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.

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.

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.

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

Building a social media program from scratch, with no experience can be a daunting task. With all the networks, people and platforms, insurance agencies often struggle with where to start and how to proceed. Fortunately, one of the best ways to get up to speed quickly is to follow other prominent social media users from your industry, learn from them, and incorporate lessons into your own social web presence.

Below is an assemblage of 27 of my favorite insurance industry social media resources and people. If you’ve never read a blog, followed a twitter feed or created a Youtube video, here are 27 good places to start.

In no specific order of importance, here’s why social media is cool in the insurance industry:

Lastly, to take the marketing lesson a bit further, this post falls into a category which can be classified as Linkbait. Linkbait is not a bad thing, unless it is done disingenuously or coercively, but it’s useful for growing the presence of your blog.

For a definition of linkbait, we turn to web1marketing.com:

Link bait (or linkbait) refers to anything on a website that encourages links from other websites. It can include content, online tools, downloads, or anything else that another site owner might find compelling enough to link to. Link bait is important because most search engines use backlinks as a major factor in determining ranking.

Many thanks to everyone who’s helped grow the insurance industry’s social web presence. Obviously this list is not complete, so if you know another person or site that is helping to make social media cool in the insurance industry, please leave it in the comments section. Self-promotional plugs are not just OK, they are STRONGLY encouraged.

Depending on who you ask, LinkedIn is the Facebook of the business world, an online resume, a hotbed of conversations about pertinent marketing topics, an SEO tool, a networking goldmine,  a digital grapevine, or if you’re smart, all of the above.

Because it’s not used as fervently for direct communication with fans, followers and friends like Twitter or the aforementioned Facebook, LinkedIn generally takes a back seat to other social networks when it comes to attention paid. However, even if you don’t plan on whittling away hours conversing on LinkedIn, creating and optimizing a profile can still be a valuable asset for insurance marketing efforts and your personal or professional information shadow.

LinkedIn works best as a B2B communication tool since you are able to target specific niches and even professionals within those niches. Special interest groups, job postings, internal email, business and organizational pages, events, learning centers and a host of other tools exist to foster networking between like-minded individuals, whether they share an interest in business insurance or pig farming consultancy.

A list of some valuable LinkedIn features is included below.

• 4 Minutes to Optimize a LinkedIn Profile for SEO – Courtesy of Hubspot, quick and easy but a quality source of keyword optimized backlinks, especially if done by the entire office
• Applications – Updates from WordPress blogs and Twitter feeds can be directly fed onto a LinkedIn profile showing visitors your recent updates and providing a nice source of backlinks. Just look for the “Add Applications” link when editing your profile (see below).

• LinkedIn “Answers” – Whether it’s a policy-related question you can’t answer or an attempt to get the inside scoop on a potential vendor, a large network of insurance professionals are ready and willing to share. You can even push a question out to 200 of your contacts encouraging them to browse over and offer some wisdom.
• Groups – Unlike other forums where a few senior moderators set the tone and do the majority of posting and policing, LinkedIn forums are much more social in nature attracting one-time visitors who need quick advice and regular contributors who manage the group’s direction. One Workers Compensation forum has over 4,000 members and provides a real-time view of pertinent issues.  Anyone can be a group leader too, it just takes a desire to educate, learn, and nurture and you can even find geo-specific groups that will help with local networking, both business and personal. Beware though, lots of people use it for direct marketing.
• Recommendations – Has someone gone above and beyond in helping you? Writing a recommendation is one of the most personal and gratifying ways to show your appreciation.
• Employment – Whether seeking or hiring, LinkedIn is a phenomenal resource. Posting jobs costs money, but you have the advantage of reviewing past work, reading recommendations and even finding out other people they’ve worked with before even scheduling an interview.
• Custom Company Profile – If you really want to get serious, pay a little extra and go this route, it’s practically like having a second website, albeit much easier to manage. In LinkedIn’s own words:
  • Custom Company Profiles enable companies and other organizations to enhance their recruiting branding and create a targeted experience for prospective candidates on LinkedIn. Using Custom Company Profiles, a company can provide a rich, multimedia overview of careers offered, through a variety of modules including recruitment messaging, employee/recruiter spotlights, jobs, polls and videos.

