Facebook is quietly rolling out a professional services recommendation feature aimed to take on Yelp. If you are unfamiliar with Yelp, it is a web-based service/app where consumers can find, rate, and review local businesses with which they have dealt. Because Facebook users can rate and review businesses, it only makes sense that Facebook would formalize the review and recommendation process by providing a portal in which it can take place.

You are a media company first and everything else second. Winning attention is winning the game.

Yes, you read that correctly. Whether you realize it or not, your business, as a supplier in the death care profession, is also a media company. It’s 2016 and you’re not just a product pusher anymore. You’re not just a distributor. You’re now in the eyeballs business. Everybody has an urn, the casket game is more crowded than ever, yet every supplier is still trying to sell the same way they have for the last 30 years. Why aren’t you marketing in the year that we are in? Why do you continue to spend all of your time and money on outlets that you yourself don’t digest? Other than looking through the print publications to see what your competitors are marketing, do you really read them?

https://www.disruptmedia.co - On this episode I answer the questions:

On this episode I talk answer the following questions:

Seeking a way to help differentiate itself from other funeral homes in the area, Vander Plaat-Vermeulen Memorial Home has selected DISRUPT Media to coordinate its social media strategy and content management. Using their proprietary FUNERAL Social Design Process, DISRUPT Media is helping Vander Plaat-Vermeulen to not only raise awareness for the firm, but to help distinguish the funeral home from the other firms in New Jersey that have the word, Vander-Plaat, in their name.

The various social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.) are the “rock stars” of online marketing, according to this infographic by the Internet marketing firm Zephoria. Of these popular outlets, Facebook remains the far and away front runner, with over 77% of adult Internet users actively using the channel on a regular basis. Of these adult users, 71% are female and 62% are male (Incidentally, most funeral home owners say 65% – 75% of those shopping for death care services and planning funerals are female).

Perhaps it’s unfair that those of us who work in the funeral profession have a bit of an uphill battle in dispelling the unearned negative impressions the public may have formed about us. Death is a fact of life, and it takes a special person and a special team to show honor to those who have passed while comforting and serving the family and friends of the deceased. If you could convince John Q. Public to spend time with you and your staff at your facility you could reveal how wonderfully human, compassionate, professional, and fun you really are.

Realizing that an outside resource will better assist with their Facebook engagement efforts, Meador Funeral Home, with locations in both Gainesville and Whitesboro, TX, has selected DISRUPT Media to coordinate its social media strategy and content management. Using their proprietary FUNERAL Social Design Process, DISRUPT Media is partnering with Meador Funeral Home to achieve its goals of building the funeral home’s brand as well as showing the “human side” of the funeral profession.

When someone visits your funeral business Facebook page, are they wowed by what they see? First impressions are important, so you want the images on your page to have a memorable and positive impact. It’s not hard to make changes that will have a more pleasing effect. Here are a few ideas and pointers to consider when selecting and modifying your Facebook business page cover photo:

It’s not rocket science. It’s not mind blowing. It’s not new. In fact, it’s pretty flippin’ basic. The funeral business is personal. This is a 100% relationship business. That’s right, relationships – in high school we called this ‘popularity,’ and the prom king always got the girl. The class president wasn’t the most qualified candidate – just the best looking. The funeral business isn’t much different.