Social Media Practices to Help Benefit your Agency

Technology and insurance agents are not known to be the “fastest of friends,” and that speaks true to agents’ relationships with social media as well! The truth is: social media has become a critical part of business strategy over the last few years, one that many businesses underutilize.

For this blog post, we interviewed Aaron Gordon, Vice President of Gordon Companies - Insurance Services! Not only is Aaron an avid believer that celery is the superior vegetable, he has been active on social media for quite some time now and can provide people with thought-provoking insight on how they can leverage their brand through social media. “For me, [social media presence] is about brand recognition,” Gordon says.

Before diving into this post, it's important to note that content posted on social media should always have a strategy in mind. Start by thinking about what your goals are, and what you want to get out of posting content. You also will want to think about the way your agency is portrayed. First impressions matter, especially when it comes to someone's first glance at one of your social media pages. 

Your social media platforms should look like a strong representation of who you are. Planning out your posts in advance will help with consistency and timing. Your social media strategy will help you reach your target audience and business goals as well. If you have good content that you want to put out across all platforms, great! Gordon suggests spreading them out. “You don’t want people seeing the same thing over and over,” he said, “we’ll drop a piece of content on Instagram on Monday, Facebook on Wednesday, and LinkedIn on Friday.” To Gordon, no piece of content is better served on one platform more than another. 

You want your audience to come to your page and have a sense of familiarity from what they already know about your business; and if they are coming to your social media pages to learn more about you, you want what you’re putting out to be an honest representation of what your business provides. It is also important to make an effort to like posts, comment back and respond to DM’s. Other ways to keep your audience engaged include: posting polls, sharing similar posts, and hosting livestreams. Putting out video content, Gordon says, is a great way to increase engagement.

Once you have a good strategy in mind and an idea of how you want to be perceived on social media, you can begin incorporating some elements to add engagement:

1. Run contests and sweepstakes. Running contests and sweepstakes is a great way to get your followers excited about something and it also shows them how appreciative you are for their business, plus: people will share your posts and you’ll gain more followers! 
   
   
2. Employee Spotlight. Showcasing the fact that the employees of your company are human is a nice touch to include on a weekly basis. It is really easy for outsiders to think of the people who work for you as “robots.” When people can learn more about the people on the other side of the phone/computer, a sense of familiarity begins to sprout.
   
   
3. Interviews/partnership posts. If your company uses certain platforms on a day-to-day basis, you can make a post about them to gain more traction or host a live session/post a video interview with one of their representatives. Showcasing collaborations allows for more growth on both ends because the other company is inclined to share your post and their followers will see it, and your followers will take interest in what you share about other companies. 
   
   
4. Customer testimonials. If you are a smaller company that is interested in growing your business and have not yet gained a strong reputation, you could post client testimonials from the clients you do have to help gain some momentum. 
   
   

Whether you are just starting your business on social media or trying to revamp it, having a strong social media presence can help build trust and creditability and can take your agency to new heights. Stick to a theme, come up with a plan, and have fun doing it. Over time, you’ll see your audience grow and develop into long-term, loyal followers.