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February 02, 2012 at 01:55 PM
Social media can be an intimidating talent to master. The good news is that, like insurance, social media is all about people. Even if you haven’t yet dipped your toe in the social media waters, anyone reading this article already has a head start given the nature of your industry. Here, we’ll look at why and how your business can benefit from social media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Social media is marketing
The conversation around social media is robust, but its power has yet to be fully realized as a marketing tool. In the marketing world, social media tools are a soft sell. Always remember this. Look at these tools as a way to present yourself and your brand to your clients as a trusted, reliable source of insurance information.
One caveat: Always remember that the social media world blurs the line between your business life and personal life. Absolutely anything that goes online can help you or hurt you and your business. Used correctly these are very powerful tools. Used incorrectly, your reputation can be quickly damaged.
Social media is about online clout
On a very basic level, selling anything is about clout. People buy brand names because the brand has a reputation for producing products that meet their expectations. Similarly, customers buy insurance products because they trust you. Everything that goes into online content — from your website to your banner ads to your pictures — needs to reinforce the trust that your clients already have in you. Fortunately, building online clout becomes more organic using social media. The reason for this is simple: People feel more comfortable buying things from people they already know. Social media capitalizes on this by segmenting the general population into groups of people that know each other or could potentially know each other through friends of friends.
For example, let’s assume you’re an established agent that specializes in getting life insurance policies for difficult cases. Once you succeed in helping one person obtain a policy, you make contact with them – say, on LinkedIn. At this point, you will have the ability to see their business contacts. With a little research, you can determine which of their connections might also need your services.
You can also determine which contacts may have something in common with you. For example, let’s assume you and your client both play golf. Out of the business contacts you have identified several other potential clients also like golf. You have just acquired some very valuable information.
