PHow Leading Insurance Agents Excel With Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool that, when wielded correctly, can generate both direct and indirect benefits for insurance agents. The problem is that very few professionals within the industry understand how to leverage it.
The Power of Social Media
You know you need to be more active on social media. You go to industry conferences and they tell you to come up with a social strategy. Every book you read talks about the need for a Facebook page or strong LinkedIn presence. But with everything else on your plate, it’s tough to justify spending a lot of time on social media – especially when there are other activities that you know directly impact your revenue in quantifiable ways.
But aside from the fact that everyone is doing it, what are the specific, tangible reasons you – as an insurance agent – need to be active on social? Here are the central reasons why:
- Organic. No digital medium is more organic and natural than social media. Consumers view it as an opportunity to evade the traditional layers of bureaucracy that separate them from businesses and interact in a direct manner.
- Relevant. When you’re on social media, you have an opportunity to be a part of whatever conversation is happening right now. This gives you a mouthpiece to engage your audience in relevant ways.
- Virality. While there’s no predictable recipe for making a post go viral, there’s always the potential that you could strike social media “gold” and create a post that gets shared by hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people.
Every situation is different, but if you diligently build up a social media presence, you’ll discover a host of benefits – including these three. And for most agents, that’s enough value to buy in.
The Latest Best Practices for Insurance Agents
The benefits of social media are certainly powerful, but how do you get the most out of this marketing channel? We’ve curated a few of the best tips and practices on your behalf.
1. Establish a Content Arsenal
Social media can be an effective branding tool for any agent. But the only way to consistently earn business from platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn is to generate referral traffic from these networks to your own websites and landing pages. And in order to do this, you need an arsenal of high quality content on your website.
High quality content hosted on a website serves as the glue to a good social media strategy. It gives you something sticky to use to drive traffic back to your website. The objective is to develop in-depth, user-friendly content that’s timely and relevant to your target audience. This post about long-term disability insurance is a great example. Breeze uses it to attract leads who they know are interested in the services they’re offering.
2. Focus on Quality Over Quantity
If you aren’t careful, social media can become overwhelming. (Especially if you’re a solo agent who has to handle everything on your own.) But don’t make the mistake of assuming you have to be everywhere at once.
It’s not necessary to develop profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, etc. Start with one channel and emphasize quality over quantity of channels. It’s better to have 500 engaged followers on Facebook than 100 semi-engaged users on five different platforms.
3. Listen More Than You Talk
The appeal of social media is that you’re able to communicate directly with prospects and clients. Make sure you’re listening as much as you talk. This includes both active listening – such as direct messages and comments on posts – and passive listening – using social listening tools to understand the larger context of what’s happening in the marketplace.
4. Go Visual With Video
Video outperforms every other type of content on social media (by a longshot). If you want to enhance your visibility, reach, and conversions, emphasize original video creation in the coming months. (Selfie-style videos and live-streaming work especially well.)
Unlock Growth With Social Media
Social media isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. With very few exceptions, it takes months and years of consistency to drive the sort of results you need to build up your business.
The best time to start social media was five or ten years ago. The second best time is now. Make a choice that your future self will thank you for!
