Social media is a vital and sometimes infuriating part of being a business owner in this day and age. It’s easy to get stuck and stop putting in the effort of making engaging social media posts. 

The truth is that social media makes all the difference when it comes to attracting client families and keeping your funeral services in the minds of current and past clients alike. 

Posting meaningful and relevant content is imperative when it comes to converting followers to client families.

The proof is in the pudding – recent studies show that 41% of people unfollow a brand on social media because they feel the information isn’t relevant to them. And 46% of users unfollow a brand because it posts too much, while 18% of people unfollow a brand because it doesn’t post enough.

So how do you find the sweet spot when it comes to social media? We’ve got you covered with these 16 amazing social media post ideas that will keep you engaged with your families. And don’t worry – we totally want you to steal them from us! 

 

 

1. Put Your Blog to Work

Does your funeral home already have a blog? Then you already have tons of content to share on social media! Everytime you write a new post, make sure to share it on your social media pages. But it doesn’t just stop there, you can mine your past blog content and share it with your current audience. Don’t let all that hard work go to waste, blogs are the perfect content to share on social media and give families a deeper insight into the services you provide.

Need a little blog inspiration? Check out the blogs written by our friends at  Pray Funeral Home

 

2. Ask Client Families Their Opinion 

Who doesn’t love sharing their opinion?! Facebook, Twitter and Instagram stories all have options for creating polls which encourage followers to engage and be heard. Polls are an incredibly simple way to open up the dialogue and get people talking on your social media. Here’s one example:

What’s most important to you at a funeral? 

A) Flowers

B) Music

C) The Eulogy

D) Ambiance 

You can even use polls to gather information about what client families really want and use it to help you serve them to your very best ability! 

 

 

3. Celebrate Your Staff

You very likely have an amazing staff and social media is the perfect place to show them off! Pictures of people’s faces are often the most liked and engaged with posts, so use this to your advantage and post pictures of your amazing team. This is also a great way to show client families who they will be working with while also giving props to the awesome team you’re a part of. Families will enjoy getting to know your staff and you may even hear some stories from client families in the comments! This one is a win for everyone.

 

 

4. Share Videos

Videos are really starting to take the lead when it comes to what people want to see on social media. It’s important to keep the videos short and sweet – on Instagram videos can only be just ONE minute long (and let’s face it, that’s about how long the average attention span is these days anyway.) 

What kind of videos are best to post? How about a short video explaining your services, or answering commonly asked questions? Or a virtual tour of your funeral home? If you’ve made any promo videos for your funeral home, this is definitely the place to share them! You can even chunk up certain parts of them and create 5-6 mini IG videos from just one video! Remember to keep them high quality and to the point and you’ll get the best out of this idea.

 

5. Share Your Events

What better way to spread the word about the events you host at your funeral home than to post about them on social media? Create a dynamic image for your event (Canva is perfect for making images if you don’t have an application you already use) and then make sure to post it everywhere! In Facebook groups, your Facebook wall, IG stories, and even your email list. 

Pro tip: If you’re new to hosting events check out our guide on How to Host Non-Creepy & Effective In-Person Events at Your Funeral Home

 

6. Healing Affirmations

Supporting families through grief and healing is the main thing we’re here for, so of course you want to support that journey on social media and help steer families in the direction of daily email affirmations, like Duffy Poule Funeral & Cremation Services.

With some website platforms, there is an automated daily email affirmations tool that sends your families inspirational affirmations everyday to support them in their grief journey. You can use some of these on your social media pages, or take it a bit further and design them…

 

7. Create Shareable Grief & Healing Quotes

Sharing beautifully designed grief and healing quotes is a great way to inspire families and show them you understand. You can share these with a beautiful image of your own, or design the quote itself into a shareable image. Check out our blog for tons of inspirational quotes to share with the families you love to serve (and feel free to use as many as you want, as long as you source us!).

 

8. Share Tribute Walls & Obituary Information

Whereas the old days had us sharing stale obituaries on our social media pages, now you can invite your families to contribute to an ongoing, co-created memorial wall for the loved one!

Not only are you honoring the loved one of the families you serve, but you are creating community in one simple post. Memorial sites are growing in popularity everyday and create a lasting way for people to come together and pay respects to the dearly departed. 

