View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/magazines/mag-features/2012/04/02/241212.htm

50 Awesome Social Media Ideas for Insurance Agencies

Social media is a good marketing tool when used wisely. Today’s agencies are creating interaction among fans while developing promotions that generate revenue. The following includes 50 marketing ideas that agencies can use with social media.

  1. Be personable. If posts on social media are too sales-y, it will be difficult to get and engage with followers. To many consumers, a hard sell on social media is a turn off. Balance self-promotional posts with posts that are informational, posts that are personable and posts that are helpful.
  2. Write regular posts at least once a week, but two to three times a week is even better.
  3. Write social media posts on ideas for home improvement, car care and businesses tips.
  4. Keep customers engaged.
  5. Create fun contests for fans with Facebook. Give prizes, like a gift card, to winners.
  6. Post a fact, story or comment relevant to a particular insurance product or market and end the post with a question.
  7. Use blog posts to share content and drive traffic to the agency’s website (also helps with search engine optimization) and on social media profiles.
  8. Sign up for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and YouTube.
  9. Like the page and write ‘I love ABC Agency’ on the Wall.
  10. Give away a free car wash for every person who requests an auto insurance quote on Facebook or Twitter.
  11. Profile agency employees and post a photo of them.
  12. Post information about community events and news.
  13. Share pictures of the agency’s community involvement.
  14. Incorporate what agency fans and followers say about the agency, owners or employees in social media in other marketing. For example, use positive reviews that people post on Facebook in direct or email marketing.
  15. Identify the agency employee who is most passionate about social media and put that person in charge of the agency’s social media marketing.
  16. Host live Twitter chats so people can ask questions and a dialogue is started. It doesn’t always have to be about insurance. Invite different subject matter experts to answer questions about a variety of topics.
  17. Create boards for each line of business on Pinterest and pin pictures and articles about the topic. For example, if Agency ABC writes motorcycle and boat insurance, they might have a board for motorcycles and a board for boats. They could pin pictures of motorcycles, tips on taking care of a boat, great places for a motorcycle ride, etc.
  18. Create boards on Pinterest for what the agency is all about. If it’s a family-oriented agency, share fun stuff and ideas for family activities, recipes for family dinners, etc. If it’s more business-oriented, pin inspiring business quotes, good books on business, technology for businesses, etc.
  19. Promote the agency’s referral program.
  20. Run a promotion to increase Facebook fans by donating a dollar to a local charity for every new fan on Facebook.
  21. Use your mobile website to promote social media profiles.
  22. Recognize a fan or follower of the week on the agency’s Facebook or Twitter profile as a way to say thank you.
  23. When the agency gets a new follower on Twitter, @ the follower, and say thanks for the follow.
  24. Spend one hour a week looking for five articles to share. They can be about insurance, community news and events, general interest articles about the lines of business the agency writes, e.g., home improvement, car care tips, etc. Schedule the posts for each day of the week using a service like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.
  25. Schedule posts for Saturday and Sunday and after hours. Just because the office is closed, doesn’t mean the agency’s followers aren’t reading social media.
  26. Start a community group on LinkedIn and every day suggest topics for discussion.
  27. Talk about events and holidays and share articles or information that discusses risks associated with those.
  28. Post information on education and training events for a particular industry. They do not have to be related to insurance but could be geared toward the agency’s specialty business.
  29. Create polls and surveys for followers and fans on current events, community news, industry trends and customer service.
  30. Post videos and audio periodically on an agency blog, YouTube, Facebook, and agency website.
  31. Display the social media channel links on the agency’s website.
  32. Integrate the agency’s Twitter account with its LinkedIn account. Find out how in the LinkedIn Learning Center.
  33. Create a schedule for checking social media and content posting; don’t leave it unscheduled.
  34. Don’t just retweet and link to the work of others.
  35. Employ a multi-tweet campaign to plant doubt in the minds of potential buyers. Begin each tweet off with the phrase “When was the last time your family [or business] insurance agent…” Then complete it with a positive action such as “… contacted you with a money-saving idea?” Include a link to a landing page on the agency’s site to convert the person’s doubt into a sales lead.
  36. Buy an ad through Facebook that will go out on the agency’s network.
  37. Don’t ask followers or friends for favors.
  38. Keep postings fresh and timely.
  39. Be a participant via sharing, liking and voting; don’t just sit there.
  40. Have employees participate in the agency’s social media campaign.
  41. Include social media addresses on business cards and email signatures.
  42. Target “influencers” including editors, bloggers, consultants and PR pros in the agency’s target markets.
  43. Use Google to identify major trends in the agency’s target markets and tailor comments and questions to those trends.
  44. Ask for recommendations from LinkedIn contacts to some of their contacts.
  45. Avoid number envy — the quality of contacts is more important than the number of contacts.
  46. Create and share holiday cards with social media contacts.
  47. Don’t be negative or defensive on responding; stay positive.
  48. Keep up with changes in social media platforms.
  49. Make the agency’s Facebook wall different. Focus on the visual by attaching videos, colorful large print flyers on various insurance topics (formatted as pictures), creative postings designed to elicit comments from fans, such as “Hit Our Facebook Wall with the Cause of Your Worst Car Accident” and other interesting, visual content.
  50. Let customers say whatever they want.