Big “I” Agents Council for Technology (ACT) recently hosted digital marketing experts from BrightFire and Trusted Choice to share their insights on how independent insurance agencies that are eager to advance their social media strategies can drive more quality and engagement.
The webinar, moderated by Chris Cline, Executive Director for Big “I” Agents Council for Technology, was a discussion between three insurance marketing experts.
- Joseph Cox, Marketing Director for Trusted Choice
- Spencer Breidenbach, Manager of Strategic Partnerships for BrightFire
- Bob Whitis, Director of Operations for BrightFire
Get a summary of the key webinar takeaways below.
Key Webinar Takeaways
As younger generations turn to social media more than ever before to conduct research and find relevant business information, it’s becoming increasingly important for independent insurance agencies to have a professional and consistent presence on social media. Your agency should leverage your channels to help consumers become familiar with your team, become an industry expert, and strengthen your long-term retention strategy by getting in front of your customers more often.
There are several social media platforms to consider that can help you connect with your current policyholders and engage new prospects.
- Facebook is the most common for independent insurance agencies to use, and best for agencies targeting older generations.
- Since the “Friends and Family” update of 2016 and iOS privacy updates in the Spring of 2021, Facebook’s algorithm currently makes organic engagement challenging.
- The average Facebook post will reach just about 5% of its followers (Neil Patel).
- Your agency can better overcome algorithm challenges by showing off your agency’s personality, staff, and community involvement, as well as tagging relevant people and companies in your captions.
- Examples of content that will spark engagement and help your agency gain more visibility include asking open-ended questions, starting giveaways, and creating polls.
- To grow your visibility and following on social media, ask policyholders to follow your agency on each of the platforms you’re present on and engage with any comments or messages you receive.
- Based on when people are most active online, the peak times to post on Facebook are 7 PM – 9 PM.
- The LinkedIn algorithm wants followers to stay on their platform, so your posts will get more visibility if you don’t include a link to an outside website. For longer content, you can consider publishing LinkedIn Articles directly within the platform.
- The first 60 minutes after a post is shared are called the “golden hour.” During this time, the algorithm analyzes the post’s initial engagement to determine whether it should be shared with more people.
- To capitalize on the golden hour, tag relevant people and companies in your content and publish content within peak posting times of 10 AM – 12 PM and 2 PM – 4 PM on weekdays.
- Even if you have the same followers on each platform, consumers have different expectations of what content they want to see across different platforms, so consider publishing more professional, educational content on LinkedIn.
- When making connections on LinkedIn, make your requests timely and relevant. People you request to connect with will look for shared connections and what your business is to determine if they should connect with you.
- Instagram is more focused on visuals than text content.
- Links are not clickable in the caption, so add your links to your bio and consider leveraging tools like Linktree that allow you to display multiple links at once.
- Reels are the best way to gain engagement and visibility with millennials and Gen X audiences.
- Because people are accustomed to seeing more amateur videos, anyone can easily create a reel. These videos may also seem more authentic than overly professional videos.
- Consider posting more about your agency’s personality, and less about educational or serious content.
- Peak posting times on Instagram are in the morning, during lunch, and when people are getting off work.
Other Platforms
- TikTok draws a much younger audience (12-year-olds on average), so most agencies are not currently present on this platform.
- If your agency is on TikTok, focus on having fun and showing off your agency’s personality with light-hearted short-form videos.
- X, formerly known as Twitter, is the platform used the least by agencies, but it can be beneficial for Medicare agencies hosting seminars or promoting events.
- YouTube is a great platform for publishing long-form videos, such as detailed information about insurance.
- You can extend the life of your long-form YouTube videos by editing them into several shorter videos and repurposing them for other social media channels.
Conclusion
- Social media is a long-term strategy to drive awareness and reputation, so it’s important to create a sustainable schedule for your agency that focuses on consistently publishing content.
- To help save time and energy maintaining your social media accounts, consider using scheduling platforms that allow you to schedule content across all platforms simultaneously.
- Third-party scheduling platforms can also often help your agency determine peak posting times for your specific audience based on when your followers are most active and engaged online.
Questions?
If you have any questions about what we discussed in the webinar or how to get started with BrightFire’s Social Media Marketing service, please schedule a call with sales.
