Using Social Media Effectively.

The following is an email I sent to my team members about how we can use social media more effectively. 

Team,
This is a follow-up about the importance of you spending 20 minutes nightly or outside of work building our social media presence. 
Purpose: To generate buzz, and develop better and more meaningful referrals at a cost much cheaper than an ineffective Internet lead. 
Action: What we do need is for you to constantly “share” or “like” the approved, compliant posts that we broadcast weekly on our business page. 
Social media tip – If you only “share” and “like” the approved, compliant posts, you’ll never be out of compliance and you will be helping to grow our reach through your social network. 
Don’t talk price or product – ever.  Social media is about relationship building. If you’re building someone’s interest, get their contact info and respond to them offline via phone. 
What we most want to do on social media is to listen. 

What are we listening for? Listen for things that are relevant to our business. Life events that may mean a need for or change to insurance. 
Life events such as:

• Having a baby
• Buying/selling a home
• Buying/selling a car
• Moving into/out of an apartment
• Someone who has died
• Someone who has recently become disabled
• Someone recently became engaged to be married
• Someone recently got divorced
• Someone recently lost a job
• Got a new job  

When we identify who is having a life event — because we saw it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn — then we reach out and chat with them about it. 
You are talking to them when they are more likely to be in their “itch” cycle for your particular product or service. For example: A young couple recently married is more likely to see the need for life insurance than a young single person. 
So make a casual call. It will probably lead to you asking, “When can we sit down and have a cup of coffee?” 
Most people will appreciate that you reached out to them. And you reached out to them just at the right time.   
It’s a simple program. That’s where the genius is: in the simple stuff.
Social media is the new cold call and it is not a fad. Work the system and the system will work for you. 
If you use any of this and it works, be sure to tell me what you and your team implemented. We all can learn from another good idea, strategy or tip. Remember, there’s no one right way to find success.

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