If you haven’t been hiding in a cave for the last five years, you know that social media is an incredibly important piece of your funeral home’s marketing plan.

Just getting started with social media? Sometimes, it can be hard to establish an engaged audience… let alone in the funeral profession!

But did you know that it doesn’t have to be a daunting, long, drawn out process to attract a bigger audience on social media? It’s true. Try incorporating any one (or even better, ALL) of these 20 actionable tips into your social media strategy and within no time, your funeral home’s social media following will keep growing and growing and… well you get the point.

20 things you can do to grow your social following:

1. Get your whole team involved

After you develop some pretty basic rules and practices around your funeral home’s social media, get your funeral home staff in on the social scene. Encourage them to add your company to their social media bios, to be active on your social media profiles, to comment on posts on your page, to respond to customer queries, and maybe even let a few employees have a crack at managing your funeral home’s social media content. When it comes to social media, the more engagement from your team, the merrier.

2. Promote your page on Facebook

When other companies get thousands of Facebook likes in just a few months, you might wonder how the heck they did it. But thanks to Facebook’s “Promote Page” tool, you can increase your audience, too. To promote your page, simply click the “Promote Page” button above your cover photo, follow the simple directions Facebook provides, then *voila*, you’ll be one step closer to having more Facebook likes!

3. Use Facebook’s Sponsored Stories

One of the quickest ways to grow your social following is through Facebook’s Sponsored Stories. If you’re sharing blog content, a special offer, or a post that’s part of a marketing campaign, boosting your posts through Sponsored Stories is the perfect tool for you. Simply post a Facebook status the way you normally would, then click “Boost Post” on the bottom right-hand corner of it (below). Once you click it, Facebook will walk you through the easy-to-follow instructions. Just be careful to set a budget for your posts, a little goes a long way!

4. Post at the right time

It’s not just about what you post on social media, but when you post it. This article by Huffington Post lays out the optimal times to post to get the most social engagement. Can you guess when it is?

5. Incorporate photos

Thanks to the popularity of Instagram and Pinterest, pictures are the most shared content on social media. More images = more engagement, so include images in your social media posts to attract more eyes to your content. Use tools like Pinterest, Google Images, Flickr’s Creative Commons and other image-based websites to find great images.

Post by Million Taylor Funeral Home.

6. Expand your reach with hashtags

Hashtags are the words next to the pound sign or “#” (ie. #FuneralNews #GriefSupport) that you see on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram. Using them can help you quickly expand your reach and monitor conversations surrounding them. Check out this article to learn about all of the benefits of hashtags and how you can start using them, too.

7. Make your content shareable

Does your funeral home have a blog or newsletter? Be sure to offer a way for your audience to share it online by including social sharing buttons on all of your content. Use this guide for some extra help adding social sharing buttons to your blog. Even if your content isn’t online (ie. paper newsletter, brochure), don’t forget to offer call-to-action that encourage people to follow you on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

8. Engage your audience through newsjacking

Is there hot-off-the-press news that’s related to your funeral home? Be sure to write a post on it with your own perspective. Just remember, newsjacking is all about the timing, so it’s important to keep a pulse on all of the news related to your community and the funeral industry (a great tool to help you do just that is Google Alerts).

Here’s a classic example of newsjacking, from Oreo. They turned the power outage at the 2013 Superbowl into a humorous way to entertain and connect with their audience.

9. Tell ‘em something they don’t know

If you want to increase shares and likes, post fresh content that’s informative and educational. Not only will you establish yourself as a thought leader, but you’ll also become a resource your audience can depend on for valuable content.

10. Believe in the power of laughing

Another way to increase shares and likes on your social media profile is to post something your audience will find humorous. Just be sure it’s appropriate for all ages, since potential families of any age could come across your profile.

11. Inspire them

In our own social media strategy, we’ve found that inspirational content gets the most likes and shares. Plus, there’s nothing like an inspiring quote to help someone get their day started, right?

12. Follow people similar to you

By surrounding yourself with like-minded people on social media, you’ll be sharing your content with people who appreciate and value it. By sharing quality content with like-minded people, you can quickly become a thought-leader and establish tons of trust and credibility with your audience.

13. Don’t miss a tweet

Studies show that the more consistently you post on social media, the more effective it can be for your business. That means if you’re going to use social media at your funeral home, make sure you can dedicate enough time to keep it active (we suggest posting at least a couple of times a week).

14. Make them feel like a VIP

Many retail stores use social media platforms to offer exclusive deals to their customers. Instead of that, try making your families feel exclusive in another way – offer them insider information or something that makes them feel like they’re in your inner circle.

15. Reciprocation is key

For every retweet, share or comment you get on your social media pages, try “paying it forward” and doing the same for someone else. This keeps the dialogue going and creates more opportunities for you to get your name out into the social media world.

16. Be responsive

If someone comments on your social content, be sure to acknowledge it by liking it or commenting back. No one likes talking to a wall, so make sure you’re following up and responding to all of the engagement your social efforts generate.

17. Harness the power of tagging

If you’re highlighting a local business or someone in your network through social media, be sure to tag or mention them. This allows you to reach your audience and their audience, resulting in more engagement.

18. Follow industry keywords

If you’re using a social media management (SMM) tool, be sure to take advantage of the “Brand Keywords” tool that allows you to monitor conversations that feature words/phrases similar to your brand. If you don’t have a SMM tool, simply keep a list of brand-related keywords that you can use to browse social media sites regularly.

19. Amp up your email signature

It’s always the little things that count, isn’t it? Try including your social media handles and page links in your email signature, and you’ll be surprised by how many followers it helps you generate.

20. Don’t forget about business cards, too

If you’re due for some new business cards anytime soon, why not try adding your social media information on to them? Just don’t list every single social network you’re on, because that could end up looking a little jumbled!

Now go forth and grow your social following!

We challenge you to do at least ONE of these actionable tips this week. And when you do, tell us about how much your social media following has grown…because we know it will!

How else has your funeral home been able to grow your social media following? Tell us in the comments below!

Rochelle Rietow

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