The "Facebook of Death" for the dearly departed

While the press release for this new web site made the newly launched Death Notice Directory site sound like a social network, the site describes itself as "the most comprehensive on-line source for Death Notices, Obituaries and Funeral Homes in the United States and Canada."

Hardly qualifies as a "Facebook of Death" in my view.

That said, however, the concept of how the Death Notice Directory was born was directly influenced by an experience on Facebook. Founder Glen Miller says, “One of our good friends recently lost a family member and posted an RIP message on her Facebook wall. Above her RIP message was a previous post made by her expressing what area of the house she enjoyed making love. The next subsequent post was an illustration of her Farmville score. I said to my wife, there has to be a more dignified way for people to share the loss of a family member.”

Hence the launch of Death Care Directory.

Learn more by visiting http://www.deathnoticedirectory.com/about.php.

Responding to negative reviews on Yelp: *THIS* is how it should be done

A common concern folks share from all businesses and industries above and beyond death care is HOW to respond to negative reviews. It's safe to say that most businesses fear being reviewed negatively but let's be honest, at *some* point, a negative review will happen. And family members or consumers can be gentle in their criticism ... and others will leave scathing reviews. Either way, it's important to monitor what is being said about you and then respond in a timely and politically correct fashion.

Case in point ... right here in my back yard ... on February 18, 2011, Jennifer P. of Manassas, Virginia complained on Yelp about the Baker-Post Funeral Home & Cremation Center:

"Most expensive cremation service in town. I have been calling funeral homes all day to get quotes on direct cremation here in the Manassas area. There are at least 4 funeral homes that provide direct cremation and Baker-Post is the most expensive of them all at over $2000. Ridiculous rip-off when competitors are charging $900 for the same services. It is very important to cost compare death expenses to avoided getting ripped off in your time of grief. Stay away from these guys."

About three weeks later, the owner of the funeral home responded to Jennifer's one-starred review:

"As the owner and operator of our business, I need to point out that the information provided in the comments made by Jennifer P. are inaccurate.  There isn't a funeral home in the Manassas area that offers Direct Cremation for $900.00.  We are the only funeral business in Manassas that has made the investment to the families we serve, to offer our own crematory on site, where your loved one will never leave our care.  We are also not the most expensive, and we do not "rip-off" the families that we serve.  We take extreme pride in the care that we give to each and every family that we serve and before comments like this are made, there should be accurate information provided.  I encourage the general public to stop, see our facility, and  discuss the cremation process and the costs that are associated with this service.  Shopping prices over the phone is not something I would encourage, especially for a funeral.  Our business carries on a 116 year tradition, as the original family owned and family operated funeral business in the Manassas area.  Businesses that have been able to continually serve their communities for that length of time are not ones to usually "rip people off"  

Michael C. Post - Owner / Director
Baker-Post Funeral Home & Cremation Center
703-368-3116"

Here's what Michael did right:

• Provided a direct response as the owner rather than having an employee respond on the business's behalf
• Knowing the local business and competitive climate and being able to clearly communicate pricing discrepancies
• Highlighting the value his funeral home brings to the table to differentiate: "We are the only funeral business in Manassas that has made the investment to the families we serve, to offer our own crematory on site, where your loved one will never leave our care."
• Acknowledging directly that his funeral home does NOT "rip off"
• Encouraging the public to come by and check the place out shows that his funeral home has nothing to hide ("I encourage the general public to stop, see our facility, and  discuss the cremation process and the costs that are associated with this service."
• Reinforcing long history of service in the community is a plus ("Our business carries on a 116 year tradition, as the original family owned and family operated funeral business in the Manassas area.")

