Question - Where do you all....

[Kelly]

Hi everyone,

We are wondering what social media platforms you all use for grieving matters besides Facebook? Could you let us know? Just type it in here this thread or directly put a link in to the places you visit. We are interested in expanding our presence to other social media platforms to reach more grieving people. 

Thank you!

Kelly & Elyse

[KayC]

The only social media I use is FB, but I have two grief forums, this one and another.  I never used social media for my grief, most people don't want reminded of loss/grief unless experiencing it themselves.  Maybe younger people can better address this?

[Gail 8588]

I don't use social media at all.  Sorry not much help. 

[Sparky1]

I don't use social media either. This is the first and only grieving forum I use, I haven't really looked for others.

[foreverhis]

John and I shared a FB account under my mother's maiden name with mixed information of hers and ours.  We are really private people.  Well, obviously I guess, since it took me 2 years to go ahead and use our first names here--where I know I am safe and secure.  The main reason we joined FB was to check and make sure that the people we asked to not share photos, etc of us were honoring our request.  I've seen posts from here and commented or shared a few. 

Other than that, I'm not on any other social media.  I'm completely tech savvy and worked in the technology/science/aerospace field most of my career and John was a CPA and software developer, so it's not a matter of lack of ability.  It's that we've not felt the need to connect to people we don't know or look for Likes (or whatever).

I do think that a presence on Instagram might reach those grieving at a young age, especially loss of partner or child/infant/miscarriage.

[SharedLife]

I participate at Twitter but not for anything grief-related.
I would imagine Facebook might be the most likely place for grief-related issues, but I don't belong to Facebook because of its gross intrusion into privacy (and sale of personal information). My wife belonged to facebook and when she passed, there was a surge of hits to her obituary from facebook users.

Social media can be a Pandora's box if one shares much personal information.

It would seem to me that search engines would be best for driving traffic to your website.  I found this forum via a search engine and it appears that "grieving.com" appears very high in search results for "grieving forum" or "grief forum".

You might consider adding some stand-alone web pages SEO optimized for phrases such as "How to cope with grief", "How to handle grief", etc.  Another option might be to issue informative press releases regarding the grieving process. There are a number of websites where you can issue press releases (generally for a fee).  Or you might contact some other websites where grieving is discussed (A.P.A., WebMD, funeral directors etc) and offer them information and perhaps an article or two, in an effort to obtain some links to your site.

Another possibility might be contacting funeral homes/companies, veterinarians, etc. One of the largest funeral companies is SCI (Service Corporation International), which operates hundreds of funeral homes and cemeteries in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.  SCI offers free bereavement counseling to its customers. They might be interested in providing information about your website to the bereaved. There are several other funeral companies out there.

[KayC]

To show how old we are and how long ago George died, we were on MySpace at the time, although not much, it never really took off like FB.  I like FB's format better and it's much more useful.  I have my Diabetic group there where I'm a moderator so on it a lot more now.

Our church has their website connected to FB and pays them to "push" it, whatever that means, I understand it gets more audience that way.

[Missy1]

Because grief is so private to me, I would not use social media because too many people I know are connected to my FB and Twitter.
What makes this place so special is that it feels safe and private here. My family and friends would freak out if they knew had badly I really feel and the pain I am in. I don’t want attention I want space and understanding to go through this hell. 

[Kelly]

Thank you all for your feedback!! If you have any more let me know! I really, really appreciate all your thoughts.

Kelly