Written by John F. Carroll on December
22, 2015.
I get this question every day so I’m
willing to bet you’ve probably asked it yourself.
Am I right?
I usually answer by explaining how
it’s not the number of fans but the engagement of fans that really matters.
That’s still true, but you know
what?
When you have a lot of Facebook
followers:
·
People think you’re more popular.
·
People think you’re more
established.
·
New people are more likely to follow
you.
·
Prospects are more likely to trust
and buy from you.
·
You’ll have a lot more “friends of
followers” to advertise to.
·
And let’s face it – It feels good to
have more likes than the agent across town, right?
While I still believe it’s more
important to build an engaged audience than one that just looks big, I’m going
to address the “get more likes” dilemma today.
Whether you’re trying to go from 0
to 100 or 100 to 1,000, here’s 28 actionable ways to get more fans for your
insurance agency’s Facebook page:
1) Decide What Value You’re
Offering
This is probably the biggest mistake
I see agents making when it comes to social media.
Of course your mom and a few other
people will like your page just because you ask them to, but for everyone else
you’re going to need to provide some kind of value.
What will will your followers get
that:
1. They
actually want.
2. They
aren’t already getting elsewhere.
3. And
you can really provide.
If you haven’t figured this out you
might want to do so before moving on.
2)
Always Explain What’s In It For Them
I get really annoyed when people ask
me to help them out and “like” their FB page.
Stop looking so pathetic and get
over yourself already.
Nobody gives a #%&* about what
you want!
Could you imagine saying, “I’m trying to make
100 sales this month, would you please buy my policy?”
Of course not.
In the real world, people only take
action because they want to (or because you convinced them) and that means
you should always explain WHY they should follow you.
Whether it’s on your website,
business cards, WHEREVER you’re soliciting for Facebook likes don’t just write
“Like us on Facebook”…
Explain WHY everyone should.
3) Create a Professional Looking
Facebook Page
One of the by-products of our lives
becoming increasingly more complicated is that design becomes more important
every day.
Especially online where attention
spans are miniscule.
Nobody has time to read stuff
anymore so we make split-second decisions based on appearance.
It doesn’t need to be amazing, but
if your Facebook page is missing a cover photo or the design looks like you did
it in Microsoft Paint you’ll lose people who would have liked your page
otherwise.
Hire someone on Fiverr or
get someone with some graphic design abilities to create a presentable page for
you.
4) Link to Your Page From Your Personal
Profile
This one’s pretty simple, when you
update your personal Facebook profile with your current employer, make sure you
choose your agency’s page.
After doing this it should show a
link to that page in a prominent spot on your profile.
For the captive agents out there,
make sure you choose your agency page, not the carrier’s.
5)
Add a Like Box to Your Website
A “Like Box” is a little box that
you can embed into your agency website that has links to your Facebook page,
your recent status updates, and thumbnails of people who already like your
page.
The coolest thing about a Like Box
is that people can become a fan of your Facebook page right there on your
website without even leaving your site or going to Facebook.
Also, once you get a good number of
followers, the Like Box can show thumbnails of other people who like your page
to provide social proof.
Adding a Like Box might be a bit complicated for the
average insurance agent, but it’s a piece of cake for your web guy.
6) Email Signature Link
Nothing too crazy here, but adding a
link to your Facebook page in your email signaturecan get
exposure to a lot of people without too much effort.
I see a lot of agents using this
technique already but what I don’t see is many good calls to action.
Remember #2 above: Explain what’s in
it for them.
7)
“Like Us” Cards
Get some business cards printed up
with your Facebook page address and a really brief explanation of why someone
should follow your page.
You can use these in a lot of ways
because they’re easy for you to carry and hand out.
I know some agents will read this
and say, “But John, my Facebook page is already on my business card. Can’t I
just use that?”
No. It’s too busy and lacks a strong
enough call to action toward the Facebook page. No one will EVER like your
Facebook page because they saw it on your business card.
