direction and guidance available on HOW to use Facebook properly for the Funeral Industry.
There is no Best Practices for Funeral Homes and Facebook (not yet anyway) but I have been really digging deep into what IS the best way for funeral directors to harness the power of Facebook from a Relationship & Loyalty Building (Marketing) strategy without crossing the line of doing business in a social community.
You have heard me say it before – and this won’t be the last time – the funeral industry is a “relationship business” where people serve people and buildings, cars, and merchandise are secondary. When my Great-Grandfather started the undertaking business, and my Grandfather took it over – they built it on building relationships within their community. They did this by being involved in various networks of the day – Church, Lodge, Rotary, Town Council, etc. Fast forward 75 years and networks within communities are still very important – they may be the same networks as they used to be or may be different ones.
Even though Facebook is a virtual community, it is growing faster than any other network of people in your community. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers (Source CheckFacebook.com as of May 18, 2009 – pretty current eh!):
Global Audience: 192,406,840
United States Age Distribution:
The 55 and over crowd have over 3 million members in the US. For perspective if this group of 55+ Facebook users were a city – it would be the 3rd largest between LA and Chicago.
One last thing before I get into the 7 Mistakes Funeral Directors make with Facebook is that there are more females on Facebook than men:
We know women make more buying decisions than men and we have also been told that women regard relationships as very important (hopefully us guys have figured that out by now).
I hope that this gets you going on the right track with your Facebook experience. I have received a lot of feedback from my Newsletter subscribers about their thoughts regarding Facebook which I will go into a little deeper later this week – stay tuned!
…Hepp
PS: What are your thoughts on Facebook and the Funeral Industry? Have you had any successes (or secure any calls) as a result of Facebook? Please share your thoughts below…