Remember the days before social memorial websites? In those days, you would publish an obituary in the newspaper, and it would fade into the newspaper abyss with the next day’s paper delivery.

Now, since the revolution of social media and the Internet, your families want more than that for their loved one. They want a memorial that they can share online with their friends and family all over the world. They want a memorial that people can actively take part in. They want a memorial that they can look back on forever. And that’s where social memorial websites come in.

There’s no question about it – social memorial websites are an incredibly valuable part of your funeral business. The question, though, is… do you actually take advantage of the amazing benefits they can reap for your family, community, and your firm?

Whether you’re just reading up on social memorial websites or use them as a part of your funeral home’s services everyday, here are 5 ways you can leverage social memorial websites at your funeral home:

1. Make the memorial website a key part of the arrangement conference

One of the best things you can do for a family who has just lost a loved one is to give them a reason to get together, talking about the loved one. It’s an integral part of the healing process to spark those conversations. Take a few minutes during the arrangement process to show families how to post pictures, videos, leave comments, or make a family tree. Chances are, they’ll be thrilled that they can actively take part in their loved one’s online memorial. If you avoid doing this, families might miss the opportunity to use this great service and the healing impact that it provides.

Tip: Put together a quick “How to” sheet for families that walks them through all of the social memorial website features.

2. Seed memorial websites with meaningful content

As we mentioned above, social memorial websites can have a HUGE impact on the healing process. So what if you went above and beyond for every family you served by automatically uploading the loved one’s tribute video and photos to the social memorial website?  It’s the unexpected things like this that make families feel like your funeral home truly cares. Plus, by actively taking part in the loved one’s social memorial website, you’ll encourage them to take part, too. Which leads me to my next point…

Tip: If you offer tribute videos at your firm, why not use the photos you gathered for the tribute video and upload them to the social memorial website while you’re at it. Plus, if you’re creating tribute videos with Life Tributes Personalization software and are using the f1Connect Website Platform, tribute videos are easily integrated into the social memorial website. 

To view this live social memorial website on Schoedinger’s website, click on the image.

3. Get the conversation started!

Train your entire funeral home staff to be proactive and start the conversation on their loved one’s social memorial website. Not only is it a way to stay connected with families after the service, but it also helps increase engagement on your website. And the more engagement you get on your social memorial website, the more opportunities there are for you to generate brand awareness and additional revenue (especially if your firm has a Sympathy Store, but we’ll get to that next…).

Tip: For every family your funeral directors work with, make it a requirement for them to leave a comment or light a candle on the loved one’s social memorial website. Schoedinger Funeral Service & Cremation does this, and have seen quite an increase in website traffic and engagement as a result.

4. Encourage families to share their social memorial website on social media

Once you’ve created the social memorial website for the loved one, show families how it can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, or even email. This will help them get the word out about the details of the services, visitation dates and times and also give them key info on how to send flowers, etc. 

Take B.C. Bailey Funeral Home, for example. They encouraged their community to share the social memorial website of a family who faced a tragic death. As a result of them sharing the social memorial website on social media, it went viral, getting nearly 400 Facebook likes, thousands of comments and condolences, and hundreds of dollars of revenue generated for their firm. As you can see, by using social media to share your social memorial websites, you can reach more people in your community than ever before, help them celebrate their loved one’s life and increase your bottom line.

Tip: Ask families if you can share their loved one’s social memorial website on social media, and tag the family members in your post to encourage sharing and engagement.

To view this live social memorial website on B.C. Bailey’s website, click on the image.

5. Print the social memorial website for families

One challenge many funeral professionals face is staying connected with families during the days, weeks and months after the service. What if you could find a way to check in with them and give them a keepsake they can cherish forever? Thankfully, now you can. A few weeks or months after the service, print out the social memorial website for the family and package it into a little booklet that they can keep forever. Families will never forget that small yet significant act of kindness you did for them.

Tip: Take it a step further and combine the funeral registry, photos, and social memorial website into a hard cover Tribute Book that families can keep on their coffee table forever.

Final words

As you can see, there are plenty of ways you can leverage social memorial websites at your funeral home and we just hit the tip of the iceberg. Today, I challenge you to think of even more ways you could take advantage of them at your firm. What if you could use a memorial website that went viral as inspiration for your next blog post? What if you could put a live feed of all the activity happening on your firm’s social memorial websites on your big screen TV? Get creative… the possibilities (and the benefits) of social memorial websites are endless. It’s just up to you to create them!

Don’t have social memorial websites?

If not, you could be missing out on a huge opportunity for your firm! Learn how you can get social memorial websites with our all-in-one f1Connect Website Platform for FREE by clicking here.

How does your funeral home creatively leverage social memorial websites? Tell us in the comments below!

Rochelle Rietow

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