Now that your business has developed an identity on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, you and your employees have probably created personal accounts in addition to your agency’s fan page. It’s good practice for you and your agents to have pages so you can connect with clients if necessary and it also shows that insurance agents, despite public perception, are down to earth and regular people just like the rest of us. However, having employees on social media platforms like Facebook can come with a risk. Like your agency’s fan page, employee pages should always adhere to a certain level of integrity and respect. Also, you should be able to balance on the threshold between professional and personal. What do we mean by this? Well, would you want one of your agents to have picture of him or her partying or making an irresponsible gesture? The list goes on and on about what is and what is not acceptable for professional accounts. Let’s take a look at what you should preach to your employees about social media etiquette:

1. Appearance: We recommend that your default photo be a picture of you. Having the company logo or something other than yourself will make the page initially appear robotic. Nothing is wrong with having the logo in the photos section, but the default photo should be one that has you in it. Also, any other additional photos of yourself should always be appropriate and not include anything like partying or obscene gestures or poses.

2. Be careful with words: Anytime one of your agent’s post either a link or comments on a post, it should always be kept on the lighter side and should avoid contentious issues as well as libel. Additionally, keep your language clean! Never, under any circumstances, use any curse or swear words. Remember: you’re a professional!

3. Don’t Spam! Similar to your brand page, one thing to always consider is not post too often. If you post too much in a given day it’s considered “spamming” and existing and potential customers are not going to want to see you come up in their feed too much. When posting, keep it at a minimum and try to stay positive and informative so your friends are getting useful information.

Apart from your brand page, it’s important that you and your employees’ personal pages reflect not only who you are as people, but who you are as a company. Remember to keep it simple, tight, and appropriate, and you should be able to bring traffic to your insurance agency website.

After months of anticipation and speculation, Google+ has finally unveiled its pages for brands. Ever since its launch in June, Google+ has been open only to individual users, but this all changed when Google announced the release of “Google+ Pages” on November 7. Now that Google+ is open to the public and to brands, more and more people are continuing to register with the social media platform. While the buzz surrounding Google+ has subsided in recent months, the advent of brand pages and making the platform open to everyone makes it an avenue that should be and will be enticing to businesses. However, the question remains: should your independent insurance agency begin taking advantage of Google’s brand pages? Let’s take a look.

With already tens of millions of users, it’s no secret that Google+ is certainly making its presence known on the web. Frankly, you may be wondering why not to put your agency on Google+. On the week ending November 12, 2011, Google+ received more than 6.8 million total US visits, a 5% increase compared to the week before. Despite the social media platform’s seemingly burgeoning popularity, a look at some statistics show that it still isn’t really close to competing with Facebook. According to BrightEdge, 61% of the top 100 brands in the US have Google+ pages, compared to 93% with Facebook pages. Ford Motor Company, one of the first brands to use Google+, only has a little over 27,000 fans, compared to having over 5 million on Facebook.

As a small agency, it may be best to keep concentrating your efforts on building communities within the two biggest social media platforms, Twitter and Facebook, first. While the brand pages are available, many believe that they are not as optimized as they could be, and interaction on Google+ is still significantly lower than that of Twitter and Facebook. Right now, making these two profiles the best they can be should be your number one priority for social media. Facebook and Twitter stretch further than any platform and this is a case of quality over quantity. \

Beware of watering down your social media efforts, and concentrate in areas where you know you can succeed in building a community.

We all know how to promote our insurance social networking sites online. We place links in our email signatures and on our websites, but many of us are missing out on an entire outlet to share our links: the offline world!

Here are a few tips for promoting your social presence offline:

• Signs. Hang window clings on your doors asking customers to check in on Foursquare, like you on Facebook, or follow you on Twitter. Do the same at desks and counters by setting up table tents.
• Promotional materials. Display your social links on every piece of promotional material you distribute. This includes business cards, brochures, pamphlets, and print advertisements. Your website is already on all of these items, right? Your social links should be too!
• Voicemail greetings. This may seem like a stretch, but it makes perfect sense. Think about it: someone is trying to reach you, but he can’t via phone. Social media is the next best thing, so instead of just taking a message, your voicemail can direct him to another outlet to contact you! This one particularly pleases customers, as you’re giving them multiple options to get in touch with your company.
• Your vehicle. If you have a company car that already displays your company’s name and website, why not add your Facebook or Twitter link? These sites are easy for potential customers to access on-the-go via smart phones. They can like your page or follow you on Twitter as a way to “bookmark” you for later, something they’re not likely to do with a typical website.
• Move offline events online. If your company is sponsoring an event or contest, take advantage of the opportunity to drive traffic to your social sites. For example, if you’re hosting a pumpkin carving contest, have each contestant upload a photo to your Facebook page. The photo with the most ‘likes’ wins!