8) Take Pictures of Community Events
Go to your local community events
and take as many pictures as you can.
Tell everyone who’s picture you took
where they can find it – on your FB page!
Hand them one of those cards from #7
otherwise they’ll forget.
9) Follow Other Local Businesses and Interact
With Them
The truth is, almost every local
business in your community is having a hard time with social media.
The candlestick maker down the road
is also trying to get more fans and more engagement so when you like their page
as your agency and write positive comments about their updates
they’ll notice, appreciate it, and return the favor.
If you’re at all interested in this
one, read this post
about it.
10) Advertise (intelligently)
This isn’t an article about Facebook
advertising so I don’t have the space to go into too much
detail here, but I’ll give you a few tips:
1. Even if it can get you more
likes, I wouldn’t advertise to anyone who is too far away to buy from you.
Narrow down your audience geographically.
2. If you have an email list of your
current customers, you can setup a custom audience and advertise to them only.
3. As an insurance agency, if
you want people to like your page from an ad, you’d better be advertising to
people who already know and like you or you better have a VERY STRONG value
proposition.
11)
Invite Your Email Contacts
If you’re on your agency’s Facebook
page while logged in as an administrator, you should see a Menu in the upper
right corner that reads, “Build Audience”.
The first option in there is to
“Invite email contacts”.
This will let you import emails from
either an email list or the contacts in your email account(s).
You can do this separately for all
your contacts in all your different email accounts.
12) Invite Your Facebook Friends
You’ll find this one in the same
place as #11 above, under the “Build Audience” menu choose the option that
says, “Invite friends”
This one will let you send an invite
within the Facebook system to whoever you want to among your various Facebook
friends.
You might consider sending this out
once to all your more loyal friends first to build up the followers so it looks
more active before sending the request to other people you might not know as
well.
13)
Share Your Page on Your Wall
This one is found in the same place
as #11 and #12 above under the “Build Audience” menu and it allows you to make
a status update on your personal profile about your agency page.
My bonus tip here is to click on the
description of your agency page to edit that text and re-write it so it’s
loaded with benefits.
You can also share it to a group
you’re a member of or on any other pages you’re an administrator of.
14) Send Private Messages
If you don’t mind doing a little
work, you can also send private messages to your Facebook friends inviting them
to like the page.
Although time consuming, this
technique will probably give you a 75% success rate if you send a personalized
message to each person.
Have a little dignity and at least
give everyone a reason why they’ll find value in the page so you don’t appear
to be a desperate “like” junkie.
15) Email to Your Entire Book
In #11 you saw how Facebook gives
you the ability to upload your email list and they’ll send something out
promoting the page to all those people.
However, if you want more control
over the messaging you may find it’s better to send that email out yourself.
After all, don’t you think you’d get
a better result if you gave yourself the opportunity to explain to WHY joining
the page will make their life better?
16) Hold a Contest
I’ll have to write an article in the
future full of Facebook contest ideas but I’m not going into it too deep here.
To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of
contests unless you’re planning to somehow use contests & prizes as a
recurring tactic to keep people engaged with your page.
When people like your page just to
win something then they hide your updates and never hear from them ever again
you’re no better off than when you started.
17) Use The Likealyzer
This isn’t a direct way to get more
likes compared to some of the other ideas here but it’s still pretty cool and
helpful.
Likealyzer is a totally free website that runs a review
of your Facebook page and gives you suggestions to make it more engaging and
interactive.
It’s a very general site that isn’t
built for insurance agents so take their suggestions with a grain of salt, but
it’s still pretty cool.
(I scored a 75. How did you do?)
18) Ask Other Agents
This isn’t going to get you 100
likes tomorrow, but you might get 5-10 just by reaching out to other agents you
know and asking them to help you out in exchange for liking their page.
It’s a good idea to follow lots of
other agency pages anyway just to get ideas for your own page.
