Facebook announced today that they will be rolling out Deals for Facebook Places in the near future starting with 22 vendors from local businesses to large companies such as Gap. Gap will be offering at some point next week, a free pair of blue jeans to the first 10,000 check-in’s using Facebook Places on a mobile device.

Unlike previous Facebook applications, which did not allow you to check in directly, the new applications are available for Droid and Blackberry starting as of yesterday. So how can the insurance industry leverage this new application? Here are a few ways to implement mobile marketing into your insurance agency efforts.

Check-in’s for Charity

Many agencies have leveraged their Facebook fan pages by offering to donate a dollar or two to a specific charity or cause for users to “Like” their page. With Facebook Deals soon being integrated into FB Places this could now be taken a step further. Instead of having them like you on Facebook, you can create a deal for people in the area to come in for a free quote and in return you will donate a certain amount to charity. This will drive local people into the actual office and help a good cause simultaneously.

Gift and Quote Exchange

Another possible way to leverage Facebook Deals, is by creating a deal that gives away a gift. It does not have to be a large gift, it can be something as simple as a slice of pizza or a free coffee at the Starbucks down the road. Announce in the deal that the first 20 people to check-in to your agency and sit down for a free auto policy quote will receive the gift of your choice.

Donate Your Time

Every “deal” does not have to be monetary. Instead of rewarding people with gifts, offer to donate your time. Whether it is 15 minutes to community service for each check-in and quote given, or something quirky such as running around town in a chicken suit, you would be surprised what people might check-in to see.

Over the next month Facebook Deals will be rolling out, giving the opportunity for businesses to be able to create deals in their area. In the meantime download the newest Facebook Application for your Smartphone and see if any promotional deals pop up. Some of the company’s chosen to test out the new application are the North Face, H & M, McDonalds, The Palms Hotel and Casino, and more. For a full list of trial companies on Facebook Deals starting next week check out the Facebook Blog.

Recently we held the second insurance marketing twitter chat. One of the last questions that came up was “What advice would you give to a new blogger or social media intern?” Especially in the insurance industry having the right approach at your social media strategy is an important first step. I have included some of the #INSchat comments along with some of my own tips for social media gurus in training.

1) Don’t be overwhelmed.

Leading the social media efforts at your agency can seem overwhelming at first. Social media is meant to be interactive and fun so don’t worry about having too much on your plate. Blogging, tweeting, tagging, it is all progressive. From the point about five months ago when I started until now I have learned an immense amount of knowledge about online marketing and different social media platforms. It takes time to learn everything, so don’t be overwhelmed just have a confident attitude and dive in!

2) Brand Yourself.

This is one of the most important points. No one wants to chat with an insurance agency on Facebook or twitter. If a friend suggested that I “like” an agency on Facebook and they have a picture of their logo and only tweet about how they can give me the best quote, I probably wouldn’t accept. Your job is to represent the agency as a thought leader. Showcase some of your own interests, whether you like football, fishing, or french fries, showing your personality keeps it interesting, makes it more fun for you, and allows others to see there is more to your social media efforts than generating leads. Lets face it. No one wants to hear about insurance unless they need a quote or have a question. So representing your agency as a person not just someone who is trying to sell something is key.

3) Read!

This one probably seems like a no brainer, but reading is important for content ideas and keeping up to date with the latest trends. There is so much information out there about social media, marketing strategy, and technology, so read it! The Alltop social media page is a great resource for finding the trending stories each day. If you have a question, someone has probably answered it in a blog post. The only way to learn about social media besides experience is to immerse yourself in the culture.

Things to keep in mind:

• Be sincere and authentic.
• Posts never go away, think long-term.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Many people on social networking sites, especially twitter, are more than happy to answer a question you may have.
• Get SOCIAL! Having good content is a positive but it isn’t the main source that will drive traffic to your post.

Blogging lets individuals or companies have a voice on the Internet that is all their own and not limited to 140 characters or status updating rules. When done well, blogs reflect the thoughts, beliefs and expertise of each individual blogger, providing a genuine, humanizing look that serves to build trust and establish the writer as a thought-leader on a given topic, whether it’s insurance, mothering, gadgets or food.

The second ever #INSchat focused on the topic of blogging and brought out a number of industry bloggers and other social media users, all chiming in on a number of questions related to building, growing and maintaining an effective blog presence. By the numbers, the October #INSchat featured a total of 65 contributors who produced over 687 Tweets (according to http://wthashtag.com/Inschat) growing the number of #INSchat-related  tweets by over 140 as compared to the first chat.

A huge thanks is owed to all who dropped blogging knowledge, below is a transcript with questions and some of the highlights. A full transcript can be found here.