There are an unlimited number of ways to promote your online presence in the offline world. Get creative! Think of all the touch points you have with your customers – phone conversations, events you host, promotional merchandise you hand out. When it comes to sharing your social media links, there is no such thing as an idea that is too crazy!

Do you have suggestions for other ways to promote your Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, LinkedIn, or other sites? Share with us!

It’s no secret that it’s becoming increasingly important for small businesses to take advantage of the benefits of social media. Because social media platforms are constantly updating and innovating their software, it’s necessary for small businesses to keep up to date with the changes and happenings in the world of social media. Thankfully, you have this excellent blog as a resource when it comes to receiving advice! To kick off the week, here are some additional ways for small businesses to get ahead with social media.

A Plan and Strategy Are Key

Many small businesses often create social media accounts without any clear plan intact. They simply see that the major corporations are doing it and haphazardly sign up but don’t utilize it to their advantage. While you may not have as many resources as larger companies, social media is still an inexpensive way to spread your band. Whether the goal is to increase web traffic, sales or online presence, having a specific goal and strategy in mind is essential. Otherwise, your Twitter and Facebook will look like chickens running around without heads!

Interact!

It’s easy to simply post photos, links and quotes from your social media accounts. The key, however, is to reach an interaction level with your audience that will cause them to spread the word of your social presence. Promotional components such as contests, trivia, and virtual gifts will help engage your friends and followers to a much higher degree and keep them wanting to get your status updates and tweets. Remember, if you’re not supplying quality online content users will not hesitate to either unlike your Facebook page or stop following you on Twitter.

Make Yourself Available

One of the underrated aspects of having social media accounts is actually checking them on a consistent basis. There are too many brand pages out there that look more barren than Antarctica that can and will lower the reputation of a business. Large companies have the luxury of employing community and social media managers whose main job is to run the social accounts. However, since you’re a small, independent insurance agency your only option is to have someone add these tasks to their additional workload. Whether it’s you or another employee, it’s imperative that posting is relevant and done on a daily basis, and we recommend at least one Facebook post a day and at least three tweets per day. You never know, your availability online may be what prompts a potential customer into contacting you for business!

Aside from these three tips listed above, there are countless ways to better manage your social media presence. Use these to your advantage, and always come back to our blog for more social media information that will improve your insurance agency website!

Since the release of Twitter, there has been a misconception about its purpose. Many people believe that it is only useful for viewing status updates from those that you are following. In reality, it is so much more than that.

Although Twitter is a great way to keep your friends updated about events and other interesting information, it can also be utilized as an effective insurance marketing tool. Twitter is a practical way for businesses to keep their existing customers updated regarding any company news, events, and new product information.

While there are so many different tools available to help you get the most out of Twitter, I am going to narrow down a few of the more popular tools that can help you set the framework for your insurance sales strategy.

Here are a few basic applications that can be used to help you get started on promoting your business on Twitter:

Socialtoo.com:
Socialtoo is a free, handy tool that has many different uses! With this tool, you can:

• Keep track of all the people who have followed or unfollowed you on Twitter
• Have the ability to send a confirmation message to anyone that decides to follow you
• Follow people that follow you
• Blacklist users you do not want to associate with and prevent them from following you
• Follow anyone that has followed you in the past
• Create surveys

TwitterTools
If you run your own WordPress blog, then this is a must have! This plugin gives you the ability can integrate your Twitter account and your WordPress blog together.

This tool allows you to pull your own tweets into your blog and also allows you to create new tweets on your blog posts from inside WordPress. With this tool, you can quickly notify your friends on Twitter when you made a new blog post.

TWhirl

Twhirl is a tool that allows you to post Twitter updates, follow your friends and search for specific tweets. Most of the features that are available on Twitter are also available on Twhirl.

