The social media is dominating the world of business and playing a huge asset in building profit. I have seen incredible things coming from this but I have one question, is it for every kind of business?
Recently, Myers asked me to rejoin their efforts in making their business grow. They specialize in funeral services, own four mortuaries, and one cemetery. The role I am had taken on is the General Service Manager for their cemetery, Evergreen Memorial Park. My main role is to rebuild a sales team for their cemetery on both at-need and pre-need planning.
Yes, sales is a pain but it pays well if you know how to do it right.
Since this is my second round with the company, I was doing some research to see what I can do different and what Myers is missing. I wanted to make sales possible without knocking on doors saying, “HEY! I’m selling cemetery plots, want to buy one?”
I am not mocking the need of selling cemetery plans before someone dies, in fact, I believe you need a solid plan in place so that if something were to happen to you, your family does not have to run around like chickens with their heads cut off. They can actually do something valuable and that is to spend time with each other while mourning the loss of their loved ones.
My plan is to make Myers viral in Web 2.0. They only have one competitor in the area who has a facebook page but no valuable information except location and website with 189 followers.
I created a facebook page with location information, news articles, and soon I will have obituaries added to the page.
*Why obituaries?*
The fact is this, the local newspaper industry is undergoing a major change. They will either close their doors or turn viral. Less people are reading the newspaper and are turning to the world wide web for almost all their resources. With facebook’s dominance and revolution I figured it is the perfect location for my Myers 2.0 project.
When any comments, posts, pictures, or videos are added to a fan/business based facebook page, anyone who had “Liked” the page will receive automatic updates from that page. So I thought, “Why not post obituaries?” I believe that if you involve the local community on facebook, they can add their comments to the obituary and additional memories.
Also, I am taking advantage of the “Events” tab so I can post local events. Myers hold annual events at the cemetery but only so many people hear about it. Since Myers has a strong hold on the community we can increase it by informing them right in their living rooms about these events with hopeful results in increase attendance.
This is only the beginning but we will see how my project turns out. If all works out well, this will revolutionize the funeral industry.
