Using social media as a bulletin board

There’s a reason it’s called social media — it’s all about sparking conversation with your audience. If you notice you’re posting quick updates on the social media pages for your insurance company and getting zero response, you’re doing it wrong. 

Find content that will be engaging to your audience — whether it’s photos of your team getting recognized for awards (the “We love working with Susan!” comments are coming…), asking your audience questions, or posting about thought-provoking topics (think “insurance myths”), you should always ask yourself, “Would I want to engage with this post?” before posting. You should also consider boosting each post on Facebook for a small amount, like $5, to a local audience, which we’ve seen increase engagements as much as 108%. A little goes a long way on Facebook!

Leaving your team out of posts

Why do people go with an independent agent? Because they get a person on the other end of the line, not an automated voice recording. The people at your agency are what make it special, and they’re why people choose you over faceless online insurers. So get those faces out there! 

Consider doing staff spotlights. Get your team in the habit of sending you photos for the social channels from local events, volunteering, industry events, and more. When you post these photos on social media, be sure to tag the featured organizations — you’ll be surprised how much they comment and share these posts.

Showing your team not only allows potential new customers the ability to see the real, local people they’d love to work with, but it also shows you care about your team and will increase employee morale. 

Thinking social media doesn’t equal “local”

It’s easy to think that anything on the Internet is somewhere lost in cyberspace, detached from the real world. But in reality, social media is all about being local — which is actually a major disadvantage for large online insurers. The best example comes from stories we’ve heard from our independent agent clients: stories of tragic house fires, and the first person they thought to call was their local agent — because they knew he was right down the street and could react quickly. 

So how do you use social to remind everyone you’re right down the street? You have a radius of towns where you sell insurance — it’s imperative that you jump on all local weather events: major storms, heat waves, tornados (they’ve all happened this summer). Post on social right as they happen that you’re there when your clients need to file a claim, and boost this post to your target zip codes.

Share local trending news stories in the community, follow and “like” businesses and local organizations in your town, and be sure to comment on their posts every once in a while. If you support the local business community, they will support you back. You can even do spotlights on local community organizations that you support or local clients — then when they re-share your spotlight on their pages, all of their local followers (and potential clients) will see your agency. 

Not utilizing Facebook’s easy advertising platform

We get a lot of questions about the ROI of social media. Facebook’s advertising platform makes getting your return on investment very easy. Run lead generation ads on Facebook and target them to local zip codes to people who are home or car owners. Facebook lead gen ads allow you to create a custom branded form where interested new clients can fill out their name and email. Be sure to reach out to all leads in a timely manner. Track the percentage of leads that end with written policies, and then determine how much you should invest in this program.

You can also create website traffic ads on Facebook and Instagram, directing people to certain pages of your website, like the Umbrella Insurance Page. This is less of a direct sale, but it allows people to educate themselves before filling out the “request a quote” form on the website. If you install a Facebook Pixel on your website, you can create Facebook audiences of people who have visited specific pages of the website, and then retarget them with future ads. 

And finally, to build your following on Facebook, you’ll need to invest in Facebook Page Likes ads. We’ve found likes cost about $2-3 each. Pick a goal following you want to get to, and set a monthly budget for Page Likes ads to get there. 

Jumping in without a clear strategy

Before getting started on social media, you need to know why you are doing it. You need to set real, clear goals. Establishing credibility and trust online for your agency is #1 — when people go to your website, they will click your social media icons and explore your feeds — what lives there should be professional, educational, and show that you are the trusted local agent. 

Write down your goals for your social media before you get started: increase followers, increase traffic to your website, get at least 10 new leads per month, and turn those leads into sales. Then, constantly measure your results and adjust your strategy accordingly. Tracking can be as simple as creating a spreadsheet where you write down the results of each of your goals every month. Be sure to also write down the top 3 performing posts on each channel every month, so you can see what’s working and not working. If you don’t have goals and clear objectives and aren’t measuring success, you are wasting your time with social media. 

Interested in learning more about social media for your insurance agency? Metter Media works with several insurance agents and carriers, and we can help. Give Lauren a call at 484-553-5153 or email her today: lauren@mettermedia.com.