Social media continues to play a major role for insurance agencies interested in building brand awareness and fostering loyal relationships with customers. However, navigating the ever-changing world of social media can be overwhelming.
The Broker Link podcast of The Brokerage Inc. invited BrightFire’s Director of Operations Bob Whitis to discuss common social media myths that hinder agencies from taking advantage of the vast opportunities social media has to offer. They also dive into how to use social media for your insurance agency and how BrightFire’s Social Media Marketing service can jumpstart your journey.
Why Do You Need Social Media?
It’s no surprise that a majority of the world’s population is present on social media. In fact, as of January 2022, there are 4.62 billion active social media users worldwide. This is an enormous opportunity for your agency to connect with prospective clients.
If the copious user presence isn’t convincing enough, here are a few ways social media can benefit your agency:
- Boosts Brand Awareness
- Reaches New Audiences
- Increases Web Traffic
- Humanizes Your Agency
Additionally, 52% of social media marketers believe social media positively influences their revenue and sales, according to Smart Insights.
What Are Some Common Social Media Myths?
During the podcast, Bob breaks down common myths that often hinders insurance agents from exploring social media. Below are a few myths mentioned in the podcast episode:
- “My customers aren’t on social media.”
- “Your business should be on every social media network.”
- “You’ll have amazing social media engagement if you ask your friends and family “Like” every post.”
- “Social media marketing tactics don’t drive bottom-line results.”
While understandable statements, they’re all incorrect. Social media has the potential to reach an array of audiences, all with different needs and problems. However, you don’t need to be present on every channel to reach your target audience.
It’s important to understand that social media growth and building your brand online can take time. Every user won’t be your target audience and you’ll need to have a clear vision for your social media to help you successfully reach your goals.
How Can You Use Social Media For Your Agency?
Social media is a marketing medium that you can use to show off the human side of your agency. It’s a great opportunity to connect with your audience, build stronger relationships, and improve your social proof.
As for the channels to be present on, it is recommended that you focus on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Posts, and Instagram. We believe these are the best fit for an independent insurance agency.
You can post content about your staff, charitable events, or saving someone a considerable amount of money if they’re willing to be featured in one of your posts. For example, you can introduce new hires on social media, post about employee anniversaries, and other posts that help humanize your agency.
Another great way to connect with your audience on social media while always growing your brand awareness is through giveaways. Giveaways get your followers engaged with your content. For instance, you can give away an Amazon gift card and post a funny question that will catch peoples attention. Simply provide your answer to enter the giveaway. Posts like these typically get more shares, comments, and allow you to engage more personally with your followers.
How Does BrightFire Help?
We handle as much of the work as we can to free up your time. The networks we support are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google Posts on your Google Business Profile.
During the onboarding process, we create any profiles you don’t already have. We’ll make sure each of your profiles are professionally branded and configured properly as far as all of the settings and information you can provide on each profile.
We divide our provided content into eight different optional content tracks:
- General Safety & Preparedness
- Diversity & Inclusivity
- Personal Insurance
- Business Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Health Insurance
- Group Benefits
- Medicare
The General Safety & Preparedness and the Diversity & Inclusivity posts help break up the sales-related posts since most of your followers are current policyholders. If all you post is one sales pitch after the other, they’re probably going to tune you out or unfollow you.
Additionally, you’ll have a social media management dashboard where you can manage all of your social media profiles in one place. You’ll be able to see what we posted, when we posted it, and where we posted it. You can also see what we have scheduled to be posted.
You can also see performance metrics on each post to gauge engagement, reach, likes, shares, etc. Finally, you can handle all of your social media messaging right in the dashboard, so you can reply to comments and direct messages without hopping from one network to the other.
Our Social Media Marketing service is $90 per month. Onboarding usually consists of one thirty-minute phone call, and your services should be live in about a week after the initial call.
Like all of our digital marketing services, our Social Media Marketing service does not have any setup fees or contracts. We also include a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Ready to Take Your Social Media Marketing to the Next Level?
Listen to the full podcast here for more of BrightFire’s social media marketing tips.
BrightFire will also join The Brokerage Inc. in a Social Media Myth Busting webinar on Tuesday, May 3rd from 10:00am-11:00am EST where we’ll dive deeper into how you can effectively use social media to gain brand awareness and build social proof for your agency. Reserve your spot here!
