In a world that is more virtual than ever before, your brand tells your story. Social media is a great way to build your brand and reach people anywhere they are at any time. People rely on social media to learn, make purchasing decisions, have fun, engage with experts and more. Brokers need social media to promote their services, showcase their expertise and build relationships. Sounds like a great opportunity to get in front of clients and prospects, right?
Yes, but there is one catch: you have to do it well. Here are 10 ways to step up your social game:
- Pick the right channel(s) – The most natural fit for a benefits broker is LinkedIn. You can easily establish a company presence that is professional and accurately describes your business, services, events and other important details. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram may also be a good fit, but they all take time and effort.
- Know what your clients want – You talk to them. They ask questions. What are they looking for? Compliance guidance? Wellness advice? Your content should make them like you and demonstrate that you understand their needs.
- Build your audience – Growing a social audience takes more than just setting up a profile. It’s more than a “build it and they will come” proposition. Make an effort to tell people about your social presence, include links/icons on your website and email signatures and invite them to follow you. For example, on LinkedIn, you can directly send 100 invites each month from your company page; give it a try!
- Commit to your followers – You want people to read and even look forward to your posts. One post a week probably won’t cut it. Establish a social media content calendar that outlines your posts for a week, month or quarter in advance. You can always sneak in a few posts on the fly, but setting aside time to plan your posts will save time in the long run.
- Be better than your competition – Do you know what your competitors are doing on social? Are they offering advice and checklists, or just promoting their business? Check them out. Identify what you like and don’t like about their presence and figure out how you can be better.
- Prepare to engage – You want people to react to your content. Be prepared to engage with your audience when they do. Make sure someone is regularly monitoring your page to keep your responses timely and relevant. Reply to all comments, good or bad, as soon as possible.
- Switch it up – Use a variety of content types. Post a good mix of information to keep things interesting. Consider video, pdfs, articles, images, polls, infographics, and more. Watch how people respond to the different posts to see what kind of post performs best.
- Deliver quality and creativity – As a benefits broker, you want your content to provide value to your followers. Consider a mix of posts that teach – provide insight on a topic your audience needs help with, promote – tell them things about your brand and services that make you special, and have fun – show them the non-business side, e.g. community events you may attend or sponsor. One creative idea for content is to start a series that your followers could look forward to on a regular basis, e.g. Wellness Wednesday, an A-Z series, Benefits Buzz of the Week, etc.
- Measure success – Metrics are your friend. The more you know, the more you can improve. Treat every post as a data point and follow the numbers. Measure stats like audience growth, number of likes, shares and comments. Figure out your top posts to determine future content planning.
- Do something to improve every week/month – One great thing about social media is the metrics. You have the results of your activity right at your fingertips. Dig in to the metrics and figure out a few tweaks you can make to deliver more of what your followers are responding to. Make sure to pivot as needed.
While social media can be quick to set up, results won’t be instant. The more you work to build and engage your audience, the better relationships you will form. Remember, the biggest key to success revolves around quality content. As a benefits broker, your clients and prospects expect you to be an expert across a variety of employee benefits topics, like compliance issues, HR, wellness, employee communications and more. Your social media presence provides a great opportunity to position yourself as the expert. So, what are you waiting for? Get posting!
Special note to Zywave partners: If you have Content Cloud or Broker Briefcase, you can find tons of content to share within those tools. Even better, with Content Cloud, you are able to share content directly from the platform to your social channels. If you’re not a current Zywave partner and you would like to have access to the most timely and relevant content around, contact us to learn more about these products.
