Using Twitter for Insurance

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For the month of February, we're getting up close and personal by putting the spotlight on social media and blogging in the insurance industry. Ready to reach out and touch a client or prospect? Let's get started.

Using Twitter for Your Insurance Businesses – Three Easy Steps

If you haven’t jumped into the world of Twitter to promote your insurance business yet, you may want to, considering the following:

• 88% of the companies on the Fortune Global 100 list update their Twitter accounts at least daily. (Touch Agency)
• Three-quarters of people who follow brands on Twitter are more likely to buy from that brand. (Touch Agency)
• Dell generated a total of $6.5 million in revenue from its Twitter presence in 2009. (Mashable)

Here are a few basics to get you up to speed with Twitter along with some very easy steps to create aTwitter account for your insurance business.

What is Twitter?

Think of Twitter as a “real time” micro-blog allowing you to post short messages (AKA tweets) in 140 characters or less. Tweets can be posted on your computer or your mobile device. Insurance organizations can use Twitter to share news stories, information from thought leaders, reviews, special deals, etc. Tweets are sent out to your followers and you receive tweets from people you are following. In time, the number of followers increases giving you a free accessible insurance marketing audience.

I used to think that Twitter was just for movie stars and egocentric types, but after joining I've learned that it's a great tool for business too.

Why Tweet for Your Insurance Business? 

Twitter can help you:

• Promote your insurance blog and create link backs to your website.
• Connect with insurance customers and prospects.
• Generate business and referrals. Twitter is online word of mouth.
• Network with others in the insurance industry.
• Access ideas, content, links, resources, and tips.
• Check out the competition.
• Increase insurance sales.
• Promote insurance products and services and offer real-time customer service.
• Market your insurance services.

Use these tips when setting up your insurance company page on Twitter:

1. Establish Your Image

• Use your company logo as the picture that will show on your profile. If your logo doesn’t fit nicely in the square space allotted, use a favicon version of your logo.
• Make sure that your user name or handle is as similar to your company’s name as possible
• Create a concise bio that describes what your business does – make sure to include keywords.
• Create a custom background  -  see mine at http://twitter.com/insurancecopywr  

(Helpful resource: How to: Create Custom Twitter Backgrounds)

 2. Follow and Be Followed  

Follow –

• Competitors and business leaders in your industry.
• The contacts your competitors are following.
• Companies that fall into categories related to your products or services.
• Companies found by searching targeted keywords.
• Twitter users from your existing contact lists (LinkedIn or Gmail). This is an option when setting up your account.

 Get followers by –

• Following contacts back.
• Posting interesting, relevant content regularly.
• Interacting with the people you want to follow you.
• Using the Twitter search engine to monitor and join any debate centered around keywords of interest.
• Retweeting interesting developments, news and blogs.
• Joining the conversation by using the @.
• Mentioning your Twitter account everywhere (website widget, signature line, business card, other social network profiles, advertising).
• Thanking people for following you.
• Focusing on quality rather than quantity.

 3. TWEET!

• Update followers about what is happening in and around your company.
• Share developments in your industry.
• Retweet relevant links from thought leaders.
• Send links to your company blog posts.
• Promote special deals.
• Share ideas and ask for advice.
• Answer customer complaints and improve satisfaction.

Hopefully this has motivated you to jump into the world of Twitter and don’t forget to follow me at http://twitter.com/insurancecopywr !

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Resources

How to use Twitter for Business

Mashable Twitter Guidebook – everything you need to know and more about Twitter