Hurricane Sandy & Social Media

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, one thing has become very clear. Social media can allow you to communicate and service your clients when your office is offline. I personally have witnessed many agencies use Social Media to communicate claims information, answer policy question etc for those in need.

When the power goes out, people get bored. When people get bored, they turn to their IPhones and social media to stay in the loop.  This reason alone should motivate you to communicate to your current clients to connect with you on your agencies social media presence.

We suggest you email all of your current clients. Tell them that your agency is unique, that you’re innovative and that you want to use social media as a value added resource for them. Put the links to your social media pages in the email, supply simple instructions on how to follow you and send it out.

The agencies on the East Coast that have mastered Social Media, they will get new clients because of Hurricane Sandy. The poor people that had insurance issues that couldn’t get a hold of their insurance agency will see their friends communicating with their savvy agency……. This equals new referrals for the agencies that understand how the consumer now communicates in 2012.

Insurance Agent - Free Fall Social Media Strategy Guide

This fall try to think of your insurance agency as the “product” rather than the actual products you’re licensed to sell. Then use social media to market your “product”. Tell people why you’re the best, why you’re different and why they should buy their insurance from you!

If you’re not sure what and when to actually post, use our below Fall Posting Strategy Guide!

Monday’s – Agency Promotion Posts

(Post at 11am or 1pm)

Tuesday’s – Project to be an Insurance experts Posts

(Post at 9,10 or 11am)

Wednesday’s – (Non Insurance) Post about things your passionate about

(Post 1pm to 2pm)

Thursday’s – Product Promotion Posts (Talk about the products you sell)

(Post at 11am or 1pm)

Friday’s – (Non Insurance) Trivia, Sports, and the weekend

(Post at 3pm to 5pm)

We just did a detailed webinar offering more insight on the above Strategy Guide.

Click here to watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGxbW65tCoo

Ken French Jr

CEO / President

http://www.benefitstore.net

Ken@snoozzy.com

973-607-1916 ext 1

Is Your Agency Unique

Every Insurance agency I’ve ever talked to, starts off the conversation about how “Different” they are compared to the competitor down the street.

Whether that’s true or not, the consumer is unlikely to see that “Difference” in only a few seconds of exposure.

Social Media can solve that problem, allowing you to project your agencies unique style on a daily basis, through creative posting and marketing.

The problem is, 95% of the insurance agencies out there fail to take advantage. They use social media as a place to “solicit” and repost industry news……. Sounds like your “standard” insurance agency to me.

Ask yourself how different are you and are you doing a good job communicating that to the potential client pool?

Ken French

http://www.benefitstore.net

973-607-1916 Ext 1

Ken@snoozzy.com

Getting Started or Re-Focused With Social Media

One thing we can all agree upon is the insurance industry is getting more and more competitive. In the past the formula for success was being a great salesman, knowing the products and offering great customer service. This led to referrals and a growing insurance agency. In 2012 you still have to do all of the above at a high level, but you also have to become more of an entrepreneur than ever before. This means creating a marketing game plan, making your agency more efficient and being responsible for more facets then just one on one selling.

This is where Social Media comes into play. It will allow you to create an instant brand for your agency. Allowing the consumer to understand quickly why you’re unique and different then your competition.

Cleaning Up Social Media Mistakes

I talk to many insurance agencies about social media daily. Many tell me how they created a facebook fan page or LinkedIn page months ago. Now they’ve forgotten about them and barely know how to access them. Problem is these pages are easily found on Google when a consumer checks out your “brand”. The consumer views these pages as the level of professionalism your agency can provide. When the social media page looks unfinished or inactive then your agency suffers, regardless of how you view their value.

Getting Started or Re-Energized With Social Media

Regardless if you’ve already tried Social Media or are creating a new presence today for your agency, follow my advice below and you will start moving in the right direction.

Step 1- Create or tune up a Facebook Fanpage, LinkedIn Page & Twitter Page.

-      Tune up means each page is setup esthetically in a professional manner, including a summary about your agency and has your logo and contact information.

Step 2- Synchronize your Facebook page with your Twitter page and your Twitter page with your LinkedIn page. This will allow you to save a lot of time and increase your agencies virtual sphere influence and SEO. The end result will be you posting once and that content being displayed on all three platforms instantly.

