Filling Insurance Agency Social Media Role with Family or Friend

Finding an internal employee to manage social media can be like hunting for wild game at a petting zoo. Agents, producers, CSRs or even insurance marketing people who’ve been on the job for a long time might simply not have the willingness, personality or experience with social media to make the transition from traditional to social networking.

When no one in the office is suited to handle the tasks of a social media manager, we must look outside the agency walls. Often the best option is to hire a socially savvy friend or relative of a current employee, as is the case with the most recent Insurance Marketing HQ, Changing Faces of the Industry, interview subject, Marissa from the Ross Insurance Agency in Holyoke, MA. The daughter of Ross’ longest active employee, Marissa was hired to manage all aspects of the agency’s social media program which includes blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and LinkedIn.

While it would be easy to classify her hiring as a case of nepotism or “knowing the right pers changing-faces-of-the-industry-ross-insurance-agency on,” Marissa actually has a marketing degree and years of experience engaging on social media networks. Beyond the knowledge, perhaps the most important aspect of her hiring was the sense of trust she walked in the door with because of her mother’s role with the company.

Strategic social networking thrives when the person responsible has a finger on the pulse of agency life and fellow employees appreciate the value of their contributions. If all agency employees saw Marissa’s contributions as, “She just plays on Facebook all day,” they’d be much less likely to share anything useful with her and may even harbor feelings of resentment.

However, because fellow employees know her mother and see that she’s dedicated to growing Ross’ community through the use of social media (while actually generating tangible results), they are much more open, and the social media activities thrive because of it.

While Marissa is a great example of how insurance agency’s can leverage young, non-industry talent to help their marketing efforts, an important point is the advantages that a close family member or friend can have when entering a position next to long-time employees. Not everyone will appreciate the role of a social media manager, but hiring the hard-working daughter, son, niece or nephew of a current employee can certainly help bridge the gap.

Still hunting for a wildebeast at the petting zoo? Ask around the agency, your social media manager could be closer than you think.

Many thanks are owed to Marissa and the folks from Ross Insurance Agency for their hospitality in welcoming the Insurance Marketing HQ team to their office. Please enjoy this “Changing Faces of the Industry,” video interview and excuse the flashy necklaces, we were celebrating a luau-themed end-of-summer party.