With Twhirl you can:

• Post short 140-character updates about what you are doing
• Follow your twitter friends and read all their updates
• Send users direct, private messages

Social Oomph

Formerly known as TweetLater, Social Oomph is a service that offers users the ability to enhance their tweets and actually send them through an e-mail! The purpose of this application is to help you be more productive and save time with your social activities on Twitter, Facebook, and even your blogs.

You can either opt to take advantage of the free service or sign up for the paid service. The free service allows users to schedule the occurrence of all your Tweets, track keywords, receive e-mail digests of keywords you specify, and efficiently view your mentions and retweets across many accounts.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a Twitter application that is integrated with Twitter’s interface. This allows those who are logged in to send and receive tweets. You can also view other profiles. In comparison to many other Twitter applications, this is one of the more popular ones.

With TweetDesk you can:

• Quickly send out tweets
• Receive G-mail notifications in your inbox
• Unicode art including smiley faces, arrows, and even upside down text!

Although there are an overwhelming amount of tools available to help you maximize your insurance marketing strategy, hopefully you will take advantage of a few of these tools. Some of these applications you will find are easier to use than others, but it is important to figure out which ones will work best for your Twitter marketing strategy!

It’s no secret the influence social media has had on Americans especially those in younger generations. What once started out as an application for people to meet and interact online has now become a super highway of sharing personal and public information. With this data, businesses and search engines are able to follow trends and tendencies among users and see what types of topics and products are popular and, more importantly, unpopular.

In recent years social media use has exploded at exponential and alarming rates. Now, not only do younger people use these platforms, but adults do as well. While Facebook and Twitter have over 700 and 200 million users respectively, it’s impossible to deny the influence they have had on society and culture. It’s especially been helpful for businesses. When information about the product is supplied and repeated, more traffic is brought to the company. With Google’s new social media platform Google Plus gaining in popularity, businesses are obviously at a disadvantage if they are not spreading their brand via social media.

Although most users access their social media accounts on computers, a new trend is beginning to emerge in how consumers gather and spread information: Smartphones. Ever since the release of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, mobile companies have been churning out phones with World Wide Web capabilities at rates that seemed impossible five years ago. Smartphones are so popular that, according to a recent study, of the people that own cell phones, 42% have a Smartphone. That’s closing in on 50%, and it’s only going to increase. Eventually, the inevitability of technology will cause every phone to be a smartphone.

So what does this mean for social media marketing? How does the increasing usage of Smartphones affect your agency and the way we use social media?

Because so many Americans have smart phones, information is being gathered and shared at the highest rate the world has seen. Social media marketing, and marketing in general, is in over its head with the ability consumers now have to see everything that is going on in the world wherever they may be. Consumers use Smartphones for surfing the internet as well as accessing their social media accounts. Individuals are notified of any happenings and updates on social networking sites through their cell phones in real-time. The consistent connection to social sites means agencies can remind and update followers about their capabilities, offerings, importance and much more. Additionally, advertisements are always in view of the user as well. Simply put, your agency has the opportunity to be sending messages and information to your followers wherever they are at all times, so why not take advantage?

Smartphones are overwhelmingly changing the landscape of business and marketing. Because information is now available anywhere, it’s up to you and your agency to implement a social media strategy that will provide constant updates for your followers with smartphone access.

With social networking applications teaming with Smartphones, spreading your brand has never been easier.

On Thursday we held the first of many Astonish sponsored webinars with NetVU, a national member organization committed to providing advocacy and world-class education to independent insurance agencies across the country. The webinar covered social media marketing tactics for the independent agency including Facebook, Twitter, and social media ROI.

As more businesses are adapting to social media, and recognizing it as a new marketplace, it is important for independent insurance agencies to follow suit and take the social leap as well. With direct writers and customers already using social media on a daily basis, it is critical for the independent agency to place itself in the forefront of the consumers mind on a consistent basis.

In the webinar Social Media Networking 101 for the Independent Insurance Agency we went through not only why social media is important in marketing to your potential customers, but how utilizing social platforms can also help you connect with current customers, inevitably leading to new policies, better customer service, and even referrals.

