Social Marketing for Agencies Is Never Free

Opening a Basic Social Media Account Is Free — The Rest Isn’t

Most social media accounts are free of charge. You can open up Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Blogger accounts all without spending a dime. That’s what makes them free, right? Absolutely, as long as you don’t ever use them.

While there is no cost to set up a basic account for yourself or your agency, after it’s up, you have to deal with the burden of every publisher and editor throughout time: content. Without it, all you have is a blank page.

Authoring (or acquiring) and disseminating content for an agency’s social accounts is costly. If you do it in-house, as many agencies do, you have some serious decisions to make. Most cost money. Here are some key issues to address.

Attracting Contacts

Regretfully, new social accounts don’t come pre-packaged with interested insurance buyers. You can easily invite your email contacts to join. Many social media sites offer this capability. It’s a handy, free service, but it’s only the beginning. You also need to expand your reach beyond the people you already know.

This involves such actions as adding email and voicemail taglines, liking and following the online posts of others (in the hopes that they’ll do the same for you), running digital and print ads, placing publication inserts, mailing postcards, purchasing and disseminating imprinted items, conducting contests and promotional events, etc. – all to attract social interest.

Then, once you reach a certain level, some new contacts will “just appear,” but for the most part, you need to continuously market your social presence. And that involves time and expense.

Adding Content

Accumulating contacts is one thing, communicating with them on a regular basis is something else. Like any other human contact, effort is involved, and the greater the effort, the greater the results.

Social media is not monolithic, and as such, all content is not suitable for all sites. For instance, what you tweet on Twitter in 140 characters won’t fly on Facebook, which thrives on the visual. You need to match your postings to where they’re placed.

Agencies typically imagine they can add everything they need, for free, in their spare time. But then, as they gain experience with the media, they realize what a time-eater competent social marketing really is. Some offices share the posting duties on their blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts to distribute the opportunity costs among multiple staffers. Others hire young bucks to handle the chores. And certain agencies buy prewritten/predesigned posts from professional marketers. The best approach for you depends on whether your staff has the time, communication skills and marketing savvy to do it well, over the long haul.

What About Risk?

Someone from your office may post the copywritten work of others, from the web, without authorization. There is also the chance of hurt feelings or worse, damage to your agency’s reputation, as a result of posted comments. What if your staff reveals confidential information when communicating with insureds or prospects via social media? What if your accounts are breached? Managing these risks, and others like them, requires the purchase of insurance and potential outlays for damage control.

It Ain’t Free

Social marketing has a voracious appetite for content.

You have to post on a regular , and it has a perpetual memory. Older posts are always accessible so you can’t surreptitiously reuse them. Plus, what’s the point of marketing this way if you don’t have many followers? So, you have to continuously attract them. All of this, plus the back and forth communications with insureds, prospects, carriers, and others, adds up to a significant expense.

Consider social marketing an extended cost of agency automation and budget for it. Think of it like getting a friendly dog for free, while the real costs are keeping it healthy and fed.