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When you spend workdays explaining the joys, benefits and best practices of social media/networking to insurance agency employees, common questions emerge. One of the most frequent inquiries, How do I attract more fans to my Facebook fan page?
Sadly and surprisingly to some, there’s no magic bullet that will instantly flood your Facebook page with droves of relevant, prospect-worthy fans. Set it and forget it only works with rotisserie ovens.
However, a dedicated approach showing the agency does more than just provide quotes, write policies and service claims is the best strategy for picking up fans who matter, and ideally, turning them into insureds who become brand ambassadors. I understand this blog post has been written dozens of times (a couple favorites are a the bottom), but here are nine ways to help drive your insurance agency Facebook efforts.
- Highlight Everywhere – Put a Facebook logo/link on your website, LinkedIn, blog, print collateral, front door, back window, above the toilet seat, on a company vehicle, tattooed on your bicep, shaved into the office dog, basically anywhere someone can see it.
- Invite Existing Email List (if you have one) to “Like” - Have the owner or social media manager send a personal email explaining why the agency uses Facebook and what people can expect along with a link for easy liking.
- Swag Incentives – Offer to give away a prize when you reach 300 fans or give away gift cards for every 50 new fans you get. This can work, but does not always attract relevant fans and often they will un-like your page as soon as the prize is given away.
- Charitable Incentives – The best example I’ve seen was an agency that donated $2 for every new fan they picked up in August with all money going to help a local boy with cancer pay for his chemotherapy. Sure it cost them $1800, but that’s money well-spent for many reasons. The agency was able to genuinely help someone while driving up fans and creating a scenario where people left comments like, “I can’t believe an insurance agency is doing this.”
- Ask – Once you’ve built up a few fans, simply ask every couple days or so for your existing community to invite their friends to be fans. Do it tactfully and include a funny image or some reason to do so, but it won’t hurt (unless you ask every other post).
- Leverage Vendor and Carrier Networks – Many carriers and insurance industry vendors maintain their own Facebook presence. Connect with fellow customers or agencies in non-competitive areas to learn and grow with each other while building a follower base.
- Take it into the Real World – One agency owner had the audacity to post a status update at 4:45 p.m. stating, “Headed to Joe’s Bar, first round of happy hour is on me.” Not only did 35 people show up (20 of which were fans, 15 who became fans), but he brought some staff so the team was able to mingle with customers and prospects while supporting a local business and generating a nice flow of referrals.
- Contests that Encourage Engagement – Works best when focused locally and often has a prize attached. A great way to get people thinking about the community they live in while bringing exposure and altering perceptions of the agency. Best when done in two steps: Submission of entries and then voting with encouragement to existing fans to invite their network to join in.
- Submit best summer vacation photos – fan vote – winner gets a travel voucher
- Submit favorite local lunch spots – fan vote – winner gets gift certificate
- Best local kids attraction – fan vote – winner gets pizza and ice cream party
Before getting to the last tip, one specific question that constantly pops up is the inability to comment on Facebook pages or profiles from an agency fan page. When posting on other walls directly, it always shows up from the personal profile.
9. Use the “@” Symbol to Appear on Other Fan Page Walls – After liking a fan page, use the “@” symbol before writing the name of a business/organization in your fan page status window. A dropdown will appear and you’ll be able to post an update that appears on both your wall and the wall of the business or person mentioned, with an internal Facebook link to both.
DO mention your favorite brands, carriers, local businesses, networking groups etc.
DON’T use for individuals who may not want their name blasted out for the world to see.
These ideas are not earth-shattering but the perspective given is aimed at agency owners and insurance marketing people committed to a well-rounded Facebook strategy.
As promised, here are a couple other like-minded articles to provide inspiration.
21 Creative Ways to Increase your Facebook Fan Base
15 Ways to Get More Facebook Fans
October 7, 2010 at 9:06 am
Nick,
This list is perfect. In my opinion #4 “Gift to Charity” is amazing and I’ve heard of other organizations outside of insurance doing this with HUGE amounts of success not to mention the fact that you are giving back to your community.
You created a Fantastic resource here.
Thanks,
Ryan H.
October 7, 2010 at 9:39 am
Ryan,
Thanks for the props. #4 is powerful, not only for individual agencies serving their communities and the people benefiting, but for the industry as a whole fighting a perception battle. I’d love to see every agency with a Facebook page do something like this.
Nick
October 30, 2010 at 7:51 am
[...] http://www.insurancemarketinghq.com/2010/10/9-tips-for-getting-people-to-like-your-insurance-agency-... [...]
May 10, 2011 at 9:25 am
[...] covered Facebook marketing for the independent agent. Discussing ways to drive more traffic to your Facebook fan page, along with effectively [...]
May 29, 2011 at 2:49 am
Excellent strategies here for Facebook marketing!