Instructions on Synchronizing The Three Pages

Step 1 – Go to your Facebook fan page

-      Click Edit Page in the top right

-      Click Update Info

-      On the left side of this new page click “Resources”

-      Select “Link Your Page To Twitter”

-      Enter your Twitter login info

Step 2 – Go to LinkedIn and click edit profile

-      Under the “Website” field you will see “Twitter”

-      Click edit and enter your Twitter login info.

Now when you post on Facebook it will auto post on Twitter and then to LinkedIn automatically, saving you time and increasing your sphere of influence.

With Social Media there are really only three things you have to worry about. Making sure your pages look professional, that you are constantly growing your connections and fans and that you’re constantly posting new content to influence your connections and keeping your agency “Brand” on people’s minds. Check back next month as we discuss the best ways to consistently increase your connections and fans!

Insurance Agents - Why You Need To Post On Facebook Daily

Summary: This free 30 minute webinar will show you what the top independent agents and agencies are doing with facebook to generate their own leads and referrals. We will walk you through how to do it yourself!

Register for a session now by clicking a date below: All times are Pacific Fri, Jun 8, 2012 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM PDT Tue, Jun 12, 2012 9:00 AM - 9:30 AM PDT Fri, Jun 15, 2012 9:00 AM - 9:30 AM PDT

Get Free Daily Social Media Tips Facebook Insurance Tips: www.facebook.com/BenefitStore.net Linkedin Insurance Tips: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Insurance-Agents-Social-Media-Tips-4105228/about

Taking Social Media Seriously

If you had a hole in your Insurance agency office roof would you fix it? Let’s assume you have a lot of people visiting the office.


One thing we can all agree upon is the insurance industry is getting more and more competitive. This is why having a strong brand for your insurance agency is so important!

In my opinion, anything that has your logo on it goes into the definition of things that make up your brand.

One of my favorite musical artists is a band called “Rush”. They have dozens of albums that are all unique and successful. I remember one interview with them a few years back. In short they said they only put songs on the album that have been polished a hundred times over, they had to be worthy of the “Rush” brand.

I guess my point is, I talk to many insurance agencies about social media daily. Many tell me how they’ve created a facebook page or LinkedIn page months ago. Now they’ve forgotten about them and barely know how to access them. Problem is these pages are easily found on Google when a consumer checks out your “brand”. The consumer views these pages as key pieces to your brand. When the social media page looks unfinished or inactive…… your agency suffers, regardless of how you view their value.

So did you ever think creating a facebook page and not keeping it impressive would have the same effect as having a customer come to your office with a hole in the ceiling?

Why Social Media Drives You Crazy

I was talking to a decent sized P&C Agency the other day. I was making some suggestions on posting strategy and they immediately said, “Well I heard at a seminar that doing that won’t work!”


Fact: Nothing is set in stone with social media; one man’s success could be another’s bitter failure.

The reality is this; everyone has a different set of “Connections” for their social media distribution.

Think of yourself as a performer on stage, you have a huge audience sitting in front of you. Those are your “Connections, Fans & Followers”.

So even though a joke may have gotten a lot of laughs on someone else’s page or “Stage”, well your audience may not care for it.

This is why people go crazy, there is no magic, there is no book that tells you the answers, it’s about knowing your audience, playing the odds and doing a lot of trial and error.

This means failing….. Something a lot of salesman can’t stand.

Are you ready to fail 10x’s to finally succeed……….

The ROI of Social Media

The other day I was asked for statistics on the ROI (Return on Investment) of Social Media. I sat and thought for a second and said I have none and honestly there are so many variables in play, I don’t think I could ever produce them. Not accurate ones at least.


It got me thinking……

What is the ROI of going to the gym every day?

It costs money, time, and let’s face it, you could still die young.

However anyone with common sense realizes the importance of being in shape.

I think Social Media is very similar. All it is, is talking to people on a daily basis. If you’re in sales, well you always want to be talking to people…..

I guess my point is, I think we are clearly at the point where we all know going to the gym is a good thing “In moderation”.
The same can be said about Social Media…..

The Facebook Asteroid is Coming!

