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

• You can have one-on-one interaction
• You create a feeling of a more personal connection
• You gain “perceived” credibility with more Friends
• Your Friends can message you (pro from their perspective)
• You can be Tagged in photos and videos and appear automatically (sometimes good)

Facebook Profile Cons

• You need to have mutual agreement for friending
• People must be Facebook members and logged in to view
• You can’t message all friends  at once or you could get banned
• You are limited to 5,000 friends
• You could get inundated with messages in your Inbox
• You can be Tagged in photos and videos and appear automatically (sometimes bad)

Facebook Fan Page Pros

• You can have an unlimited number of fans
• You have the ability to message an entire group
• Your page can be accessed by the public (no Facebook login required + it can be indexed by Google (see naming below)
• Your Page appears in homepage stream which is a great way to remind your Friends about updates and new content
• People have opted in to hear updates about your business, unlike your profile

Facebook Fan Page Cons

• It is sometimes hard to get people to become Fans
• The term “Fan” is a little weird, especially when applied to a Funeral Home
• Doesn’t feel like a personal connection
• You don’t have the same personal relationship as you only post as the “Business” not as yourself

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):

1. Select an appropriate photo: one that best connects you to your audience
2. Upload Contacts from Email Accounts / Outlook: (I skip the “Invite Others To Facebook”)
3. Complete the Profile information: make it as complete as possible but keep within your comfort level.
4. Complete Education and Work Profile Information: this makes it easier for your old contacts to find you
5. List all of your websites under contact information
6. Create Memorable Web Address
7. Upload Contacts from Email Accounts / Outlook

Profile Set Up – Phase 2 (1 to 2 hours + ongoing):

1. Search Friends’ Friends List
2. Search Groups and Fan Pages for possible contacts: You don’t even have to join the group – just see who the members are. But join if you think that it would be valuable
3. Search Your Competitor’s Friends: click on the View Friends link and add any friends that you think would be appropriate to friend

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

1. Choose the Category > Local > Event Planning Service OR Professional Service
2. Choosing the Right Name – Place Important Keywords together with your company’s name such as ‘Your Town’ Funeral Homes (unless that is a competitor’s name) | Your Funeral Chapel (see McCall’s example)
3. Upload your logo or an appropriate photo – make sure that it is recognizable and if possible, have some personality
4. Complete the Edit Information
5. Upload Photos and Tag yourself or staff members if appropriate
6. Upload Videos – How To and FAQ videos would be preferred over commercials – again you are trying to build a relationship, not to sell anything (don’t exclude commercials – just limit them)
7. Add Links to helpful information from your website
8. Suggest To Friends – Be selective to who you invite at the beginning until you really have your page “super-charged”

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:

• http://companies.to/mccallbros
• http://companies.to/rmdfuneralhome
• http://companies.to/maquoketaareaobituaries
• http://companies.to/johnsonconsulting
• http://companies.to/funeralfuturist

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.

If you liked this post, you may like...

• Video: Facebook Ads – Tips & Resources
• Part 2 – Social Networks: Relationship Marketing for Funeral Homes
• Recap of Funeral Social Media Week
• 3 X 5 Free Social Media Resources for Funeral Homes & Cemeteries
• Video: Secure Your Vanity URL for Facebook

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

1. United States 60,989,380
2. United Kingdom 17,839,940
3. Canada 11,443,520
4. Turkey 9,531,440
5. France 9,510,400
6. Italy 9,424,120
7. Australia 5,599,000
8. Colombia 4,568,280
9. Chile 4,504,560
10. Spain 4,478,380

United States Age Distribution:

• 18 – 24: 30.6% (18,338,140)
• 25 – 34: 27.6% (16,535,280)
• 35 – 44: 17.7% (10,592,180)
• 14 – 17: 10.2% (6,089,780)
• 45 – 54: 8.4% (5,023,380)
• 55 – 65: 3.6% (2,164,420)
• 65+: 1.4% (861,340)
• 0 – 13: 0.6% (348,340)

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:

• Females: 57.4% (34,657,940)
• Males: 42.6% (25,677,840)

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).

