Social media engagement goes far beyond simple brand awareness. For insurance agencies, every comment, direct message, or online review represents an opportunity to connect with a potential prospect or current client. Despite this, according to Respondology’s 2026 Business of Comments Report, which analyzed 169 million comments across major social platforms, 97% of comments go unanswered.
In our recent 20-Minute Marketing webinar, “How Agencies Can Turn Comments Into Insurance Conversations,” we explored actionable ways agencies can make the most of these online interactions.
Replay the webinar to see why insurance agencies need an active listening strategy, how an active social presence boosts your SEO and AEO efforts, and why using tools like BrightFire’s Unified Inbox, which streamlines comments across platforms, can simplify the process for independent agencies.
Watch the Webinar
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Webinar Transcript
Read the full transcript, or use the links to jump to a section, and see what’s possible for your agency.
- Introduction
- A Common Scenario
- Beyond Brand Awareness
- The Connected Ecosystem
- Cadence & Content Mix
- Engage, Listen & Respond
- Engagement & Nurture Strategy
- The Cost of Slow Responses
- How BrightFire Helps Agencies With Social Media
- Thank You & Questions
Introduction
Happy Thursday, everyone! Welcome. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. My name is Venus Lanzot and I’m a digital marketing expert at Brightfire.
Today we’re going to be discussing the importance of responding to comments quickly, why your agency needs a listening strategy, and how BrightFire helps agencies with these tasks without it becoming a full-time job for you.
Today’s presentation is being recorded and we will email you a copy of the presentation in the next business day or so, so you can watch it later on demand. And you can always check out any of our previous webinars by visiting brightfire.com/webinars.
With that, let’s get started. So, I’d like to start by introducing my colleague, with whom I’ve joined today, Steven Casey. Steven is certified in Google Ads Search, Google Ads Display, and Google Analytics. He is the Customer Success Manager, Team Lead, and he is going to be a great source of information for you all today.
For those of you who are not familiar with BrightFire, we are a full-service digital marketing agency focused on the needs of insurance agencies. We take a done-for-you approach to all of our services so that the burden of marketing comes off of your agency, so you can focus on what you do best and grow your business. Our services include custom-designed Insurance Agency websites, search engine optimization, answer engine optimization, local listings management, reviews, reputation management, search engine marketing, and social media marketing. We currently work with over 2500 agencies across the nation, and our first customer ever.
A Common Scenario
Let’s start with a very common scenario. You post something on your Facebook page about a renters policy or an auto policy, whatever it is, and someone comes to your page, and then that comment sits unanswered for 3 days. Situations like these are a missed opportunity. According to Respondology’s 2026 Business of Comments Report, which analyzed 169 million comments across major social platforms, the report found was 97% of those comments go unanswered. That’s a huge number. And that matters because 68% of buyers read comments before making a purchase decision. Steven, can you please elaborate on why these social comments are important for insurance client acquisition?
Yeah, we can think of any comment as an opportunity to not only service the person who commented, but also to show everyone else that sees it your level of service.
Very nicely said. So I think if I could sum it up, every comment, every direct message, every reply to a review is an opportunity to have a micro-conversation with a prospective client or even one of your current customers.
Poll: Do you read other people’s comments before you make a purchase decision?
All right, so at this time we’re actually going to launch our first poll, and you’ll see something pop up on your screen in just a moment. And when that does, you will have a moment, about 30 seconds, to answer our question. And our question to you is, “Do you read other people’s comments before you make a purchase decision?” I know this is something that I do. Always. Whether it’s a restaurant, a hotel, or even if I’m buying a shower cleaning brush, I want to know, does this work? So this is absolutely something I do.
All right, I see the answers coming in. Well, as you all can see, it looks like most of you do the same thing as well. So, this is also reinforcing our point today, which is that responding to comments is very important.
Beyond Brand Awareness
Let’s continue. So, before we dive into the listening strategies, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the important role that social media plays in your SEO and AEO strategies. Social isn’t just about brand awareness; it also feeds critical signals to search engines and answer engines. Signals like engagement. Are people engaging with your content? Brand search volume, click throughs, and important backlinks back to your website. Steven, how does an inactive social media profile directly hurt an agency’s visibility in Google search and AI answer engines?
