Insurance Social Media Marketing and Lead Generation Basics

The insurance social media lead generation scene is hot. Social media is the fastest growing segment of the internet.

And you know what segment of social media is growing the fastest? Women aged 55 and older (Facebook: February 1, 2009. Women over 55, up 175.3% in the last 120 days).

Side Bar: Every salesperson on the planet knows that women are the major decision makers or can tip the scale when it comes to a sale (in most cases) when it comes to family and business decisions. There are many exceptions but the bottom line when it comes to selling insurance or any other product, if you leave the wife or partner out of the equation your chances of making a sale are dramatically lower. And since Women age 55 and older are very influential and you are not working the insurance social media arena, you are missing out.

Social media includes forums, groups, article marketing sites, social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, professional networks etc. Approximately ten years ago, marketing yourself online would have been hard for the average insurance agent. Maybe even seemed impossible. But now thanks to technology, one can easily use viral marketing in the form of video clips, Ebooks and more to provide information and do insurance social media lead generation with these social media tricks. With proper social media marketing tips you can easily exploit the targeted websites.

There are several websites to deploy insurance social media marketing and develop contacts and prospects. Once you have developed contacts, you can market yourself through constant updates and messages. The following insurance social media marketing tips will help you for lead generation.

Ten basic but effective insurance social media marketing tips and how to use them to generate leads and referrals:

Important Insurance Social Media Marketing Bulletin: Every tip and idea assumes that you are driving your prospects into a lead generation funnel. So if you get a prospect to click on your 'free information' make sure you get their contact information in exchange for their request. For example, if you have an informative article, be sure to sign off by offering a special guide, report, mini course, audio, or video...

• Create profiles in micro blogging sites like twitter.com. Employ software that captures data whenever someone tweets a key word about insurance, coverage policy, premium etc. follow these people and respond to them, telling them how you can help.
• Google and Yahoo are known for their groups. Join the groups that are related to your field and enter into discussions. Leave links to your consultation page.
• Create profiles and fan pages for your insurance business at social networking sites (Facebook is the first one you should be using). Ask your friends to join and you will soon see your fan base increasing. Constantly update yourself and include some information about the insurance market and the offers you are able to provide. But social media is more about social gathering and having fun so make it fun and don't be blatantly marketing all the time. As a result you'll generate insurance leads from your social media efforts.
• Use professional networking sites like LinkedIn.com for lead generation and to build your contact list. Add new contacts as well people from insurance industry too. Take part in discussions and establish your expertise in your field.
• Use social bookmarking sites to your advantage in your insurance social media marketing. Bookmark every article you write and every PR you release with 3-4 bookmarking sites. You can easily see the traffic coming your way.

• Write Press Releases (PRs) on a periodical basis. These PRs are great lead generation techniques, which will stay online for a longer time. Also these PRs are the perfect medium for announcing any type of contests or offers.
• Write quality articles at free article marketing websites about how insurance works, the different policies available, the need for insurance, planning strategies, etc. Make your articles dynamic and make sure that you pen quality articles to attract the attention of your readers. These are excellent tools for lead generation.
• Find old contacts you may have met years ago or would have gone to school with. If you are developing contacts with your old friends, they will be thrilled to catch up. Later you can market your insurance policies to them gradually.
• Whichever social media marketing website you are using make sure that you leave your profile address as the signature. This is irrespective of whether it is social, professional or casual.
• Sign up at various insurance social media or insurance related websites and enter discussions. Answer the various queries asked by the users and guide them towards your website. Tell them about how you can help them easily.

Apart from these insurance social media marketing tips you can also exploit the internet for more lead generation opportunities.

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