Question 1: What is the purpose of your blog (or any blog)? #INSchat

@Berry_Insurance: To inform/educate on ins. news, community events, social media trends…really, whatever will be valuable to our readers

@InsuranceMHQ: Earn peoples trust by showing thought leadership, community awareness and sharing resources #INSchat

@AlbanyInsurance: The purpose of my blog is create a more Informed Insurance Consumer… And build trust, community, & communication

@BrownstoneInsur: I regularly post tips on how to protect themselves against the top causes of insurance claims; i.e. fires, water damage etc

@MattByers: And sharing your own personality! It humanizes the insurance business since it is a relationship business after all!

@Bravuraleads @BillBateman1 Monetizing that “lead” from a blog is tough, I think it’s more about brand building and thought leadership

@InsuranceMHQ: People Differentiate against competition by creating content that makes people love and need/want you

@astonish_alicia: Blogging is to make confusing information (#Insurance) more clear & readable for everyday people!

@mcibelli: I like to connect things relevant to the industry to current trends or happening. I.E. silly bandz as a networking tool.

@ GarryInsurance: It is about showing readers that there is a face behind the computer who is interested in their well-being as well

Question 2: Q2: Do you have a blog ?content strategy?? If yes, what is included?

@ Lara_John: from a PR standpoint, there should always be a strategy, but depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

@MattByers: Working on it now. Part Insurance, Part Social Marketing Info, Part local resources.

@InsuranceMHQ: Strategy – Blog yourself out of the agency and into prospect meetings. I know @albanyinsurance touts this

@Berry_Insurance: We find content through industry and community news. But we blog about whatever moves us, makes us more real. We also have a culture that encourages staff to submit blog ideas to our writers.

@katieherbst: A good start for a blog content strategy is to brainstorm with your agency, collect actual customer Qs & list of tips for topics.

@Insurance_Maven: I use current events like Fire Prevention month, 9/11, and Life Ins awareness month.

@BrownstoneInsur: I save interesting articles, newsletters or any content that I find moving/interesting and use them as they relate to recent events

Question 3: What steps do you take to make your blog & individual posts more SEO friendly?

@katieherbst: For blog SEO, make sure your headline is keyword-rich! Also, lists are popular, for ex, Top 3 Ways to …

@Berry_Insurance: Good titles, easy to read content and relevant keyword tags. Also use Analytics and WonderWheel to check relevant search terms #INSchat

@maia_melissa: Link whenever reasonable, use the full name of any legislation that effects consumers

@jenmitch: Use keywords, but don’t write for robots. Good content will be shared and found regardless of keyword use.

@mcibelli: Regular updates. Use of keywords. Tags. Links. SEO really is no magic trick- just provide solid, regularly updated content.

@InsuranceMHQ: Keyword backlinks from blog to agency’s website are critical & the more geographically/keyword specific the better

@RiskMgmt: We have a “meta-headline” that we make more cookie-cutter/search friendly if we get poetical with the real title.

@InsuranceMHQ: Pop culture/human interest tends to grab more eyeballs than dry insurance content. Find a way to marry them

@iWebHound: Being a search engine for agents, we always tell MGA?s/wholesalers to have as many links to their site on other sites as they can.

Question 4 – How can you build a community around a blog?

@jenmitch: Participate in the communities of others too. Don’t assume everyone will come to you. Participate/Engage and people will come.

@BrownstoneInsur: This should always be taken into consideration. Don’t post blogs or tweets just for the heck of it. It’s spammish.

@AlbanyInsurance: Commenting on the Blogs of your clients or future clients is a great way to engage them

@greggweiss: The #1 way to build community around a blog is to not turn commenting off! 1-way blogs defeat the purpose.

@katieherbst: To build community around your blog, you MUST participate actively on the social web – and focus on bringing VALUE.

@BrownstoneInsur: I try to focus on issues/events that I know are actually affecting the community we’re located in as often as possible.

@jimkinmartin: I try to share my blog link in my email signatures, etc. to expose it more in hopes people will visit and follow

@maia_melissa: Respond to the comments made in your blog. Try not to let them sit there unattended. Engage right away.

@Zywave: Create valuable content w/in your niche. Encourage interaction and don’t forget to be interactive yourself!

@NicoleYeary: Using a tool like @gist will help you find and connect social media to your existing email clients

@ReyInsurance: find followers you think you can relate to…then stalk the hell out of them! Haha

Question 5: What blogs do you read consistently to stay in the know? Insurance, marketing and news-related.

@Berry_Insurance: Insurance Journal, Mashable Consumer Reports, InsuranceMHQ, local blogs, there are so many!

@NicoleYeary: Best blogs are source blogs – the tools/platforms – subscribe to the source content, get it first.

@astonish_alicia: Subscribing to daily emails such as insurance networking news, #comments and Smart Brief, highlight top stories!