To further education, I highly recommend reading Ten Ways for Small Business to use LinkedIn by Guy Kawasaki on the American Express Open Forums. The post shares a wealth of information on finding the right vendors, monitoring competition, networking and a number of other topics.

While it may not have Farmville or #FollowFridays, LinkedIn is home to over 20 million users with a social network body and a professional development soul which could make it the most productive social media tool in the arsenal. Feel free to connect with me (http://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbrown1) and maybe we can exchange recommendations.

(Special thanks to my twitter pal @AlysonDelPaggio for inspiring this post.)

In an effort to inspire agencies to piggyback off insurance provider’s social media efforts, recently IMHQ detailed the Greatest Spokesperson Ever in the World exploits of Nationwide Insurance. As our second installment, today we kick the tires of the State Farm Insurance social media insurance marketing program.

In an amazingly bizarre collaboration that’s almost devoid of State Farm branding, the insurance provider teams with cultural music, dance and viral video icons OK Go to create a music video for the song “This Too Shall Pass” brought full circle by a Rube Goldberg machine. If you’re not familiar with Rube Goldberg, he was a Pulitzer Prize winning author and political cartoonist.  After a successful media career, his fame was pushed to the extreme because of the “Rube Goldberg Contraption” described on RubeGoldberg.com as:

“…an elaborate set of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups, and rods, put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles, and live animals – takes a simple task and makes it extraordinarily complicated.”

The video can be seen below and is simply too crazy to describe. Think of the childhood game mousetrap and multiply the scope by about 50,000 and you have a Ruth Goldberg Contraption. Aside from the credits page at the end, can you spot the State Farm logo?

According to a Wall Street Journal blog, State Farm has also released a mobile app that aims to Help Young Drivers Learn Safety Skills, while lowering their monthly premiums. The WSJ Digits Blog explains, “The Steer Clear app, which became available last month, is part of a State Farm program that gives drivers up to the age of 25 as much as a 15% discount if they meet the insurance company’s requirements and if the discount is available in their state. Once young drivers complete the program on the iPhone app, they can bring the phone to an agent to qualify for the discount.”

In addition to these special endeavors, State Farm also maintains a consistent presence on Facebook, Youtube, Flickr and Twitter sharing details on everything from sporting events they sponsor to “green” initiatives to the traditional outbound customer service.

Many thanks to the gracious folks at Davis & Towle Insurance in New Hampshire for inspiring this blog post.

While many insurance agencies are playing catch-up  in their social media efforts, the country’s biggest insurance providers are running programs to provide inspiration and content that agency partners can share and learn from to boost their own insurance marketing efforts. To highlight the initiatives, IMHQ is breaking down the social media endeavors of the major  insurers, focusing on what agencies can learn and leverage for their own good.

Today, we take a peek under the hood of Nationwide Insurance to see how they are, “..on our side,” with the help of social media.

The biggest campaign Nationwide has going right now is, The World’s Greatest Spokesperson in the World (WGS), which is supported by TV ads, a dedicated splash page,  Twitter account, Facebook Fan page and a Youtube channel all sharing TWG’s latest entertaining exploits. At a time when hyperbolic overstatement  is all the rage in advertising, Nationwide seems to have struck a chord.

The choice of a generic looking (as in not animated or Cro-magnon), non-celebrity as the spokesperson is a curious decision, but one that allows Nationwide to show off a humorous, human and creative side without selling out its brand. The campaign is special because the WGS actually interacts with fellow Nationwide employees and fans in his uniquely self-important demeanor, making them feel like part of the campaign.

