Social Media 101
A crash course for agents and agencies.
As an insurance agent, it’s important to remember you’re selling yourself, not a product.
People tend to only interact with their agent or agency when they have a big change (new car, new home, new business, etc.) or a big problem (accident, natural disaster, etc.). When faced with either of these situations they want someone they can trust. Building your personal brand as an agent helps build trust and authority among your existing and prospective clients. The good news? Social media makes this easier than ever.
Getting Started
The two most common questions people ask when launching a social media marketing plan are: “What platforms do I use?” and “What do I post?” There are countless possibilities for getting your name and brand out there digitally, but when you’re just getting started, it’s great to stick with some of the most tried and true platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and/or Twitter. The following guide gives you an overview of each platform, including who’s using them and what type of content does well on each.
Facebook is the standard first place to establish your social media presence, and, despite claims saying otherwise, it’s still the most used platform globally (approximately 2.7 billion people are logging on with an average user spinning 38 minutes a day on the platform). It’s a great choice for Gen X and Boomer customer demographics, as well as older millennials (ages 30+).
Even if you don’t plan to heavily use it, claiming and setting up a page for your business is still ideal so you can make sure you have control of your presence and your information is available via Facebook when people search for you. Facebook is also the ideal platform to be on if you think you might want to run social ads at some point in the future. Ads for both Facebook and Instagram are run through the Facebook ads manager platform.
Photos. Visual content almost always performs better than text-only posts. Share photos of your team, photos of happy customers (the perfect way to share a testimonial or story of how you helped them), behind-the-scenes peeks at your office, pictures of community service/impact events, etc.
Like with articles, it’s always best practice to include a little bit of text content. If photos include individuals from another business or organization, tagging them is a good way to help boost your engagement.
Graphics. Think memes, quotes, and helpful tips. Graphics can range from fun to practical and continue to give a visual boost. They do, however, require a little more work to create. Sites like Canva make graphic creation easy and have pre-sized templates to make sure your graphics are the right size for the right platform. Be sure to utilize your branding (both colors and fonts) to create a consistent, identifiable look that followers will associate with your page and content.
Videos. The Facebook algorithm is complicated—even for the best marketers—but the one thing that’s clear is that it loves videos. The algorithm particularly likes videos that are around 3:00 minutes or longer in length. This means that when you share video content within that length, Facebook is more likely to show it to people who follow your page.
Video is a perfect medium for you to share your knowledge about insurance-specific topics and show your expertise and helpfulness. A good place to start when coming up with topics are the most frequently asked questions you get from customers. This can be about the meaning of specific terms, coverage questions, etc. You can also share general information and tips about topics like home maintenance and how to prevent larger problems that require them to need their coverage.
LinkedIN is primarily the Business to Business (B2B) social media platform. When it comes to marketing your business on the platform, you have two options: using your personal profile or setting up a company profile for your agency. Your personal profile allows you to build your personal brand and share your expertise, all while engaging with professional connections, clients, prospective clients, and more. The company profile allows you to post as the agency but is a little more limited on the interaction front. If you’re looking to use LinkedIn as a platform, you’ll likely get more bang for your buck sticking with a personal profile. A company page is better suited for larger agencies with a big team to showcase.
What to post on LinkedIn:
Articles. Since LinkedIn is the premiere networking social platform, sharing information on your expertise and industry is ideal. Like with Facebook, this can be content from your website or industry publications.
Thought Leadership. LinkedIn is situated as a thought leadership platform, meaning content that shares insights, opinions, predictions, and ideas about an industry or topic. This can be achieved through text posts or in longer form content via LinkedIn’s articles capability. This feature--accessible through the “Write an Article” button at the top of your home page, allows you to publish blog-type posts that are longer.
Thought leadership can help establish you as a leader, but it’s also important to remember that it’s not for every audience. Commercial lines agents are likely better positioned for thought leadership type content on LinkedIN since the platform is strong for B2B connection.
Photos and Graphics. Like Facebook, images of your team, customers, your office, and more can play well on LinkedIn. Graphics are also usually good performers. Posts with data and statistics typically perform well, as well as infographic-type content.
Videos. Videos can also perform well on LinkedIn. Focus on quick tips and informative topics that help answer key questions.
Instagram is like Facebook’s younger, hipper cousin. With over a billion users, it heavily skews female (57%) and is most active with younger generations (think 40 and under). Like Facebook, setting up a business profile over a personal profile is ideal. This opens the door to features unavailable for personal profiles including a contact button and detailed analytics to track post performance.
As a visual-first platform, Instagram offers a lot of creativity but is limited in a few other areas. Articles are trickier to share thanks to no direct linking available in post content. Sharing them isn’t impossible, though, thanks to free services like Linkin.bio or LinkTree. But if you’re going to share regular links to content on Instagram, it’s better to share your own content (blog posts, pages to your website, etc.) over articles from other sources. If someone is putting in the extra work to seek out the link, you want to be sure the content is worthwhile and keeps them engaged in your brand.
What to post on Instagram:
Photos and Graphics. As with the other platforms, images of your team, customers, your office, and more play well Instagram. People love to see faces! Helpful and entertaining graphics also perform well.
Videos. Video content you’ve used on other platforms can translate well to Instagram. The platform also offers other fun video capabilities through Stories and Reels.
Stories can be more authentic, of-the-moment, conversational video content that helps you connect to your audience without feeling staged. They can also be premade graphics and video content. Another valuable component of Instagram Stories are the interactive features like polls and quizzes. Reels have fun flexibility, as well, and give you room for both playful and serious content.
Twitter is known for its fast-paced content. With almost 200 million users, the platform skews male and has a wider average age range than some of the other platforms, with the most active users ages 30 to 49. Twitter’s unique short-form content (all posts are limited to 280 characters) means content for this platform doesn’t have as much crossover as the others. It’s also one of the easiest to engage with others, pose questions, and start conversations.
What to post on Twitter:
Articles: Sharing news and helpful or thought-provoking articles are the popular types of content to share on Twitter.
Quick Tips: Unlike the other platforms, post performance isn’t always dictated by having visual content attached to it. Offering quick, text-based tips and recommendations is effective bite-sized content to share. That doesn’t mean you should skip photos entirely, though! Adding a photo can help a post stand out in a feed that can sometimes feel cluttered.
Other Platforms
Two other platforms that are likely on your radar are YouTube and Pinterest. Both can have possibility to use in your marketing, but both are also very different than the other platforms discussed above. In essence, they both function more as a search engine or a platform to store content than an actual social network.
There’s also always a new and emerging platform to enter the scene and give new promise and possibility. However, if you’re just starting out with social media marketing, it’s good to start small. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter are the four most prevalent platforms and likely the ones you’re most comfortable with using. Pick one or two to get started. Once you’re feeling comfortable, assess how--and if!--it’s worthwhile to invest your time and efforts in new platforms.