@BillBateman1: google’s blog search is great for me – I’m too ADD to follow a single blog consistently

@katieherbst: GREAT blog on all aspects of content marketing, a must-read, is @pr2020 blog, pr2020.com/blog

@jenmitch: Mashable, Brian Solis, Chris Brogan, Danny Sullivan, Agent&Broker, Insurance Journal. (And many more.) I read on mobile.

@mcibelli: Mediabistro is great for marketing info, prbreakfastclub.com, mashable.com, and of course, InsuranceMHQ. Also, just for general ideas- creatosity.com, workawesome.com and lifehacker.com.

@InsuranceMHQ: Media blogs: riskmanagementmonitor.com, agentforchange.com, nusamsoapbox.com, ijacademy.com/blog/, insurancenetworking.com/blogs/

@NicoleYeary: Risk & Insurance, Senior Advisor, SellingPower, FastCompany, NAHU’s pub & more!

Question 6: What is your greatest blog success story from a networking and/or sales perspective?

@Berry_Insurance: We wrote about a new law and contractor certification and received at least a dozen calls in the week following!

@Brownstoneinsur: We got tons of emails/calls about adding earthquake coverage to policies.

@InsuranceMHQ: Other client reviews restaurants he visits on blog & sends email link 2 owner. Done 10+ times, written 3 pieces of new biz.

@alysondelpaggio: RT @ReyInsurance RT @carrie_AGIns I think what this convo shows is we have a group of true professionals who hone their craft evday.

@Nicoleyeary: @carrie_AGIns and Carrie knows how to utilize @foursquare as a geoloc tool to meet new prospects! #4sq #insurancegoddess.

@maia_melissa: great success story RT @AlbanyInsurance: I got to present with @thechrisjordan at the Big “I” Leadership Institute in SF.

Question 7: How do you make your blog more social?

@Brownstoneinsur: Allowing commenting/interaction is important. Posting pictures, holding contests and announcing winner via blog are good too.

@Greggweiss: RT @InsuranceMHQ: A7: I love answering the question, ?Why don?t I get any comments?? with ?How many have you left??

@jenmitch: Q7: You can’t expect your readers to be social if you aren’t social. Don’t just broadcast. Listen too. Agree with call to action.

@Insurance_maven: Since we’re talking blogs, Rick Morgan (@rickjmiv) started a FB discussion to link their blogs:http://on.fb.me/djLyWx.

@BillBateman1: RT @NicoleYeary: RT @InsuranceMHQ: A7: Cite other peoples blog content w/ backlinks and make sure they know about it.

Question 8: What advice do you have for a blogger just starting off?

@insurancemhq: A8: Write for your own enjoyment with the reader’s needs in mind.

@Mcibelli: Don’t be afraid to incorporate your personality. That’s what makes people come back.

@Lara_John: agreed! RT @jenmitch: Q8: Best advice I ever got -from an influencer level blogger- Blog. Just do it. No excuses. No fear.

@BillBateman1: RT @Lara_John: Q8 – remember blogs are for personality and info, not sales pitches. Add some humor, the rest will come.

View the entire second #INSchat transcript here.

When looking for the definition of a modern hometown insurance agency, Bucci Insurance of Warwick Rhode Island has the look and feel. Situated in a well-groomed business park about 15 minutes from the Astonish Results office, the Insurance Marketing HQ team recently took a brief jaunt over to the offices for another Changing Faces of the Industry interview with their social media manager, Khiara.

Khiara is a senior at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI and has been interning at Bucci Insurance for over six months. Recruited from a Bryant college fair by Tony Bucci, the agency’s owner, she’s in charge of managing Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, and the aptly named RI Insurance Blog. As a lifelong Rhode Island native, Khiara keys in on local happenings and community events. She has made a point to incorporate a sense of the Ocean State’s unique identity into the RI Insurance Blog by featuring local businesses, promoting historic Rhode Island events and designing the iconic Newport Bridge into the blog header.

A bit of a renaissance woman, Khiara also coaches a high school gymnastics team, is an RA on her campus, and works at a local golf course. Each of the positions provides her with an opportunity to fine tune social skills and network with a diverse group of people, valued skills for her as an aspiring marketing maven.  Most people are surprised to hear that she does social media for an insurance agency, which has actually helped drive some interest in Bucci as a progressive-minded agency.

We sat down with Khiara to discuss insurance agency life and professions in the most recent, “Changing Faces of the Industry.”

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When: September 15, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. EST

Topic: The Benefits of Social Media for the Insurance Industry

Reasons to join:

• Discuss social media tactics and strategies for insurance agencies
• Network with other insurance industry professionals
• Ask questions about social media to your peers
• Learn about new social media platforms and how to use them
• Have fun interacting on twitter and gain  followers!