We covered Facebook marketing for the independent agent. Discussing ways to drive more traffic to your Facebook fan page, along with effectively interacting with your community on the platform. Making sure to not just build a community and post, but also taking the next step and engage with them on a consistent basis, will bring the best results from Facebook usage. Along with Facebook we also discussed how Twitter can be used to network through individual personnel and why building relationships with those who will promote you to others, could eventually turn into a lead. Remember, insurance is not always on the modern consumer’s mind, but everyone does need it! So positioning yourself successfully in the forefront of the consumers mind, in your target areas, is where you need to be.

Many agents know they need to be using social media but aren’t really sure where to start. Getting started with social media as an independent agent does not need to cost a ton of money or take away massive amounts of your time. As an agency principal or producer you need to be running your business and selling insurance. That is why hiring a social media engineer or intern can help you allocate the social media marketing duties to someone who can spend the time to do it the right way.

At the conclusion of the webinar we had a few questions come in based on the presentation. Here is the recap:

1.            What is LinkedIn? Is this another social network? – Ann

Great question Ann. LinkedIn is another commonly used social media platform. LinkedIn is a business orientated social networking site that allows you to create a personal profile highlighting your job experiences and industry expertise. LinkedIn is a great resource to connect with other business owners in your own industry and other industries that you might have a niche product in. I highly recommend creating a LinkedIn profile along with a company page on LinkedIn to showcase your expertise as an insurance agent or agency owner, along with use the groups and the questions feature to build reputation and network with current and potential clients.

2.            How often should I be posting on Facebook? What about Twitter? – Kelly

On Facebook posting every few hours is usually what I would recommend. You do not want to be posting five times in a row and flooding users’ newsfeeds but you want to have posts throughout the day to reach the maximum amount of people in your community as possible. Also people use Facebook at different times of the day and their newsfeed updates in real-time. So by posting at different times throughout the day you are most likely to have your message be seen. If you do not post weekly, users in your community may not see the relevance in liking your page because you are not providing timely updates. For Twitter you can post more often as the Twitter stream updates at a faster paste due to the amount of updates and the shortened message. Again with Twitter, not posting for a while might turn off some of your followers, so keeping a consistent presence and staying SOCIAL will allow your following and community to grow on both sites. Thanks Kelly!

3.            If we have a company Facebook, and have individuals in the office responding/posting, how can we make it clear that a specific individual is answering rather than the company as a whole? – Melanie

Great question Melanie, I hear this a lot. To make it clear which individual is posting on your Facebook page you can do one of three things. You could have the person write the post then do a “ – Name Here” at the end to show who each post was written by, therefore having you fans learn the names of the agents who are posting. Another option is to not have someone be an admin of the page, but to create a personal Facebook that is just for business use. They could become the ‘face’ of social media for the agency and post on the wall as so, so people see the name and face of the agent who is updating the statuses. The third option I think is the best. Facebook now allows you to post as the page or as yourself. To make sure when you switch to yourself it still does not post to the page because you are an admin, go to edit page, settings, and uncheck the first box that is next to “posting options”. This will allow you to post on the page as either yourself or as the agency.

If you attended the webinar and still have questions feel free to email socialmedia@astonishresults.com to contact our team! If you are interested in Astonish Results and want to see a free virtual presentation on how you can bring your agency into the digital age call  1.888.899.1936 or visit AstonishResults.com and fill out the online form.

When you think of search engine optimization (SEO), most likely the first thing that comes to mind is your website. You analyze your content, title tags and whether or not you chose the best keywords in general—but how often do you take into consideration your social media accounts?

With its growing popularity as a marketing portal – and its unique ability to effectively connect customers with brands – it makes sense that small business owners would be taking Facebook a bit more seriously.

With Facebook’s nearly endless opportunities for consumer engagement, it’s crucial that you take the necessary steps to ensure you are harvesting the social platform’s full potential—including your SEO efforts on the site. It’s the little things and strategic customization that can turn your Facebook page into a serious traffic-generator:

Give your page a clear, keyword-rich name—actually use the name of your business. May seem like common sense, right? You’d be surprised how many small business owners don’t realize how critical name recognition is—this isn’t the area of your account where you want to be creative. Use whatever your official company name is—this will most likely be the keyword your customers or potential Facebook fans will most often use when trying to search for you. Keep in mind that Facebook is a personal social networking platform, so don’t get carried away trying to appear for terms that you aren’t particularly relevant for. The more spammy and salesy you appear, the more Facebook users will want to avoid you—the goal is to reach your fans, not turn them off to your business completely.

