How Sharing Obituaries on Facebook Actually Helps People Grieve

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So much of our lives and our memory sharing takes place on Facebook these days. But there is one large group who is still largely absent from the Facebook space ﹘ funeral homes. Sure, you may think that this social sharing space is just a place for you to share funny photos with friends, comment on newsworthy photos, or update people on the goings-on of life… but it’s actually much more than that. It’s a place to grow and expand your business.

As it turns out, Facebook can be a positive untapped resource for your funeral home and services. Considering the website has over 1.3 billion active monthly users (that’s about 20% of the global population), it might be time to connect your firm with a Facebook presence. Social obituaries on funeral home websites are gaining traction, and they’re a great tool you can start using for the benefit of your funeral services, as well as the friends and family who want to memorialize the life lived.

Here are four reasons to start sharing your families’ social obituaries on Facebook today.

1. Friends and family could use some help informing everyone of the arrangements.

Arranging a loved one’s funeral service can be a stressful and chaotic experience for some people. We know you do your very best to make it as seamless and easy as possible, but when the phone is ringing off the hook and a family needs looking after, sometimes the details slip through the cracks.

Your families will appreciate the ability to share the details of their loved one’s services on Facebook with a click of a button. This way, they’ll save themselves countless phone calls to friends and family reaching out in search of this information. Plus, during such a difficult time, it can be a challenge to remember things like exact addresses and times. You can help save family members that added worry when all the information is readily shareable and no memorizing of those details is necessary.

2. Sharing key details and accurate information has never been easier.

For your families who are saying goodbye to a loved one, making sure to provide obituary information to everyone who might possibly be seeking it is daunting and difficult. It’s not really the ideal time to pull out the old phonebook and start making these calls.

But today, almost everyone in our community is on Facebook or connects daily with someone who is. They’re already there, and by sharing a social obituary filled with service information on their own news feeds, family members can get the word out quickly, accurately and without having to hunt down lost phone numbers and remember old friends’ last names. Plus as a funeral director, this opens the door to reach a wider audience with information about your firm, because they will be visiting your website for the first time ﹘ offering you a great opportunity to highlight the superior services you provide.

3. Facebook connects people from all over, including friends who may otherwise be left out.

During our lives, we connect with countless people in various cities, at different jobs, even during brief interactions and conversations. You never know who you’re leaving a profound impact on. Family members may do their best to make sure all of their loved ones’ friends are informed of the information regarding the services, but it’s not always possible for them to know of everyone who would want these details.

Facebook, however, is a global network that intuitively connects people across great distances. A loved one’s family member might not remember the name of an old college roommate or former boss, but those people may want to grieve with them or show love to the family or life lived. A social memorial website that’s shareable through Facebook really knows no bounds, and with it, a simple button click helps spread the word about services far and wide to anyone who is looking for a community to share and manage their grief with, which can help them heal.

5. The social obituary can springboard friends and family to an appropriate place to share memories and grieve with a community.

Often, we see some form of memorial for a life lived posted on social media. It’s usually a friend or family member who sets up a page or begins by sharing memories on their loved one’s profile. But Facebook, a massive community of people with varying relationships to their loved one, isn’t always an appropriate place for these kind words and heartfelt comments. The partial anonymity of social media can encourage some unkind reactions, which can be destructive to the family’s grieving process or their loved one’s reputation.

Instead, the social obituary posting gives you a platform through which to encourage friends and family to join your own social memorial community, where sharing memories, sending thoughtful messages, posting pictures and memorializing the life lived is simple, encourages positive emotional connections and is a bit more private for those grieving and healing. Without this outlet, some people will default to posting their memories on Facebook, rather than this more purposeful outlet you can provide them.
You can help people grieve in a healing way, while taking some of the tasks of memorializing a loved one off their plate with products from funeralOne, like the f1Connect Website Platform. See how you can enroll in Automatic Facebook Posts and create individual social memorial pages to begin giving the client families you serve the best and most complete service possible.

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