Funeral Futurist | Robin Heppell

The July 2008 issue of American Funeral Director, Thomas Parmalee wrote a great article about Blogging and the Funeral Industry: “Is it time to Get a Blog? Weighing the Positives and Negatives”

The article featured follow Funeral Industry Bloggers, Brian Hanner of Geib Funeral Home in Ohio, BT Hathaway of Hathaway Funeral Homes in Massachusetts, and Tim Totten of Final Embrace in Florida.

Tom does a great job of pulling the insights from all of us as well as providing a balanced view of the topic of blogging.  He starts the article with…

They are everywhere, and sometimes, it seems they are taking over the world.  They can rocket you to fame because of a mere hundred words.  And they seem to be making inroads at virtually every business, big and small.

Tom interviewed me a few months back and captured some great thoughts – he can make my thoughts sound better than when I think them!

“We are in the people business, and a blog should be able to connect with the consumer almost more than any type of marketing because it is very personal.”

Tim Totten of Final Embrace (who supplies Cot Covers for removal stretchers), stated:

“[Blogging] does give you a way to connect much more closely to at least a few people in your community. If only five people in your community read it, they will become ambassadors for you and generate business.”

Brian Hanner of Geib Funeral Home says:

“I think of this like many of our other PR activities – you can’t expect it to pay dividends in the short term.”

BT Hathaway, the grandfather of funeral blogs (3 years since the launch of his Funeral Words blog), comments:

“It’s part if developing relationships with folks out there, and part of it is a challenge of keeping my ideas fresh.  To write something on a regular basis, you have to be pushing yourself to read, notice things and to ask yourself difficult questions. So from that standpoint, it’s a good self-examination exercise to make sure I’m thinking ahead regarding my business needs.”

All of the bloggers have agreed to join me in hosting a Funeral Blogging 101 teleseminar on July 30th in the afternoon.  To register and start your path of building a better and deeper relationship with your community, visit: www.FuneralBlogging101.com. If you can’t make the teleseminar, still register to get access to the replay and ask any questions about blogging, social media, website development, or internet marketing and promotion.