I have been saying for the last four years that social media and facebook are a race. But it’s not a race to the finish line; it’s a race to cutting marketing costs / becoming more sales efficient / increasing brand recognition and evolving as an insurance agency, which = surviving.


Now on March 31st facebook will update all business and personal profiles to their new “Timeline” look and features. This isn’t a bad thing; it allows more creativity, the ability to feature custom applications like my “Shop For Insurance App”. More importantly it gives the agencies that are creative and understand marketing ……a huge advantage.

*Basically if you thought facebook was hard to understand before, now it’s going to be 10 times more complicated!

Unfortunately those that haven’t put in the time or barely could understand the old version of facebook will likely feel the wrath of this technological marketing evolution. It’s going to become overwhelming to catch up and likely will cause you to just give up…..

The Facebook Timeline – Insurance Agent Friendly?

Quick Overview
-The Timeline profile is currently only for the Facebook personal template.
-Is a more creative look to the facebook profile.
-You still need to “manually” change to the Timeline look.
-Eventually will change all personal profiles to the Timeline look.
View My Timeline Profile – http://www.Facebook.com/SnoozzyInc



About The Timeline look

The buzz in the world of social media upgrades is Facebook is the release of the Facebook Timeline profile. In today’s article we will try to answer what is the Timeline profile and can it help your insurance agency?

The first thing to understand is that facebook offers its users two different types of free profiles. The “personal profile” and the ‘fanpage” profile. If you were going to create a facebook page for your insurance agency you would use the “fanpage” profile as it’s specifically designed for brands and companies. You can see an example of a facebook fanpage by visiting http://www.Facebook.com/Benefitstore.net

The 'new look' has been voluntary up until now. From now on, users will simply be notified that they are being 'updated' via an announcement at the top of their home page, which users click on to activate the Timeline look. As with voluntary switches to Timeline, those who are 'updated' will have just seven days to select which photos, posts and life events they want to advertise to the world. Via the official Facebook blog, the site announced, 'Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story.' Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it.

The Timeline has been criticized for showing off pictures and posts that people might have wanted to forget. The new look also pairs with 'timeline apps', such as Spotify, which post every time people listen to a song, or eat a recipe or visit somewhere.

Using The Timeline For Insurance

If you’re an insurance agency that is hungry to market and wants to use social media to touch more people, then you need to look at using facebook’s personal template as your real time resume. Hopefully you also have a facebook fanpage for the agency. However you still must realize that potential clients are going to do a little homework on who is running your agency. They will search out your facebook personal page to see if you’re someone they can trust and do business with. The facebook timeline truly allows you to project who you are through virtual creativity. As a salesman you have no choice but to open the door to your life, this will build more initial trust and help you generate more sales for your agency.

I hear so many insurance agents and agencies say how “different” they are then the next agency. Well in the past “Showing You Were Different” wasn’t so easy, even if you truly were. But with tools like social media you can truly connect with people that you would have never been able to reach. The facebook Timeline is just another advancement in creative marketing. The agencies that are creative and focused will thrive; those that don’t believe in it will struggle to efficiently market their services!

Peanut Butter & Jelly – Social Media Connections

Back when I was in 2nd grade all of the students had to write instructions on how to make a PB&J. Then one of our classmates would go to the front of the room, where there was bread, a knife and peanut butter and jelly. The student would then read the instructions, while other student followed them. Most students forgot something; maybe it was opening the peanut butter jar, or instructing the classmate to “spread” the jelly. In the end the task usually wasn’t completed as intended.


Flash forward to 2012 and Social Media marketing for our businesses. We find ourselves with a massive audience that we can influence. We all want “action results”, however I find that many agencies are struggling to instruct the user to “make a good PB&J”.

So many times I see someone post, “Become a fan of our facebook page today, we offer advice, tips and fun, just go to our page and become a fan by clicking “LIKE”.” In this “call to action” they’ve forgotten the most important part…. A link to their actual fan page! It’s forgetting the little things that can cause your conversions to go from 80% to 0%!

So the next time you ask someone to become a “fan” or a “follower” or even to review your product lines. Take a deep breath, review the instructions you have written. Can the task be completed as intended by 100% of the people?