Dipping Your Toe Into the Social Media as an Agent

[ THE SOCIAL NOTEBOOK] By Chris Paradiso Dipping Your Toe Into the Social Media as an Agent

One of the biggest questions I am asked on a regular basis is, “what can I do to kick start my agency’s marketing plan into the social media arena.” An excellent question and I would imagine if you ask 100 different people from outside of the insurance world, you would probably get 100 different answers.

Let me start by speaking from my insurance experience. I feel that I need to give you the agency perspective. I would start with a personal Facebook page. Once you have that completed, begin connecting with friends and family, including people who work inside your agency. The next step would be to connect with clients and/or prospects through your personal Facebook page. Many of you may think that this is very simple, but I think it’s critical to understand Facebook on a personal level before you jump into creating a Facebook fan page for your agency. Quite a few people outsource to a consulting or marketing firm to handle their social media marketing plan. A major drawback to this is that the outsourcing firm has little to no understanding of your agency’s identity or brand. You cannot take a cookie- cutter approach to this. There needs to be a very personal feel of who the agency is and what it stands for, as illustrated through your personal Facebook fan page.

The next step in the social media arena would be to incorporate an agency Facebook fan page. Before you do that, I would recommend taking the time to understand how Facebook works, especially by looking at other agents who are having success there. You can learn an awful lot from what other people post. When creating your agency’s fan page, make sure you include personal photos of your agency to create a personal feel. Don’t go corporate if you are not a corporate company. Image is everything, so make sure your image on your Facebook fan page matches the image of your agency. Make sure when filling out your interests and other important information on both your personal and fan page that you include your interests. For example, I included in my page my family, Yankees baseball, basketball, watches, triathlons, working out, small businesses, my children, the charities I am involved in, boxing, veterans of America, and my community.

A very important fact to remember about social media is that social media is not about you – it is all about others. 85– 95% of your posts should be centered around your interests, your agency’s brand, and your agency’s identity, not around insurance or related products. People are not interested in what you are selling, people are interested in you and your interests so that they can find a common interest to connect with.

Another key component of having success is spending the time to interact with other users by commenting on different posts, liking photos or statuses, or sharing other people’s posts. Success will elude your agency if you don’t interact with others because social media is all about them. I understand and realize this is only a starting point, but remember we all need to start somewhere. Don’t listen to the people who believe Facebook is dead – it has over 1.23 billion users – yes that’s billion with a B! If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth largest country in the world. So get focused, start slow, and move at your own pace. If you are just starting out in the social media arena as an independent insurance agent and you have questions or concerns, please feel free to call me. I would be more than happy to help you along the process.