Social Media Marketing   Effectiveness of Social Media? 

I admit that I have not yet put a lot of time into trying to market myself via social media.

Any agents out there who can share their experiences? What have you tried?

Scott, I think Social Media (used properly) can be beneficial by enhancing your agency's brand. The importance of social media can be deceiving at first with many agents who don't understand the importance of being a part of social media. Yes, it is directed towards socialization with friends/family but part of being an insurance agent is gaining the trust of your current and prospective clients. In order to do that you need to be a face AND a name on these social media outlets.

What I have found to work for me to network with potential clients and keep in contact with my current clients is to have a Facebook personal page linked with a Facebook business page. This allows me to be a human on my personal page, but also post important business updates on my business page and share posts between both of them.

Another great source of social media is creating a blog (which can also be linked with a Facebook account) here you can post industry tips, agency updates, and other topics that prospects might be searching about. The key with a blog is to direct it towards topics that your target audience and include solid SEO features.

Both of these have proven to be longer term projects (social media is NOT a lead generator), but it has made my relationships with my current clients stronger which gives them more confidence to pass referrals on to me and give me solid recommendations!