How to join the chat:

• Around 1:55 pm EST on Wednesday the 15th go to the URL Tweetchat.com. Once on the site, you can login using your twitter handle and password:

• Once logged in, type the appropriate hashtag (in this case #inschat) in the space provided:

• Click GO.
• Real time results will show up for who is using #inschat

The chat:

• @InsuranceMHQ will be the chat moderator. He will post the first question by tweeting Q1: ( with the question following)
• To answer the question just tweet back Q1: (and your answer or comment here)
• Feel free to Re-tweet other users in the chat of comment to them
• Chat, ask, tweet about the current question until Question two (Q2:). Do not feel rushed, it is not a quiz, it is more of a conversation builder around each question.
• When using tweetchat.com there is no need to enter #inschat at the end of every tweet you send. The program will automatically enter it after what you type in the comment box.
• Your tweet will take a second or two to show up so do not worry if it does not show up right away.

If tweetchat does not work, you visit http://twebevent.com/inschat and sign in with twitter to follow and participate in the chat.

We hope to build off this chat by creating a monthly discussion on relevant topics that will help agencies create a more fulfilling and fruitful social media presence.

If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments or privately via our contact form.

You’ve seen the recent post on how to use Facebook Places for your agency, and we’ve shown you how to create a better blogging community, now we

aregoing to discuss the most underutilized social media tool by insurance agencies. Yes, I am speaking of Twitter.

Having and MAINTAINING a twitter account is not only beneficial for networking, it can provide a wealth of information about anything under the sun with it’s never ending stream of tweets.

However, even with the non-stop action, one activity you may not know about, is Twitter chats. What is a twitter chat you ask? It is an online discussion about a certain topic, using #hashtags (a word or acronym preceded by the pound sign) so everyone interested can follow along and see what others are saying about the topic.

Every week there are a ton of chats anyone can participate in or just monitor. The best way to follow these chats is to use tweetchat.com or tweetgrid.com. These two websites allow you to enter the #hashtag one time so it follows every post you make, along with providing a continuous stream of  people involved in the conversation.

Most Twitter chats have a moderator that poses questions. The moderator usually has a Twitter handle that is the same as the chat or will be the person initiating the discussion. You can answer the questions by tweeting Q1: then your answer. Tweet Q1 before your answer if you are responding to the first question so everyone can follow, then Q2, Q3, etc.

So how can insurance industry professionals benefit from joining a twitter chat?

Now that we’ve defined what a Twitter chat is, tomorrow we’ll list some of the most prominent and useful Twitter chats that insurance agencies can follow.

(Photo Credit)

(This is the first post by Alicia, Astonish Results’ new social media intern)

After every twenty-something throws their cap at college graduation, then pushes through the crowd to find their family, the first question posed to them is always the same. So what are you going to do now? Some know and some do not, but for the most part, every college graduate has one thing in mind. Ok maybe two: getting away from home, and most importantly, where can they make the most money?

After speaking with some recent college graduates, money seems to be the driving motivator in determining their ideal workplace (hardly a shock). Without a long career history, there is also a feeling that no dream is impossible and a willingness to reach higher and higher to get that “dream job” the first time around. Whereas some fail because of an overly inflated sense of entitlement or value, some succeed, depending on how hard they work.

The insurance industry is a bit different. Ask any recent grad why they did NOT consider insurance and they will most likely all say the same thing, “It’s too boring.” But when speaking with two recent college graduates who have entered the insurance industry, they both seemed to have legitimate interest in their jobs.

When asked what they liked most about their jobs, both replied that they enjoyed the extensive training and office atmosphere their workplaces offered, which happen to be two insurance companies, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and The Hartford.

So do they feel out of place in an industry that tends to be dominated by an older, less than riveting crowd?

One millennial answered saying the group she was put into for training and team work had mostly twenty-something professionals, so she felt comfortable in the setting. With all new employees gathered together to learn with one another, it creates a sort of morale-building exercise in and of itself. The second interviewee said she was the youngest in the office. And while it felt awkward at the beginning, she now enjoys her job and the people who work alongside her (an often hugely underrated factor).

Personally, if someone had mentioned a career in insurance to me a month ago (I’m a recent grad as well), they would have been greeted with a blank stare. After starting with Astonish Results as a social media intern, I realized that it is not so much the industry you work in, but what and who you work with. Working in an environment with vibrant personalities that can teach and listen has been the most rewarding aspect so far. I’m quickly learning that you never know how a job will turn out until you take a leap from what is comfortable, and open up your mind to learn something new, and also learning that insurance marketing can be fun.

So in a stereotypically unattractive and un-youthful industry, how can insurance companies and agencies attract bright young talent?

With many millennial graduates thinking dollar signs fresh out of school, the reality of the economy and inexperience often deals a blow to their delusions of grandeur. Fortunately, atmosphere and office culture seem to rank high on the scale of importance as well. If the atmosphere of the office can provide educational tools and support, while being filled with interesting and exciting people and ideas, the younger talent may think twice before saying “boring” after hearing “insurance industry.”