Try a vanity URL. Recently, Facebook has allowed the opportunity for its users to “claim” a vanity URL for their specific page. For example, Astonish Results’ vanity URL is facebook.com/AstonishResultsRavingFans – it includes the company name and the Raving Fans reference, a key component of the company’s culture. A vanity URL can also be something as simple as your agency’s name – facebook.com/ABCInsuranceAgency – remember to keep it clean and simple; the point of a vanity URL is to make it easier for fans and customers to find your business page.

Use the About Box & Information Tab. Why wouldn’t you take full advantage of every opportunity to write descriptive, keyword-conscious content about your business? The About Box happens to be one of the few significant places on your business page that is accessible and utilized by the search engines. What may seem like just a little box in the left hand corner of your page actually provides you with a couple hundred characters to boast about your business, what you’re all about, what your employees are up to or even just share a bit of your agency’s culture. Every little bit helps, so make sure that whatever information you share is extremely valuable and relevant.

The Information Tab is another great source for keyword-rich content. Completing the Information Tab is critical to the success of your business page, because the more inclusive and thorough your page is, the more likely you are to show up in relevant searches. Facebook also allows you to provide links to other related pages or profiles, so make sure that you are using the Information Tab to draw traffic to other areas, such as your agency website, as well.

Build Links to your Facebook business page. The easiest way to build links – as well as increase your word of mouth marketing efforts – is to organically increase your number of fans. You want quality, authentic consumers to like your page, interact with you and inevitably share your business profile with others. To keep your fan base growing, you need to actually be social—keep the conversation going, pose questions, share your expert insight and dedicate sizeable time to your social networking initiatives.

Another powerful way to gain some traction and drive traffic to your social media account is to build links off site. This can easily be done by including links to your Facebook business page on your official website, on other social media or social networking sites in which you have a profile, as well as within any blog posts that you write. The more links you can build to your Facebook page the more credibility and authority you will give it.

All in all, it’s important that when thinking in terms of SEO that you don’t limit yourself to the obvious. Yes, social media is meant to be social – it’s all about building relationships and engaging your community – but you want your fans to be able to find you, right?

There’s no harm in boosting your social SEO – just remember to keep it simple, relevant and genuine.

If there is one thing we’ve all come to terms with, it’s that social media is just that – social. It may not seem like an in depth process – you type up a tweet, post a Facebook status and you’re done, right?

Not quite.

To truly be successful with social media, and Internet marketing as a whole, it takes stepping out of your comfort zone. If you sincerely want to grow your business—well be prepared to roll up your sleeves and do a bit of work.

Social media goes far beyond simply connecting with the public on Facebook and replying to client questions and concerns on Twitter—social media requires strategy, passion and a time commitment.

Through all this hype, many businesses are in fact seeing success on social media; thus motivating others to take the plunge. However, is everyone equally successful in social media? What are the superstars doing right? And better yet, what can we learn from them?

1. Plan Your Social Media Strategy

You can’t just jump into the arena and expect that things would just fall into place. Would you dive head first into the deep end, never having swam before? You need practice, time to prepare and a plan of action. Before you even create a social media account as yourself: “why am I doing this” and “why do I need to do this?” You need to determine what the purpose of your social site will be – is it a friendly Facebook page where you can have a more casual conversation with your community, or a professional blog where you want to brand yourself as an insurance expert? Plan your social approach with your goals in mind – and always remain consistent. Be prepared to invest time and resources.

2. Structure Your Online Presence

Do you have random social accounts on ever social networking site you’ve come across? Does your company profile look different from one site to another? Simple things like using the same logo, fonts, colors, etc. on – each social account – helps tie your web presences together, keeping everything uniform.

3. Conversation is Critical

“Networking” means socializing, conversing and inevitably forming mutually beneficial relationships—making it absolutely essential that your agency is on social media, participating and listening to your target audience(s). You should be cultivating a 2-way form of communication, equipped with a feedback loop and all. You want your clients’ opinions and insights to be heard – they help you to strengthen your social brand and the overall success of your business venture. Share interesting information on your social sites, ask for feedback, respond to comments, and keep the cycle of open communication flowing.

