Guide to Mastering Social Media for Insurance Brokers

How social media enables you to be successful

By Kate Webb

Finding insurance leads on social media can be intimidating. Perhaps you have already made social media one of your marketing strategies without seeing a payoff on the time and effort spent. You are not the only one. From a group of surveyed insurance agencies, 60% overlook the importance of measuring the results of their digital marketing efforts. It is understandable to not want to continue with maintaining your profiles and pages when you don’t understand why you are posting or how to define success.

The Online Consumer

Based on Pew Research Center data for 2019, 72% of all American adults use some type of social media to connect with others, share information, be entertained, and even shop. These people translate to an enormous number of opportunities for brokers to build relationships online. As a broker it is your responsibility to not sell, sell, sell to potential clients but share insight about you, your company, and your unique selling proposition. According to GlobalWebIndex, 71% of social media users are more likely to purchase products and services based on social media referrals. These potential customers want to get a sense of how you do business through ratings, customer comments, and up-to-date posts.

How Social Media Enables You to Be Successful

Having social media profiles helps search engine optimization (SEO), which means that having these accounts and linking them to your website makes it easier for you to be found online. When prospective clients can find your business at the top of the search results page and are able to learn more about you and your company, studies show they become more comfortable with you, develop brand recognition, and have the ability to share your services easily.

Social Media Platforms You Should Be On

LINKEDIN

This professional networking platform allows you to connect with contacts and colleagues and join professional groups. These groups can be beneficial to provide you with industry specific tips, discussions, and links to useful information. Along with creating a personal page you can also create a page for your business for users to follow and receive updates.

FACEBOOK

We are all familiar with Facebook as a personal social media platform, but you can also create a business page to reach prospective clients and maintain consistent contact with current clients.

Tips for using Facebook:

• Be cognizant of the length and type of posts you publish. It is recommended that professional posts not exceed 100 to 250 characters. These short and easily consumable posts will grab the attention of your audience.
• Do not forget to add a photo or video to your post as these often receive more engagement that text only posts.
• The best strategy for content on Facebook is to offer a variety to test what does and does not resonate.

GOOGLE+

Best practices for promoting your company on Google+ is to create a page, and if Google already has your business listed then you can just claim the listing. A page on this platform allows you to interact in conversations under your company’s name in all status updates and community posts.

• Use Google+ Communities to focus on a conversation or discussion about topics relevant to the community.
• Join Communities that apply to your interests and designate on which topics you would like updates.

BLOGGING

While social media platforms are the best for short, visual content, a blog is the best platform for longer content and to build credibility. Via your own blog you can create content to share your expertise and opinions on anything insurance related. Frequently posting on your blog will help you direct traffic to your website and ultimately generate more business. Additionally, you should connect your blog with your social media platforms to fuel your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

The Content Conundrum

A common question once you have claimed your professional profiles and pages is what kind of content should I be posting? Great examples of quality, engaging written or video content for brokers to post include:

• Company events
• Industry news
• Insurance tips or best practices
• Common questions from clients
• Client wins or new client highlights
• Employee highlights

The sign of valuable content is engagement on your posts and pages, and engagement is created by standing out on people’s timelines. You may feel the need to post just to post but that’s just as bad as neglecting your page all together. When brainstorming what to post think about what you like to see on your social media feeds from insurance businesses or businesses in other industries. Most likely you do not want to see a feed exclusively dedicated to products and services for sale so neither do your clients.

Consider the 80/20 rule instead of a pure sales approach when sharing content. This means 80% of your content should educate, entertain, or offer a solution to your followers and only 20% should explicitly promote your business.

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