It seems everywhere you turn, industry experts are telling insurance agents they should be using social media. “You should be blogging”. “ Are you tweeting?”. “Start a Facebook group for your agency.” This focus on broadcasting your message completely misses the point of social media.
Let’s face the facts: with very very few exceptions, daily updates from insurance agents simply aren’t something that interests the typical policyholder. Unless they’re buying insurance or having a problem with their policy, they don’t want to hear about insurance.
We believe agents should turn social media around. Stop talking about yourself and your business, and use it to get to know your customers and their business. Twitter, it turns out, is a terrible tool for promoting insurance but a fantastic tool for listening to your customers and prospects.
So we’re going against the herd with our advice: Agents, stop tweeting. Retire the blog. Nobody cares besides you. Instead, retweet your customers. Follow them, reply to them, engage them around the things that they’re interested in. Help them make connections. You’ll get to know them better, you’ll show them you’re interested in their needs, and you’ll develop a relationship that goes beyond “the insurance sales guy”.