Advisers should focus on being memorable on social media through engaging with clients rather than putting up posts that just sell all the time.
This is according to mortgage marketing coach Ash Borland (pictured right), who was participating in the first day on the Income Protection Task Force’s Income Protection Awareness Week.
Borland explained it was all very well for advisers to build awareness of their brand through uploading great content on social media, but the mistake many advisers make is forgetting to engage with other people’s content.
“If someone is commenting on you, don’t be a selfish poster,” Borland said. “I say this all the time to people – when was the last time you commented on someone’s post?
“Because if you want a million people to comment on yours and knock your door down and say I want to work with you and sell insurance, when was the last time you said to somebody, that’s really good – well done.
“So what I do when I work with people, and my own strategy, I contact 100 people every single day. Just on LinkedIn. I spend an hour every day,” he added.
While some advisers may say they do not have an hour to do this, Borland likened such an approach to cold calling.
“That is the new way of follow up,” he continued. “It’s actually more important than the content in my opinion, because that’s where you can create those connections, those networks – especially in the insurance industry because you’re selling something people will only get when they need it.
“So people have posts trying to sell all the time, when actually what you need to be doing is being there as someone they remember. And you do that every time you leave a comment on them. That makes them feel great.”
Getting eyeballs on what you’re saying
Fellow speaker Hayley Clucas, head of marketing at Caspian Insurance (pictured centre), explained while professionals can have have 100,000 followers, social media algorithms limit how many of those followers see their content.
“This is why comments are so important to get,” Clucas continued. “I would rather have 1,000 customers but have a highly engaged audience, people that comment on my posts, people that interact with me, because that’s going to get you far more eyeballs on what you’re saying than just generating followers.
“The comments and the engagement are the bread and butter of what you want to be going after.”