I have to admit less than two years ago, other than having a Facebook page and a LinkedIn account; I didn’t know anything about social media. I certainly didn’t know how to use it. I went to a meeting about building an online brand and I was hearing words for the first time like RSS feed, Oktopost, Hootsuite and blog. Which by the way, I thought was a horror movie from the 1950’s about a blog that ate a town. This was a whole new world for me. But, I knew it was a world that I needed to learn to expand my insurance brokerage.
I was fortunate enough to meet a new friend, Mitch Comstock, here in the Nashville area. Mitch is a computer guru that has learned to master social media for business. His specialty is LinkedIn, which I needed desperately. He knows all of the little tricks of the trade about LinkedIn and I am on board. He has a lunch and learns session once a week and I found myself there every week. Within just six weeks, I was writing helpful blogs, I learned it wasn’t a horror movie. I was joining groups, sending out monthly newsletters, collecting email addresses and most importantly finding connections to the people I wanted to meet and do business with and who we knew in common. It was an amazing transformation. I feel compelled to write this blog because of all of the help Mitch has given me in my business.
Just since applying what I learned, my life insurance agency has grown into 17 states and I am well on track to my goal of building a national team to market some very unique insurance products designed to help the average American worker to start saving for retirement again for only $20 per week. I have increased traffic to my website by over 1,000%. Our appointments and closed deals are up over 500% as well. I now actually train my agents on the skills I learned from Mitch. I now see the common mistakes that most business people make on LinkedIn and it reminds me of my mistakes, before I really learned what I was doing. I have to laugh when I hear business people say” Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all a waste of time. That it doesn’t work.” I know they have not invested the time and money necessary to learn the skills.
I owe a debt of gratitude to Mitch. If you are in the Nashville, TN area and want to grow your business, this is a must. Just visit http://www.mitchcomstock.com/classes-training/ to learn how to use his systems that work. If you are not near Nashville, do yourself and business a favor and find similar classes in your area and learn as much as you can about social media. Your business will reward you with lots of profit.
“A creative idea plus a fresh network is the best way to go from zero to millions.” – @peretti
Image courtesy of ddpavumba at http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger and team leader with over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.
Any Social Media Guru’s interested in leading a lunch and learn in the twin cities area?
Our networking group (which includes professionals from many occupations)endorse each other on linked in. On Facebook we post questions to each other that highlight what we do
Mike, that is a great idea to reach out on LinkedIn for those classes. You are a smart guy! Lawrence, that is a good idea to coordinate through your networking group. Also, give each other testimonials for the ones that do business together. Thanks to both of you for sharing those great ideas
I am interested in hearing feedback on this topic. Not only ‘how’ Social Media is being used, but what are the expectations / hopes / goals of the return on Social Media. Thank you for posting this, Tim.
Sheryl Brown / @AshBrokerage
Thank you Sheryl, that is a great conversational question. For me personally, is to connect to potential agents and clients to build my business. But also to connect with other professions for my local networking group. I believe that one of the most valuable assets a business owner/sales agent can have is a profitable network. Thank you for sharing
I’m definitely focused with our Social Media on being a resource. So many advisors are swimming in pools of questions. With a staff of over 400 employees, we want advisors to know we are here to help with every one of those questions. Social Media is a tremendous resource in and of itself and I’m excited to see so many utilizing it to better their professions.
Sheryl Brown / @AshBrokerage
We use social media to 1. Connect 2. Create a Conversation and 3. Carry on that conversation. We use it for reps and with reps. Some of our efforts are for our 401k practice but mainly we use it for spreading good ideas, disruptive technologies and occasionally interesting items. We did write a blog post on this if either of you care to read it. Here is the link http://bit.ly/QKGu8t
Chuck, I love the blog. It is very cleverly written and I agree, for my money LinkedIn is where it is at. I haven’t ventured towards Pinterest yet, still getting my feet wet with Twitter. My favorite quote in your blog is the first kiss, very cleaver. Thank you for sharing it.
Tim,
I love Pinterest for me. I am sure there is a way FA’s can use it for biz but I have not figured it out yet although I have been given some really good ideas. I used to HATE Twitter but now, I am a huge fan. Its not for everyone. I like written blogs and video blogs, but I don’t like pod-casts, go figure. So Twitter might not be your thing. Great conversation an thanks for sharing it.
I use social media for everything related to my business, and frequently talk about the use of social media with my financial services clients. In the past 3 months, I’ve seen an uptick in desire to include social media in their marketing efforts, particularly blogging, Facebook ads, Twitter profiles, and content generation.
As far as ROI, we’ve seen some good numbers and even new client engagement from a social lead point.
Social isn’t just for advertising though. As Chuck mentions, content development and curation are also key.
Becky, thank you so much for sharing. I agree that it is so much more than advertsing. Also, we can’t lose sight that it is way more about the social than the media. It will never replace human interaction only enhance it.
I’m using social media primarily through here and Twitter. Twitter is my favorite because it yields the best line of direct communication. I use this platform in a more professional, let’s get down to business type of communication. I used Facebook but am leaning less of my time towards it because I haven’t seen much of a ROI in terms of new business/interaction. B2B on FB is quite the challenge.
Keith, I appreciate your sharing your experiences. I have my highest ROI here on LinkedIn and least like you with Facebook. I believe most people on FB are just not wanting to look at business things versus LinkedIn where it is expected.
We are extensively using Social/Business Media to promote the Inbound Marketing Services we provide at BenefitPlace.biz and BPTradeShow.com. We also leverage the Power of the Internet and Social/Business Media to promote the specialties of our Client/Partners and the Insurance and Benefits related Plans, Programs and Services they offer.
The keys to gaining a return on the investment of time and dollars expended on Social/Business Media are: “Add Value” (Content) and “Build Trust” first. If you are addressing and meeting the needs of your Target Markets, they will want to know more about what differentiates your Plans, Programs and/or Services in the Marketplace!
I agree with you @Tim. I think people like to see a professional Facebook but for b2b purposes, they’re going to go more towards LinkedIn, Twitter, or the company website itself.
Thank you Philip and Keith for your great feedback. I always appreciate hearing from both of you.
Thanks very much for the kind words Tim. I appreciate your follow through on the things you learn.
Mitch, I would not be any where near this far along with social media, had it not been for your training. I am truly grateful!