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March 09, 2012 at 02:21 PM
In the insurance business, trust is absolutely essential. Every agent knows this. What you may not know is that one client’s earned trust can be transferred to another person via social media. It’s the Web equivalent of saying to a friend, “I have a super insurance agent and I would highly recommend him/her.” Once a relationship is established with one person, they get to know and trust you. However, their Internet friends don’t “know” you yet beyond the basic recommendation, which is why social media profiles are so important. The profile is the first step in establishing trust with prospective clients.
In fact, the profile is so important that I am going to write two articles about it. Here, I’ll give the basics of setting up business profiles effectively and quickly. Next week, I’ll go into further detail about each section of the profile.
Creating your account
Good news: it’s possible to sign up for several social media accounts at once. In my last article I explained how to use tools to determine your target insurance market and find where your customers are most likely to exist across various social media platforms. Once you know which platforms are most relevant for your business, the next step is pretty clear: sign up. These tools can help:
Namechk: Checks across 159 social platforms for your name, then lets you export the information. It is helpful for determining what name to use. (Remember: Try to use one name consistently across platforms to strengthen your branding.)
Check User Names: Checks 300 social engines. There isn’t an export button with this tool, although selecting the button for their “premium services” will take you to their parent company, Knowem.
Knowem: Knowem lets you sign up for 300 social media services at once. Because almost all social media sites have been programmed to only accept real people (not simply computer-generated forms), signing up for each and every service can be quite laborious. For a fee, Knowem will do this for you. After creating just a few profiles, the fee may seem like a good idea. Additionally, Knowem is a good service because it doesn’t offshore the work and, by extension, your information.
The importance of keywords
To get the most out of your social media accounts, it is very important to create a list of keywords to incorporate into your profile. If you have already set up your profile, I suggest you review it once your list is in place and make sure that the right keywords are incorporated.