Yelp will continue to challenge business owners ... but it really shouldn't have to

Yelp continues to challenge many business owners and proprietors who fear negative commentary but it really doesn't have to. Below please find some of my quick tips for help mitigate the impact of negative commentary:

• Define a protocol for how to respond to negative comments is key
  Who responds and how should he or she respond?
• Hire or assign someone to regularly monitor ** ALL ** commentary being said about your funeral home or death care service operation
  Knowing what is being said about you at all times, not just the singular moments when a bad comment is being posted, is very important. You should develop an online review process that is responsive to all commentary, good and bad.
• Change your perspective!
  Yes, negative comments can sometimes be harsh and difficult to face. However, if you view these instances as an opportunity to acknowledge the reviewer, thank them for their feedback and address the comment with diplomacy, you will be able to turn lemonade into lemons and possibly learn a detail or two about your operations or your customer service that you had not yet considered or been made aware of.

In the end, you want to keep a cool head and investigate each review, good or bad, with great care before responding. There are various tools and services to help you monitor online reviews that you may also wish to consider. The goal should be to be proactive and not reactive. When in doubt, seek the advice of a good consultant who can help you to define goals, challenges and solutions in all matters pertaining to online reviews as they pertain to your death care operation.

"Building profits by boosting your online profile" for your funeral service business planning

Save the date!!

Thanks to my friends at Kates Boylston Publications, I'll be presenting the "Building Profits by Boosting Your Online Profile" session at the beautiful Don CeSar Beach Resort in St. Petersburg, Florida on November 3-4, 2011.

These are some of the exciting topics I'll be covering in my session:

• Understand and harness the power of social networking
• Build market share by serving as an expert in your community
• Integrate your digital marketing efforts
• Develop content and blogging strategies
• Improve your relationship with the media

Interested in attending?? Register here today!

Speaking of memorialization on Facebook ... beware of "trolling"

Mediabistro's AllFacebook blog recently published a post about an Australian Facebook troller (the act of "trolling," FYI, is generally defined as the intentional posting of material online to offend, harass, or threaten others) who defamed the Facebook tribute pages of two deceased children:

According to the Brisbane Times, self-confessed troll 29-year-old Bradley Paul Hampson wrote “w00t I’m dead” across the picture of a dead 12-year-old boy, and posted it on the kid’s Facebook tribute page. In another instance, he wrote the following regarding the real-life raping and murdering of an 8-year-old girl: “My definition of pleasure … listening to her ribs crack. I got mad … so I murdered her.”

Hampson avoided using his real name during his trolling instances; instead he did his misdeeds under an old schoolmate’s name. The man whose name was being used alerted the authorities. Once the police caught Hampson, they also found about 200 images of abused children.

While this instance happened in Australia, the trolling trend could honestly happen anywhere. Death care providers who take the time to educate families about online tributes and social media'ish mememorials for loved ones, especially on Facebook, may want to be aware that under rare circumstances, dispicable acts such as these are regretfully very possible.

And this *just* in the heels of my recently published article "Electronic grieving: Memorialization on Facebook" ... geez!

Kates-Boylston Publications' upcoming webinar: Social Networking for Death-Care Professionals

If you are a death care professional and need access to educational opportunities about social networking and social media, you may want to consider an upcoming webinar from my friends at Kates-Boylston Publications (KBP) entitled "Social Networking for Death-Care Professionals."

I learned about this webinar from an email via LinkedIn I received from my peer and good buddy Thomas Parmalee, Editorial Director at KBP (thanks for sharing the webinar info, Tom!).

The 1-hour webinar on this important topic is being held on May 4, 2011 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST.

Topics the webinar will cover include:

• Strategies to build your brand on the Internet
• How providing valuable guidance and information can lead to sales
• Ways to manage your reputation online
• Tips on blogging and search engine optimization
• How social networking leads to sales
• The best ways to put your marketing dollars to work online
• How demographics on Facebook fit in with the funeral profession

If you are interested in learning more about this virtual educational opportunity focused on social media and death care, you should learn more by clicking here.

P.S. While I consider Tom to be a good buddy, I was not asked to plug this for him or KPB. I noted the topic and felt it would be relevant to anyone in this industry seeking to further immerse themselves in the subject of social media and its untapped value in death care.

TGIF to all :)