Well, when someone searches your agency on Google search and answer engines, your social media profiles often appear alongside your website and Google business profile right below it. So, if someone clicks on your Facebook page, which is inevitable a lot of times, and sees that you haven’t posted in a year or two, they may question whether your agency is still active or even legitimate. And now, with AI search engines like ChatGPT having an active online presence, it is becoming even more important because these platforms gather information from multiple online sources, not just your website, when answering questions from a search. So if you consistently post relevant content and give these platforms more current information about your agency, that helps build credibility because it’s info could be used in their response on that AI search engine. So while an inactive social profile doesn’t directly penalize your website’s Google rankings, per se, an active social media presence helps reinforce that your agency is established and trustworthy.
If I could sum this up, that would be that your website doesn’t work in isolation. Social is a part of that same ecosystem where search engines and AI tools are reading this information to decide who to recommend to people who are doing searches.
Exactly, there’s just a lot more avenues these days, so social is one of those avenues.
The Connected Ecosystem
Before we move on, I want to talk to you about trust because AI and Google talk about trust being one of the factors that goes into their algorithm in terms of what they’re going to recommend. So today we’re talking a lot about social, but reviews and agencies having the ability to respond to reviews, how does that connect to this topic as well?
Yeah, so it’s fair to draw a comparison between the two; they go hand in hand, and the same rules apply when it comes to building trust, comments, and reviews alike. When someone leaves a comment on Facebook or a review on say Google or Yelp, they had some type of Engagement with your agency, and then they might expect something back too, right? So responding quickly and professionally shows everyone that you’re attentive, approachable, and that you value your customer feedback. And as mentioned earlier, you’re not just responding to that one person who commented or left a review, you’re also showing everyone else who visits your profiles how your agency treats customers, and you want that to be a good sentiment.
Cadence & Content Mix
Let’s get into the nitty-gritty and talk about listening strategies. But before we get into that, I just want to cover the basics here, which most of us, I think, are familiar with. We’ve all heard before that you should be posting at least three to five times a week across your social platforms, and you want to have a good content mix like that shown on the screen here, but aside from posting content, what is the biggest opportunity agencies miss after they post, and how can they build posts that act as conversational triggers?
Engage, Listen & Respond
The best way I can put it is, the biggest mistake is thinking the job on social media ends once you hit that post button. First, you want to create posts that encourage conversation, ask questions, invite feedback, and give your audience a reason to engage. Now, does that mean you’re always going to have comments flowing in from those posts? Of course not. But many of your posts should be designed in this way to maximize those opportunities. Then you’re going to want to pay attention to what happens after you create one of those posts. You’re going to want to monitor comments, mentions, and reviews (if it’s on a platform that offers reviews) because that’s where you can identify potential customer needs and potential buying opportunities. So of course, if finally someone does engage right, they leave a review, they comment, make sure you’re responding promptly and thoughtfully. Not just throwing something out there. Make it a personal touch, because remember again that you’re not just responding to that one person; other potential customers are going to see those interactions. And that can help build that trust and credibility that you want with them, too.
Absolutely, so content can get the attention, but the conversation builds trust. It shows not only that person, but also the other people that your services are top-notch. That you’re here, you’re paying attention to these things, so you’re not leaving these opportunities on the table.
Engagement & Nurture Strategy
All right, so let’s get into some of the “how-to” details. What type of process should an agency use to turn a public comment into a private conversation?
Yeah, so the first step is to acknowledge the comment publicly for the same reasons that we said, you want people to see that your agency is responsive and paying attention. From there, if someone is asking more detailed questions or showing interest in your services, that’s your opportunity to take the conversation a step further. If you have their contact information, maybe from them being a previous client, or you just have it in some way, of course, give them a phone call. If not, respond to their comment with your phone number and encourage them to reach out to you directly. Or invite them to send you a private message, which almost all these social platforms allow you to do. Once you have that one-on-one conversation going, you can start learning more about what they’re looking for and guide them towards the next step. Whether that’s scheduling a consultation. Ultimately, the goal is to take that initial interaction on social media and turn it into a real opportunity.
That was really important. I just want to reiterate this because oftentimes agents might see that and they might say, “Oh, I know that person. I’ll just give them a call directly.” And they’ll keep that conversation private. But to your point, that doesn’t mean that anybody else who saw that comment knows that you did that. They don’t know that you got back to that person. So that’s why, even if you do know them and you call them directly, just acknowledging that comment on social media is so important.
Exactly, yes. Always keep in mind that it’s more than just the person you’re interacting with; seeing it, it’s anyone that comes across that post, and you want them to again have a good sentiment about how you interact with your people.
