I attended church on Sunday and heard a sermon that I thought worthy of sharing with my funeral home colleagues.  The sermon ended up being about the difference between “building a Platform” and “becoming a Pillar”.  I found the message right on the money with my thinking about so much of the social media craze and building one, or one’s business up, via the creation of one’s own social media hype.

Don’t get me wrong — I use social media to circulate articles for Funeral Director Daily, build up my readership, and bring more eyes to the advertisements of the sponsors of Funeral Director Daily.  I don’t, however, use social media to self-promote myself or my business.

I also realize that “Business” is different than “Self” and sometimes you have to tell your story to build up your business to bring in more business and revenue.  And, there are any number of qualified vendors, of which some are even sponsors of Funeral Director Daily, who will help you in writing those “stories” or giving you advice on placement on social media for maximum exposure.

However, in the cynical society that we live in today one might ask if those self-placed stories on your business bring in the results that you think that they do.  The pastor of the sermon I am talking about brought up the definition of “Virtual Signaling” which, in some ways, might be the perception that some of the readers of those self-written posts take away from them.

He defined “Virtual Signaling” in the sermon, but here is the definition I found of it. . . . which is probably not what businesses are looking for in the social media messages:

“Virtual Signaling”   “. . . .The goal is to show others that they have good character, fit in with a social group, or hold the right values.  People use this term as an insult. They mean that the person making the statement is only trying to look good. They are not taking real action or making a true sacrifice to fix the problem.”

The pastor went on to explain that in our large church we come in and see the beautiful stained glass windows and other things and never even think about the foundation of the church — those big “Pillars” that hold it up.  In reality if those “Pillars” of the construction foundation were not there, nothing else would be either because the church building would have no support.

 

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

It’s the same with your funeral business.  That’s why it is important to build those “Pillars” of customer satisfaction, service above self, integrity in your service, service to the community and more.  Those “Pillars”, much more than any fancy slogan or self-promoting social media post, will endure much longer and eventually bring decades of positive images to your funeral firm

 

So yes, go ahead and promote your firm on social media as you see fit. . . . but be careful because much of the public is on to the “Virtual Signaling” of those posts.  However, never stop building the “Pillars” of your business which will, like the foundation of a big building, continue to hold your business up for the long-run. . . . . . possibly for decades to come.

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Cremation now accounts for more than half of final arrangements in four states (area).  KOAM News Now (KS)
• Regulation of funeral directors “long overdue”.  BBC News (Great Britain)
• Tendmory launches cemetery, crematory, and funeral software that pays operators back.  PR Newswire
• Frank E. Campbells’ $20 million renovation:  William Villanova on Legacy, Privacy, and what outlasts wealth.  Worth

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”