Social Media – Your Secret Weapon

The world is evolving in every sense of the word. With regards to conducting business and dealing with customers, things have changed drastically over the last four years, with many having to adapt to suit a contact-free, digital world following the Covid pandemic. Based on a new online culture and way of running a broker business, advisers need to grow their social media presence to improve their reputation and services as they would with running a physical business.

Having a digital portfolio of your industry presence and reputation is crucial as a growing number of people find themselves leaving an expanding digital footprint via platforms like social media. To utilise these online forums means taking advantage of free advertising, communication, and spaces to conduct business.

Step 1 – Choosing Your Platforms

Firstly, it’s essential to find your target audience. As a broker, you need to think of those you’re likely to work alongside and your client base. Your online journey must have a direction to ensure you’re casting your insurance net in the right areas and catching suitable attention.

LinkedIn

Unarguably, the biggest and most important social media platform for professionals, LinkedIn is the ideal space for building a digital network with other people in the insurance industry. Depending on the types of relationships you seek, you can follow influential people, other brokers, insurance companies, and official bodies like the FCA.

Ensuring you put time and effort into building your connections and constructing your online presence can be integral to your business. Growing your audience can have a snowball effect when you know what you’re looking for. Firstly, following all the right hashtags, such as #broker, #homeinsurance, and other similar industry-related terms. For example, if you attend a broker event, why not take a picture, tag them in it and use their relevant hashtags to get more interactions with your post?

Additionally, you could look to join any groups and communities that relate to what you’re doing. Join broker communities by searching them up, interacting and networking with other advisers, as if you were in the same room as them. By following these people and inviting them to connect with you, eventually, you’ll be looking at a solid foundation to your LinkedIn page.

Facebook

Having a professional page for your customers to follow on Facebook can be the ideal space to provide updates on your services and display your contact details. Facebook has almost three-billion active monthly users, a vast demographic to tap into. Of course, not all of these users will be interested in insurance; however, if you can target your audience, you can grow your services.

Ask your clients to like your broker page, ensuring that you’re a refreshed thought in their minds when it comes to renew their insurance. You can also get them to leave reviews of your services on Facebook, boosting your authenticity and reputation as a result. From here, get them to spread the word as you post consistently, ensuring that your page gains traction and a larger following.

Step 2 – Building Your Social Media Network

Narrowing down your following of relevant people in the industry is essential; otherwise, it can be non-directional in the content you see on your page. You can do this by reviewing your content and ensuring that it’s shaped to the industry you want to target, like other brokers, businesses, relevant organisations, and industry figureheads. On top of this, following relevant parties and organisations can help you to see what other people in the industry are posting about. Use other people’s pages as inspiration for what you should be posting.

Following influential figures in the industry is a great way to keep your mindset focused on the job and expert opinions within your field. In addition, figureheads in the insurance sector can offer advice and strategies for you to apply within your services, helping to improve your business and reputation.

Step 3 – Advertisement

Whenever people see the word ‘advertisement’, they probably think about the costs of displaying their services. However, this isn’t always the case. Utilise the tools you already have at your disposal and ensure that your existing customers are aware of your online pages.

For example, placing your social media addresses on features like business cards and on your emails can be the ideal way to increase traffic towards your pages. This, in turn, can give your business higher retention rates and improved bonds with your clients. With consistent reminders of your services, your customers will have a refreshed presence in the form of your broker business.

This is also a perfect way to touch base with your clients at pivotal moments throughout the year. For example, it’s approaching December, and your clients may not know about protecting their home against the elements. Send them resources to use, such as guides, to help them out, whilst reigniting communications with your customers.

Step 4 – Choosing Your Content

The most pivotal step in this guide is ensuring that your content isn’t falling on deaf ears. Ensure you keep things relevant, establishing a clear divide between your personal characteristics and professional demeanour. As a broker, you’ll provide your customers with crucial advice and methods for completing the insurance process. They’ll see you as experienced support in their insurance journey.

Posting consistently ensures that your clients are reminded of your services, but you need to post with purpose. Think, is this something you’d be interested in reading? Maybe, you can make some accompanying graphics or start a blog to convey a deeper insurance analysis to your customers.  Share the latest industry news and articles, posting once or twice a week to keep things consistent. Using a free scheduling tool, such as Buffer or Hootsuite can help you to create content in advance, without having to post at a certain time. Simply, schedule the post and it’ll share automatically.

Ultimately, you need to be informative while keeping in mind that your clients will be following various topics on their social media, looking for your pages if and when they need you. 

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