7 Mistakes Funeral Directors Make with Facebook

1. Not On Facebook Yet: Sign Up For Facebook
   • Please see the stats above – if you’re not on Facebook yet, I included those stats for you – don’t worry, it’s not too late, sign up today
   • When you do sign up, please add me as a friend: http://profile.to/robinheppell/
2. Non-Passionate Status Updates: “Monday again, Hump Day, TGIF, Work Sucks” plus others that I can’t repeat
   • I know that it’s not all about work, but as funeral professionals we are always in the public eye – even online; keep the venting to private conversations – you never know if a family member can see your status even when your privacy settings are set
3. Not Showing Families How to Add Obits to Their Profile: Let family members promote your online obits to their Facebook community
   • Whether you have a Facebook profile or not you can harness the power of Facebook to drive traffic to your online obituaries by teaching families how to add their loved one’s obit into their profile so that all of their friends can see it, and then go to your site to leave a condolence
   • When I look at my clients’ Google Analytics (website stats) I am amazed that Facebook is usually in the Top 5 Referrers category
   • Sample from McCallBros.com: Add An Obituary To Facebook
4. Creating a PROFILE for the Funeral Home instead of  a PAGE: Profiles are for People and Pages are for Businesses
   • If you have your Profile as your Funeral Home and not you personally, here’s what you do:
     • Create a Profile under your Personal name and once you have built up your profile, then invite all of the Friends from the first profile to your new one
     • Create a Page under the Funeral Home name and copy all of the pertinent information over – then once it is established you can start to invite people to become a “Fan”
5. Not “Claiming” your Memorable Web Address for your Profile and Business Page: Do not let your competitor “Claim Your Name”
   • Here are my Memorable Web Addresses:
     • Robin Heppell (Profile): http://profile.to/robinheppell/
     • FuneralFuturist.com (Page): http://companies.to/funeralfuturist/
6. Having A “Profile” Picture that is Too STIFF: Is your profile picture with you in your “Stripes” or other Funeral Attire?
   • You want to connect with your “Community” – the more they can relate to you (as a parent, spouse, soccer coach, etc.) the better – could you change your picture so that you could be “more like them?”
   • NOTE: “But Hepp, your profile picture is you in a suit!” Exactly – see the previous bullet point – … connect with ‘your’ community
7. Do Not Actively Build Your Friend List: The more people that you can connect with in your community, the better – it will not hurt you to have too many friends on Facebook – well, until you hit the maximum of 5,000
   • Here are 3 ways to grow your “Friends” list:
     • Upload your “Contacts” from your Outlook or Outlook Express
     • View the Friends of the Most Popular people in your community and “Add as Friend” if you think that it is appropriate to do so
     • Search Groups and Fan Pages for Local Organizations like Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Church Groups, etc.
   • NOTE: Just a little bit of advice – create Lists to segment your Friends such as Family, School Friends, Funeral Peers, [Your Town's Name] Connections, etc.  You will thank me later.

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…

If you liked this post, you may like...

• Recap of Funeral Social Media Week
• 3 X 5 Free Social Media Resources for Funeral Homes & Cemeteries
• Video: Secure Your Vanity URL for Facebook
• Video: Facebook Ads – Tips & Resources
• ICCFA 2010 “Technology Track” Announcement

Is it time to replace that 80′s Funeral Coach that would give a Hummer a run for its money in a game of chicken? I have been asked by a lot of funeral directors how does eBay work and can you really buy vehicles online?

Well, this process is not for everyone and I would suggest that you first check to see what your current dealer has to offer. I would also recommend that you check to see what is online.

As always “Buyer Beware” so you will need to do a little homework such as check the Seller’s Rating and look into a Vehicle History Report.

At eBay Motors, the have a “How to Buy a Vehicle” section that you should go through or perform a search on Google – “How to Buy a Vehicle on eBay” and you will find many articles and case studies.

Let me know when New Cars
are for sale!

go back to the Funeral Futurist Newsletter >>>

Other Funeral Related Posts

• Funeral Home Advertising Contest
• Wanted: Entrepreneurial Support
• Funeral Home Marketing: John Callaghan on the Hot Seat
• Steal Online Price Shoppers from Your Competitors
• How To Spy On Your Funeral Competitors