The Cost of Slow Responses
It’s a good point. We talk about the importance of responding, but also, it matters how quickly you respond. As we shared, the scenario that we started this conversation with, where a post can go, is answered for 3 days; the cost of slow responses can be high because comment-to-lead windows close fast. You don’t want competitors to come in and take that opportunity. And comments from existing clients can provide opportunities. Is there anything you’d like to add to that?
I mean, yeah, it’s just if you respond quickly, or not, right? I’m glad you brought that up. There is a time to respond. Because people, oftentimes, when they’re leaving a comment, they do want that instant gratification. That’s kind of the world we live in. So the quicker you can respond, they’re going to see that, as well as other people, when they come across that post, they’re going to see that hey, this person responded 20 minutes after, or an hour after, they’re going to see that timestamp, and that’s going to do a lot of good.
Poll: Does your agency have an active listening strategy for online conversations?
At this time, we’re going to launch our second poll. And you’ll see a pop-up come up on your screen. And our question to you is. “Does your agency have an active listening strategy for online conversations?” Please let us know. All right, I think we can go ahead and close this poll, and we will share the results. So, a whopping 75% of people who answered said they do not have a social listening strategy. So I hope that we are impressing upon you the importance of having one.
How BrightFire Helps Agencies With Social Media
Now, let’s talk about how BrightFire helps agencies implement a listening strategy that really supports them. Can you walk us through some of this, Steven?
Absolutely, so that’s our goal at BrightFire: to make social media management as easy as possible for busy insurance agencies. Because we understand how busy you can be. When it comes to managing comments and conversations, we have a Unified Inbox within your BrightFire social media dashboard that pulls comments and direct messages from your connected platforms. So everything is in one place for you to manage. Right, it’s a whole lot easier than managing it separately on Facebook and then separately on LinkedIn, separately on Instagram; it pulls all of those engagements into one place, and you can manage them from there. In addition to how you can use the Unified Inbox, when it comes to content, we offer content tracks that you can select during onboarding based on the types of insurance your agency offers. We then have our social AI feature, as well, which allows you to create custom posts and add more personalized or local content to your social media profiles simultaneously, with the help of AI, of course, if you want to use the help of AI. So, all in all, we’re helping agencies stay consistent with their content with these content tracks, with the post we put out for you, also, while making it easier to engage with potential customers with that Unified Inbox without having to constantly jump between all the different platforms.
Yeah, that Unified Inbox is really a powerful tool, as you said, pulling in those conversations across all of the different social media channels that are supported. There are also some other really great features as part of our Social Media Marketing service. Can you just elaborate a little bit on some of those other benefits?
Yeah, yeah, so it’s up to 32 posts per month, as you see on your screen right now. Again, we get with you on your onboarding call to determine which categories of posts you want. So we have different categories, we call them content tracks, as well as the types of insurance you offer. So we have a Content track for personal insurance, business insurance, life, health, and Medicare. And then, we also have a content track that is more general. That includes seasonal posts, or holiday posts, and that type of thing. So we can kind of gear it towards whatever you want there. So those are the posts that we’re going to schedule out for you, but a lot of our clients who see the best results also use the dashboard to post on their own. Because, again, you have AI capabilities within there, and you can also use the software and the platform to post to all of your social media profiles at once, too. This can really simplify your process for creating those custom posts.
And can you just tell the audience here what platforms are supported? Because there are so many, you know, like there’s Snapchat, there are so many platforms that are out there. Could you just list the ones that we support?
Yeah, of course, so we will post to your Facebook, Google Business Profile, Instagram, and LinkedIn. So it’s those four platforms there. The main ones out there.
At BrightFire, as Steven mentioned, we’ve designed our services to ultimately help insurance agencies; that’s what we exist for. And so not only do we have our social media marketing service, but we also offer an Ultimate SEO Bundle. I brought this up today because our social media service, while you can purchase that independently – you can purchase any of our services independently – they are meant to build on each other so that you have a full, well-rounded digital marketing strategy for your agency. Our Ultimate SEO Bundle includes our Local Listings Management Services, our Reviews & Reputation Management Service, as well as a custom-designed Insurance Agency Website, all in one easy package that is meant to save you some money. So, in addition to the Social Media Marketing service, if this is something that you’re interested in, you can ask more about that.
Questions?
If you have any questions about what we discussed in the webinar or our Social Media Marketing service, schedule a call with a BrightFire Sales Advisor.