How Insurance Agencies Can Adapt to the Challenges of Facebook's New Algorithm
Facebook plays an important role in the success of almost every insurance business. It's become one of the top platforms for connecting with customers and broadening the reach of other marketing strategies. According to Facebook, their user base currently stands at more than 2.2 billion active monthly users - providing insurance businesses like yours with access to a larger audience that would otherwise be difficult to reach.
But, let's take this a little further and consider how 53% of Facebook users check into the social network several times each day. When considering this, it becomes obvious that Facebook provides an incredible opportunity for promoting all types of businesses, including those in the insurance industry. Many insurance agencies were already tapping into the marketing power of Facebook until something happened earlier this year that stopped businesses in their tracks.
This happened when Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was changing their algorithm to favor the type of meaningful content that its users appreciated over the sometimes spammy and salesy content that was being pushed into feeds by businesses. This shift included Facebook's favoring of paid advertisements over the free, organic reach that many businesses had come to depend on.
This of course sent businesses that had grown accustomed to counting on organic reach through Facebook into a tailspin. It was deemed the end of social media reach as we knew it and organic reach was said to be dead in the water - except it actually isn't.
Sure, some insurance businesses have waved the white flag and surrendered to a paid Facebook ad strategy, but not every operation has the resources or desire to invest in a costly ad campaign. So, is it possible to adapt to the new Facebook algorithm and still reach customers organically?
Absolutely, and here's some insight into how to advertise insurance on Facebook.
Hone-In On Your Audience:
The change in algorithm means that everything you post on Facebook needs to provide exceptional value to the audience it's reaching. This is almost impossible to do when you're reaching out to one large, general audience. You can provide greater value and encourage more interaction with your posts when they're targeted towards a specific segment of your audience instead.
Fortunately, Facebook has made this easy - and free - to do. Facebook offers preferred audience targeting which is a tool that allows you to identify and segment out a specific group in your audience. Ways to target your audience include common demographics like age, gender and location.
This type of audience targeting can provide insurance agencies with a major advantage in showing Facebook that their users genuinely like and support their business. For example, an insurance agency can target a specific geographical location that's experiencing a real estate boom for homeowner's insurance by publishing content highlighting some of the best undiscovered attractions in the area. Likewise, an insurance agency could target an age bracket that's likely to be starting a family for life insurance by promoting a short video that's packed with emotional power.
Keeping a Hawk's Eye on Your Reputation:
The whole point of the Facebook algorithm change is to improve the quality of the experience for everyone that uses the social network. People who are happy with their experience are going to stick around, and this not only fuels Facebook's future success but also encourages more ad revenue coming their way.
In order for Facebook members to truly be satisfied with their experience, they need to be interacting with people and businesses that they respect and enjoy. As an insurance agency, how you manage your reputation on Facebook is key in being seen as a valuable member of the network's community.
This requires diligence.
Social media reputation management isn't just about how many gold stars you can get. It's about building a reputation for being responsive, interactive and caring about the experience your followers have when they engage with you.
For example, if you posted content on the importance of adding a specific type of coverage to an automobile insurance policy, there's a good chance that some members of your audience will have additional questions. Taking the time to engage and answer those questions in a timely manner shows that you're active on the network, and that you're genuinely interested in interacting with your followers. Plus, the more you interact, the higher your engagement rate - something that's key to getting your posts noticed in personal feeds.
What About Content?
The need to have a strong focus on reputation management brings us to content. It's always been true that your presence of Facebook is practically non-existent if you're not sharing content, except now it's quality that matters over quantity.
Facebook rewards pages and posts that have a high engagement rate because they see them as being more valuable to the overall community. By focusing in on only your best content, you're instantly increasing your rate of engagement where other insurance agencies are getting left behind in the dust.
You want to consider what type of content your audience will find interesting and valuable and then run with it. For example, video is highly engaging and one of the most popular forms of content on social media. For insurance agencies that have grown comfortable with the written word, video might seem like too big of a jump, but the competitive advantage you gain is well worth the pain of reaching outside your comfort level.
Consider a short video, no more than a couple minutes, to deliver your quality content. Ideas include a Q&A about specific types of insurance policies or even something that's mildly related to your insurance services, like real estate open house tours or an interview at a local community crime prevention event.
Social Media Marketing for Insurance Agents:
What we've covered here only begins to touch the many ways that insurance agencies can optimize their presence and reach on Facebook, even with the recent algorithm change. We're an agency focused specifically on building the digital presence of insurance agencies through targeted marketing and website design. If you've found yourself at a loss with Facebook's algorithm change or are simply ready to amplify the results of your social media marketing efforts, contact Confluency Solutions today to discover what we can accomplish for your insurance agency.