4. Share Valuable Information

It’s key to make your presence on social media not only valuable to yourself, but also to your readers, fans and followers. Share information that is helpful to your community – rather than constantly sending out spammy, self-promotional sales pitches.  Try highlighting your insurance expertise in a high-quality blog post or share a link about a recent news story that may affect your target audience; enhancing it with a comment which includes your professional opinion. It’s important to also share novelty content, such as upcoming events in your local community, stats from a favorite local sports team or pictures from the office party you had for a CSR’s birthday. It’s a delicate blend, but once you master the art of integrating newsworthy with entertaining, you will be paving your way to a successful social media strategy.
5. Be Committed, Be Consistent

This is where the time and dedication fact comes into play. In order to truly be successful in social media you must be consistent in the conversations you are having, helping to maintain and strengthen your brand image across the Internet. Being consistent, means you have to be committed, designating s set time in which you can focus solely on your social media accounts. Engagement is the keyword here; a half-hearted effort is easily detected, so always be genuine in your endeavors.

These are just a few simple things you can do to get the most out of your social media efforts. Have some additional suggestions? Post a comment below or feel free to reach out on Twitter! @Astonish_Kelly

When it comes to Social Media Marketing it is  easy to get caught up in experimenting with different types of strategies and tactics to engage both your veteran and potential customers.  Social Media is an animal that is evolving and changing almost daily it seems but there are some elements that will remain constant.   Here are some check points that everyone should use when evaluating the health and performance of their social media campaigns:

Who Are You Writing To?

When creating content that will be pushed to your social networks always keep in mind who it is you are trying to reach.  You want to customize your content so that it will spark a conversation between you and the customer.  Write content for both veteran and potential customers, when you narrow the focus of your posts it can make the customer feel that you are speaking directly to them.  This will make them feel that they are valued, which they are, and will increase their loyalty to your brand as well as the likelihood of repeated business.

Are You Meeting Their Needs?

The customer has come to your page.  Now what?  Connecting with the customer is crucial for brand loyalty, however, it is evermore important that you reach them where they are at.  Ask yourself why they have come to that specific page.  They have come their with a need, and it is your job to fill that need.  By connecting with the customer and finding out why they have come and how you can best help them, you will build a valuable, lasting relationship.  If one person is coming to you with a specific need, chances are other people have that same need.  From there you can then cater and improve upon the customers experience with your business.

How Are You Addressing Them?

Believe it or not when it comes to status updates, tweets, posts, etc., you have a tone of voice that affects the customer.   It is important that you do not speak above or below the level of your customers.  Viewers will leave if the conversation is confusing or boring.    Also, be careful not to talk down to your viewers as it could offend and anger  them, causing them to leave your page potentially harm the reputation of your business.  Meet the customer where they are at and make the conversation worthwhile for individual and you will see a rise in engagement.

How Do You Handle Customer Feedback?

Often times, whether you ask for it, people will address their opinions, complaints, concerns, and ideas on how to make your business better.  Don’t take offense, take action.  Create a way for people to provide you with feedback then plan to address that feedback.  From there show your customers that you valued their opinion and how you changed things to meet their needs and suggestions.  This shows you value their input and truly care about them, important to the customer and could be the deciding factor in them choosing to go with your business.

Are You Maintaining That Conversation?

A strong relationship requires maintenance.  You don’t talk to someone once and expect them to be a close friend for life just from that one conversation.  To build a strong relationship with your customers there must be dynamic conversation, whether it be through the comment section on your blog, Facebook Page or tweets.  Twitter mentioning and conversations are great for building relationship because it is a conversation between you and that customer only, that the rest of your followers can see.  The more your customers see you engaging personally with your customers, the more they see how highly you value your customers.  Follow up with customers who had questions to see if their needs were met.  Make interacting with your previous and potential customers a daily routine and see how this will build your relationship with them.

Get with your team and ask and answer the questions above, touching upon how you can improve your social media strategy to better reach, connect, engage and cultivate the relationships you have with your customers.  Remember the customer is the most important factor to the success of your business.  Social Media is the avenue that will allow you to connect, improve and grow your relationship with the customer.  Make your campaign all about them and not only will you have a long-lasting customer but you will be astonished at the amount of referrals you will receive from their testimonials.  Word of mouth is still one of the most effective forms of marketing, cultivate it by placing the customer above anything else.