Blog

Are you using Twitter as an insurance agent for personal and professional purposes? 

Consider this, 18% of online adults are on Twitter, according to a 2013 PEW Research Center Social Media survey.

Here’s a few more interesting Twitter statistics that are good for an insurance agent to know (courtesy of Edison Research):

• Nearly 17 million Americans actively use Twitter.
• A third of Twitters users in America use it daily.
• More than 60% of Twitter users in the U.S. have a college degree.

If you’re looking to join one of the top social media sites in the world, here’s a few beginner Twitter tips to help insurance agents get started:

Choose a Twitter Handle. Twitter handles (your username) should be easy for others to remember while reflecting services or areas of focus as an insurance broker.

Make an Account Name. Your account name should differ from your handle on Twitter. If your tweets are more business than personal in nature, using your full name or the name of your insurance practice is your best option.

Write a Short Bio. Twitter limits bios to 160 characters. Try to be reader- and keyword-friendly with your insurance agent bio. Here’s CancerInsurance.com’s bio as an example: “Official Twitter account for CancerInsurance.com. Helping you before diagnosis with cancer and critical illness insurance options, prevention tips and more.”

Follow Others. Use Twitter’s search tool to find industry publications, people with similar interests and potential customers. It will take time to build a following on Twitter, and not everyone you follow will follow you back. The key is to add value, actively participate and tweet. (P.S. The average active Twitter user only has a little over 200 followers.)

Now, what can you tweet about in 140 characters or less as an insurance agent? Use some of these Twitter tips for beginners to start engaging with others and grow your following:

• Tweet updates about your industry, interesting facts and statistics or anything that you deem appropriate for your audience without being too self-promoting. Find balance between promotional tweets and value-added news and content from outside sources.
• Monitor insurance industry news feeds through keywords via Google Alerts, email newslettters and RSS feeds for media outlets. If you find something relevant that adds value, tweet it.
• Try to tweet a couple of times a day during peak traffic times (1 p.m. to 3 p.m.). You can schedule tweets through sites like HootSuite and Sprout Social.
• Use 1 to 2 relevant hashtags within the copy of your tweet, like #insurance and #healthcare. It can help more people find your tweets or help you to insert yourself into a trending topic on Twitter. You can search for popular hashtags by entering '#terms' in Twitter's search bar.
• Retweet and reply to other’s tweets to make them more likely to share your content or start a conversation.
• You can direct a tweet and start a conversation with a specific Twitter user by adding their handle, like @PreCancerFight.
• Connect your account to your mobile phone or download a Twitter application to tweet on the go.

And remember, like a lot of things in life, including social media networking sites, you get out of it what you put into it. These beginner Twitter tips for insurance agents can help you get started.

Do you have any Twitter tips for beginners or social media insurance broker tips to share? Please tell us in the comments below.

Also, if you’re looking to help your clients face their financial future with confidence through cancer and critical illness insurance policies that deliver living benefit amounts of up to $100,000 – which can be used how a policyholder chooses (for both medical and non-medical bills) – you can click here to learn more and join the CancerInsurance.com Broker Support Program today.

(Image via Georgia Insurance Blog.)