19) Sell It Face-to-face
One of the best times to get people
to like your Facebook page is when they’re right there in front of you.
Before you push anything, ask if
they have the Facebook app on their phone.
After they say yes, it’ll be harder
to say no when you encourage them to open it up, search for your agency, and
click the like button.
20) QR Codes
With a QR Generator website you can
create special codes that people with smartphones can scan to go directly to
your agency’s Facebook page.
I’ve seen these used for agency signage or
on business cards and I’m sure there’s some other creative ways you could use
them.
I’ve even seen them in emails but
I’m not sure that really makes any sense… Right?
21) Create a Sales Flyer
If you create a one-page flyer that
advertises your Facebook Page and encourages readers to like the page you can
use this in variety of ways.
Hand it out at community events,
mail it along with other correspondence from your agency, include it in your
new business package for new clients, or just keep them around the office as
conversation starters.
Creating a clear and concise
one-page advertisement for your Facebook page will also force you to identify
the most important selling factors, which can help with everything else in this
article.
22) LinkedIn Profile Link
LinkedIn lets you add up to 3
website links on your personal profile.
Are you using all three?
If not head over there and
edit your profile so it has a link to your Facebook page.
And while you’re over there make
sure you connect with me. 
23) Share Your Page on LinkedIn
Just like Facebook, LinkedIn lets
you make status updates and share links with your connections.
Make a status update about your
Facebook page every now and then.
But remember to include some call to
action and a clear reason why they should like the page.
24) Tag Yourself in Pictures on Your
Agency Page
Tagging yourself in Facebook-speak
means that you identified yourself as someone that is in a picture.
When you get tagged on a picture it
pulls that picture into your personal profile and shows it in the news feed of
your personal Facebook friends.
For those people who missed the
blatant request you already sent requesting them to like your page, seeing this
picture will be another reminder to head over and follow you.
25) Call Your Clients
You can use a phone to build your
online social media network.
Yes, it’s true…
Either add it on to the end of the
customer service conversations you’re already having or start an outreach
campaign where you reach out to clients and let them know about the page.
This is a really important time to
have well-defined benefits for the people who follow your page and get your
updates.
It’s not about you, it’s about them.
26) Make It Part of Your Policy Review
Process
Do you have a formal policy review
process in place within your agency?
I recommend that you do. (here’s some
ideas to get you started)
Add a conversation in there at the
end about the benefits of following the Facebook page and if you can get
clients to pull out their phones and do it right there even better.
27) Make it Part of Your New Business
Process
Make sure that every new client
knows about your Facebook page and has a clear understanding of what you do
there and why they should follow it.
Right after the sale is an awesome time
to get clients to follow your Facebook page because they’re highly engaged and
very much connected with you.
Make it an important part of
your new business
process and you’ll see improvements in retention.
28) Pay Commission For Followers
It’s not a waste of money to pay
your staff for getting new people to follow the agency’s page.
I haven’t come across any data
supporting this, but I am very confident that customers who follow you on
social media will retain at significantly higher rates than those that don’t.
It’s not quite the same effect as
buying more lines of insurance from you, but I’m sure it helps.
And don’t think that current
customers aren’t worth as much as outsiders when it comes to liking your page…
they’re actually more valuable!
28) Offer Incentives (a.k.a. bribery)
You can always offer people a
special prize or gift card if they like your page.
I don’t think that’s 100% cool with
the Facebook guidelines but I don’t see how it could come back to bite you.
Except, of course, for the fact that
people will think they only liked your page to get the prize and will be much
more likely to hide your posts in the future.
Here’s What to Do Next:
1) Go through this list again and
decide which ideas you’ll implement today and which ones you’ll implement this
month.
2) Share this resource with any
agent you know with under 100 Facebook fans.
3) Click the like button on this
page so I know you want more content like this.
I hope this helps you,
John
John
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