More than ever, people are using social media to share their lives; and, also to connect with the people and brands that influence them. This year, Facebook reported having 1.15 billion monthly active users, and Twitter pulled in an impressive 200 million users – and growing. While insurance agencies have accepted that social media plays a vital role in their marketing strategy, many still struggle with how to turn social media “Likes” into leads. In this post, I will share with you three ways to convert them.
Custom Facebook Tabs
Facebook offers custom Facebook tabs, which are “sections” within your Business Page about one specific topic. These custom tabs can be used to display anything from events, to an RSS feed of your insurance agency’s blog. They’re also a great way to gain leads, as the content behind these tabs can be “gated.” This means that users can be asked to complete an action, such as completing a form or “Liking” your page before they can access the content behind it.
One way that your insurance agency can utilize custom Facebook tabs is to offer tips on how to save money on insurance hidden behind a short form. Alternatively, you could also promote a sweepstakes where participants have to complete a form to enter or “Like” your insurance agency’s Facebook page.
“Pin It To Win It” Contests
These contests take place within Pinterest, and ask prospects and customers to “pin” 10-20 images on a themed “Pin It to Win It” board. Generally, these type of contests also require participants to “Follow” the brand’s Pinterest page, which helps increase a page’s following and reach. When advertising the “Pin It to Win It Contest,” it’s typically a good idea to include the steps it takes to enter, and to keep them short, clear and concise.
In order to gain leads, these steps can include:
1. “Following” your agency on Pinterest.
2. Creating a board on their own Pinterest page, based on a certain theme.
3. Emailing a link to their Pinterest board to your agency (in order to capture their email addresses).
However, it’s important to note that Pinterest does have contest guidelines that you should adhere to whenever running a promotion. Among those rules, the channel asks that you don’t run a sweepstakes where each pin, re-pin, board, like or follow represents an entry. Instead, run a contest that awards the quality of a pin, not the quantity.
Twitter Cards
One of Twitter’s newer features, “Twitter Cards” makes it possible to attach media experiences to Tweets that link to your content. By adding a few lines of HTML to your webpages, users who Tweet links to your content will have a “card” added to the Tweet on their Twitter page. This card will be visible to all of their Followers.
There are seven types of cards that can be attached to Tweets:
- Summary Card: Default card, including a title, description, thumbnail, and Twitter account attribution.
- Large Image Summary Card: Similar to a Summary Card, but offers the ability to prominently feature an image.
- Photo Card: A Tweet-sized photo card.
- Gallery Card: A Tweet card geared toward highlighting a collection of photos.
- App Card: A Tweet card for providing a profile of an application.
- Player Card: A Tweet-sized video/audio/media player card.
- Product Card: A Tweet card to better represent product content.
By utilizing this Twitter card feature, your insurance agency can potentially help drive further traffic to its website, converting social media users into customers.
To begin using Twitter cards, visit this page. Twitter also provides a tool that will allow you to test, preview and submit your use of the feature for approval with its “Cards Validator.”
How do you currently turn social media “Likes” into leads? Share your tips with us in the “Comments” section, below.