Several days ago, I ran across an article by Samantha Franck originally published in the March, 2005 issue of ICFM Magazine titled “Four Cornerstones You Must Have to Build Your Preneed Business.” She shares sound, indisputable advice on executing the basics in building a solid preneed program. The basics include:
Let’s assume your Facebook business page has 324 fans (people who have Liked you page). You make a post on your page, so you assume that all 324 fans will see your post. You are wrong. Less than 6% of your current fans will have the content you post actually show up in their Facebook profile news feed. Does this shock you?
The primary purpose in maintaining a Facebook Page for your funeral business is to get as much attention as possible so people will get to know you. Certainly, posting attractive content is important, but there are some fairly simple things you can do to draw increased attention and engagement on your Page. Below are some ideas that are easy to implement and sure to create a bit more buzz around your funeral home Facebook business Page and your brand:
You know what I’m talking about. Facebook posts filled with images of puppy dogs, American flags, and gorgeous sunsets. The platitudes are happy and encouraging. They may make you smile, and they give you a warm feeling inside. Who doesn’t like to be inspired by nice content? Doesn’t it make sense to utilize these images and quotes on your business page?
Facebook has been around for over 10 years now, and numerous features have been added that business owners are not aware of or that they may have simply overlooked. Facebook has become a very rich platform with a lot of options and numerous moving parts, so it’s understandable that busy folks simply have not had the time to access and incorporate them all.
Can you flash back in your mind to 1996? That’s the year the DOW went over 6,000 for the first time and the year Prince Charles and Princess Diana got a divorce. In that year the movies “Twister,” and “Jerry McGuire” were released (“Show me the money!”), and the summer Olympics were held in Atlanta, Georgia. The World Wide Web was moving from the adolescent stage and coming into its own as the “dot-com” revolution was just taking off.
Most funeral home Facebook users who maintain a business page understand the importance of increasing their fan base so their content has a better chance of being seen by more people. But we’ve made it clear in a previous article that the average Facebook user will NEVER see all the content posted by his or her friends and by the businesses s/he follows. There is simply too much, so Facebook utilizes algorithms to filter users’ news feeds and prioritize the content that rises to the top (if Facebook didn’t filter the news feed users could see up to 15,000 pieces of content each day). The end result of this filtering is that, on average, only 6% of the content posted by a business is ever seen by the fans of their page.
In a recent article, we clarified the difference between a Facebook business page and a personal profile. Because the goals of maintaining a business page differ greatly from the reasons for having a personal profile, there is little overlap between the two. You need to treat your business page as something unique in order to maximize its potential.
I talk to a lot of funeral directors about social media, Facebook in particular. There is simply no better way to represent your funeral business than on Facebook. Facebook is HUGE, and it’s growing by the minute. It has a lot of moving parts. This can tend to generate some confusion for those who do not spend a lot of time engaging online.
