The 5 Biggest Social Media Mistakes Funeral Homes Are Making Right Now

Let me be blunt: most funeral homes are still treating social media like it’s a checkbox. Post a grief quote, wish everyone a Merry Christmas, maybe toss in a link to a preplanning page, and call it a day.

But if that’s your strategy, you’re not marketing. You’re blending in. And in 2025, invisibility is the kiss of death for your business.

Here are the five biggest mistakes I see funeral homes making on social media every single day, and what you should be doing instead. 

Mistake #1: Posting Like a Robot, Not a Human

Let’s talk about the grief quote graveyard. You’ve seen them: pastel background, cursive font, some Hallmark-style quote from Pinterest.

It’s not that grief isn’t important. It is. But auto-scheduling cheap, lifeless content from some plug-and-play software isn’t helping you connect. It’s cheap noise. And your audience knows it.

Fact: Posts with real human faces get 38% more engagement on Facebook than those without. (Source: Social Media Examiner)

People want people. They want to see the director who helped their family. They want to hear the voice of the person who explained cremation in a way that finally made sense. You don’t need a marketing degree, you need to show up like a real human.

Mistake #2: Confusing Presence with Performance

Just because you have a Facebook page doesn’t mean you have a strategy.

Most funeral homes post once a week and think, “Cool, we’re online.” But if your post is only reaching 3% of your followers and no one’s engaging with it, what’s the point?

Stat Check: The average organic Facebook reach in 2024 is 2.2% of your total followers. If you have 1,000 followers, only 22 people are seeing that post. (Source: Hootsuite)

Social media isn’t a billboard. It’s not a one-way broadcast. It’s a conversation. If you’re not starting meaningful ones, your competitors will.

Mistake #3: Avoiding the Camera Like It’s a Casket

Funeral pros love to say, “We’re not comfortable on camera.” And I get it. You didn’t go into this profession to be an influencer.

But here’s the deal: video is dominating Facebook. And it’s not the polished stuff that wins. It’s the raw, unfiltered, behind-the-scenes moments. It’s a 30-second clip of you explaining how your removal team operates with dignity. It’s a quick tour of your chapel with your voice walking viewers through.

Numbers Don’t Lie: Facebook video posts see 135% greater organic reach than photo posts. (Source: Social Insider)

You don’t need a production crew. You need your phone and the courage to hit record. The more real you are, the more trust you build.

Mistake #4: Marketing Like It’s 1998

I still see funeral homes dropping 80% of their marketing budget into yellow pages, newspaper ads, and church bulletins. Meanwhile, they tell me, “Social media just doesn’t work for us.”

Of course it doesn’t — you’re not using it right.

Read This Twice: 65% of adults aged 50+ are on Facebook, and they spend an average of 1.5 hours a day on it. (Source: Pew Research, Datareportal)

This is your demo. These are your buyers. They’re not looking in the newspaper. They’re scrolling while drinking coffee, waiting at the doctor’s office, and sitting in the church parking lot.

If you’re not showing up in that feed consistently and meaningfully, you don’t exist to them.

Mistake #5: Not Starting with a Strategy

This might be the biggest one of all: funeral homes jump into social media with no strategy at all. No plan. No roadmap. Just vibes.

And when there’s no strategy, there’s no consistency. When there’s no consistency, there’s no momentum. And when there’s no momentum, the execution falls apart.

Funeral directors often tell me, “We don’t know what to post.” That’s not because you lack content — it’s because you lack a plan.

Here’s the deal: A clear strategy answers the big questions: What are we saying? Who are we saying it to? When and where are we showing up? And how do we measure if it’s working?

Without this foundation, you’re just guessing. And guesswork doesn’t grow trust or generate leads.

At DISRUPT Media, strategy is what we lead with. We build content calendars, target audience profiles, platform-specific playbooks, and then we execute.

If you want execution that actually works, you have to start with strategy.

At DISRUPT Media, we work with hundreds of funeral homes across North America. We’ve seen what works and what flops.

If your social media doesn’t:

• Feel real
• Start conversations
• Show your people
• Educate or entertain
• Convert viewers to leads

…then it’s just noise.

This profession is built on trust. Social media, done right, lets you scale that trust 24/7 in your community. But only if you show up like a human, not a stock image.

Best known beats best kept secret.

Every. Single. Time.

My name is Ryan Thogmartin. My team and I would love to help your funeral home or cemetery win on social media. We might be the right fit for you, or, we might not be, but there is only one way to find out. Let’s schedule a 30-minute demo and see.