When you post memorial sites you’re also showing client families what options are available to them – they may have never known they can have a beautiful online tribute page for their loved one! 

Want to learn more about memorial sites and how to help families get the most out of them? Check out our blog here.

 

9. Testimonials

Social media is a great place to toot your own horn, go ahead and share those awesome client family testimonials! Give a shout out to the clients who have sent you kind words and make sure to show them your gratitude. You may even get some more testimonials in the comments! 

 

10. Refresh Popular Content

Chances are you have some great content that you’ve already posted on your social media in the past, why not reuse it? Scroll through and find your most popular posts, and then go ahead and reshare it – as long as it isn’t too recent. If it’s written content don’t hesitate to fluff it up a bit. 

If you want to repost photos take advantage of #tbt (throwback thursday) or #fbf (flashback friday) – and make sure to use the hashtags to really get trending!

 

11. Educate Families with Your Content

Educating clients is key when it comes to helping them understand the value of the services you provide. Use social media to your advantage by posting illuminating articles and infographics on your accounts. This can be content that you create, or you can share relevant news stories, videos, and blogs from other sources. Educate them on new funeral trends like funeral personalization, green burials, and pre-need planning. Don’t forget to remind them that these are all services you offer! 

 

12. Giveaways

Giveaways are a major trend in the social media world these days, especially on Instagram. There are lots of ways to run a giveaway, but typically it involves offering free goods or services and then presenting rules for entry, ie – you must follow our account and tag a friend to be entered to win. 

Consider offering a free pre-need planning session or free attendance to a ticketed event. You could even partner with local businesses you love working with and see if they want to do a giveaway together. Maybe your favorite caterer or florist would love to get in on the action!

Check out this awesome guide on how to run an Instagram giveaway here.

Pro Tip: If you need more ideas on local business to partner with, check out our blog – Grow Your Funeral Home Fast by Collaborating with These 6 Types of Local Businesses. 

 

13. Share Other’s Work

Hey, you don’t have to be churning out endless content all on your own. It’s great to share other’s work and highlight their ideas as long as you give credit where credit is due. Consider finding YouTube videos, Ted Talks, and fascinating articles to share on social media. Google is your friend here! Try searching terms like death positive, funeral trends, green burial, modern funerals, grief and healing, death doula, or pre need planning to get started. 

 

14. Ask a Question

This is so simple and effective! Asking questions is a sure fire way to get people engaging on social media. It can be as simple as asking how their spending their holidays or it can be specific and guiding them towards services like pre need planning – “What’s your biggest obstacle when it comes to getting started with pre need planning?” 

This is a great way to directly engage with families and really hear what is on their minds and offer them solutions! 

15. Get on the Meme Train

You can’t really write about social media these days without mentioning memes. What even is a meme you ask? It’s a viral image with text that becomes a visual joke. Maybe you’ve seen the billions of Baby Yoda memes that have taken over the internet in the past month – and there’s a reason why. Memes are relatable and highly shareable (plus Baby Yoda is maybe the most adorable creature ever created!)

Harness the power of the meme and post them to your social account. It can be related to your business or funerals, or it can just be for a laugh! The beauty of memes is they’re short and sweet and super engaging – you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t enjoy a good meme. You can make your own memes, plus there’s already tons of hilarious funeral related memes out there. 

 

16. Engage in the Comments

This last one is a reminder that it’s just as important to engage in the comment section as it is to post great content! Replying to comments boosts the visibility of your posts and shows that you are present with the people you are trying to reach through social media. You can spend all the time in the world creating content, but if you don’t circle back and engage in the comments you’re missing out on a major part of social media. 

Even just commenting a simple “thank you for reading” or “we agree” goes a long way when it comes to engaging with families. Don’t let them feel like they’re shouting into the void – show them that you’re a real person and you’re really listening to them! 

 

Putting These Ideas Into Action

We hope these ideas have got you excited about creating social media posts! We know managing social media can feel like a hassle, but with a simple plan in place it can be an easy and effective way to build your business and connect with families. 

Want to have a website platform that matches your newly improved social media presence?  Then check out f1Connect, the funeral profession’s #1 website platform. Click here to learn more and reach out to one of our Funeral Success Specialists, or give us a call at (800) 798-2575.

 

What are your favorite things to post on social media? We’d love to hear about them in the comments!