From LinkedIn to Facebook and, in some cases, even Instagram, insurance brokers and agents are jumping on the social media bandwagon – and for good reason, since the platforms get brokerages and agencies in front of more eyes and give them another avenue to meet customers online.
However, while an Aon expert has seen social media use grow among these professionals, she thinks it’s still not where it should be, especially when it comes to one platform.
“I think we are seeing that a lot of the agency owners have been in this space for a long time, and they might be utilizing an old network of people, carriers or customers, or utilizing the knocking on the door technique to obtain customers, as opposed to opening up and engaging much more in a social media environment and meeting customers where they are,” said Jennifer Torneden, who heads up the Aon Programs team. “There is much more room to grow in that space. I think what we're seeing is independent agents are really engaged with Facebook, but we're trying to find how do we capture independent agents and get them engaged in more of a LinkedIn environment.”
Brokers and agents would do well to find other, more digital ways to sell insurance. In the ‘old days,’ they would be providing 30-minute to hour-long seminars in person about an insurance product, and now, they can do that in three to five minutes online with a short video via a social media channel.
However, one of the fears keeping some agents and brokers away from the social media space is sharing experiences they’ve had with customers and potentially divulging too much information. You have to be careful and not mention specific customers’ names or the name of a company, says Torneden.
“What we do from our perspective is be very careful and strip out [that information],” she said. “We might say, a dental practice in [this city] was looking for this kind of solution because they had these kinds of claims, and really trying to be discreet and not naming customers.”
Agents and brokers might be hesitant to do this because it takes work to alter a customer experience they’ve had and make a story clear and concise, but it’s beneficial to promote content that highlights the types of industries in which they have expertise. There’s also a fine line between not appearing too sales-y in the content they’re creating. For instance, if they’re trying to promote their cyber insurance expertise, highlighting a specific data breach and explaining how having cyber insurance can help, while tacking on a sentence at the end promoting the brokerage, could draw in clients, versus only talking about why a particular agency or brokerage has the right cyber expertise.
The social media space in turn has expertise to offer brokers and agents.
“If they are not playing in the cyber space and they're looking for case studies on how they can gather more customers to expand cyber solutions to them, they might go into the social media space to look for very short case studies or claims stories,” said Torneden.
To get started in the social media world or up their game if they’re already on these platforms, the Aon Programs expert recommends brokers and agents take a step back and figure out what their true expertise is, which might be easier for specialists.
“If you're just playing in the life insurance space or if you're just playing in the condo association space, it's much easier to tout your expertise, but most brokers are in that generalist space, and I think for them, it's making sure they plan what are the three or four things they want to start with that they want to show they're an expert in,” she explained. “Start with something small within an audience and sprinkle content out when needed as it relates to those three or four areas, as opposed to trying to boil the ocean.”
Social media posts can also promote blog content, so while a short video on LinkedIn can introduce a topic or scratch the surface of expertise, it can also link back to a longer post on a brokerage or agency’s website that provides more details.
In terms of assessing whether their social media involvement is having a tangible impact on their business, agents and brokers need to make sure they have a call to action, which can help with lead generation as well as cross-selling solutions to customers.
For brokers and agents just getting into social media, however, Torneden says to start small.
“In the beginning, you want to be focused more on getting yourself up and running – get the expertise, create a point of view, and create your voice in the market,” she told Insurance Business. “Then after that, I think a monthly check-in (especially when you're new) is too much, but quarterly is a good check-in point to see if you're actually bringing in more leads, and the call to action is important. If you don't have a call to action, I think it's really hard to measure any sort of engagement around social media.”