I found the armpit version of the Nationwide jingle, alphabet soup trick and the WGS statement, “My words are worth a thousand pictures,” to be quite humorous. There’s also a handful of 70’s and 80’s mock-movie clips showing a mustachioed WGS in roles that prepared him for his comeback as WGS. And of course, he’s always available to promote programs such as Nationwide’s new Vanishing Deductible, which rewards good drivers.

Speaking about the campaign, Steven Schreibman, vice president of advertising and brand management for Nationwide said,

“Nationwide is outspent by most of our competitors, so this campaign will leverage on-line and viral media in a huge way to give fans a chance to learn more about our legendary pitchman and hopefully build a dialogue with Nationwide about how our personalized customer service can make their insurance experience better. The World’s Greatest Spokesperson in the World will be an advocate for consumers, listening to the things about insurance that frustrate them, and then challenging Nationwide to address these concerns.”

Aside from the WGS campaign, Nationwide has a healthy and dedicated following across the social web. Their choice to accept and respond to criticisms on the Facebook fan page shows they are transparent in their use of social media and not trying to force feed messages while ignoring feedback.

Nationwide’s social media program goes deeper but two other areas of focus are the strong partnership with NASCAR and an iPhone app called Cartopia which helps people, “Make car shopping a little easier and fender benders a little less of a hassle.”

If your agency is affiliated with Nationwide, they’ve provided some compelling content for you to build off of. The insurance provider is breathing humor into insurance and my guess would be they’re hoping some of their own agents will adopt the World’s Greatest Spokesperson’s  mentality and become the World’s Greatest Insurance Agents.

Most insurance agencies existed before social media exploded as the de facto marketing initiative all small businesses must master. In that vein, Denise Zimmerman of imediaconnection.com wrote a must-read blog post, “7 things social media can’t do,” offering the following limitation, “Social media can’t change the inherent popularity, appeal, or success of your brand.”

Simply put, if you’re not already cool, participating in social media won’t make you cool. Insurance just isn’t that interesting to the layperson, so if you’re operating behind a curtain and participating just to be “out there”, chances are, it’s not doing much good. In general, people only care about “your brand” if you affect them is some positive, negative or useful way. If you’ve helped a lot more people than screwed, your brand is probably ripe for social media since the “popularity, appeal or success” will be based on positive experiences.  But ripe and ready are two different things. 

To be clear, Ms. Zimmerman is not stating that you CAN’T change popularity, appeal or success. The key word is “inherent.” If the inherent goal for social media is to solidify customer service, strengthen bonds with existing clients and improve the perception of your business, than you CAN change popularity, appeal or success. If the inherent goal is to play along because everyone else is, change is less likely.

It’s all about setting the objectives and sticking to them.  If you have a colorful past, consider how it might be re-hashed and plan accordingly for the worst. If you’re unknown, decide what you want people to associate with your agency’s brand (quick and friendly service, charitable endeavors, serving the local community, niche insurance expertise) and build your social media presence accordingly.

We all want to be perceived as pillars of the community, but the ultimate goal of marketing, social or otherwise, is to generate business. In this case it’s done by driving audiences from a blog, Youtube channel, Facebook page or Twitter feed to your website where they can share information and become a lead. The lack of an intuitive insurance website or agency management system means you risk losing the biggest measure of ROI for any social media program, actual customers using the website to request your services.

Without a website or management system, there should be no social media. It’s presence alone ensures someone (or thing) is working 24 hours a day to harvest potential leads with little or no human effort. Establishing and analyzing specific social media ROI metrics is more complicated and will be discussed in a future post.

If you take nothing else from this post, understand your agency represents a brand. Aside from actual insurance services, everything from the look of your website and wait time for a policy to the manner in which employees answer the phone affects perceptions of the brand. With that in mind, every conversation, post, comment, video or online communication should reflect the objectives and values agreed upon by agency owners.

Over time, the consistency of useful content will compel people to follow your updates and become fans, which is one step closer to becoming clients.