Insurance marketers tend to put a lot of emphasis on the mainstream social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. However, LinkedIn has over 300 million subscribers, making it larger than most countries in the world. LinkedIn’s focus is on business-to-business, or B2B, networking, and that makes it the perfect way to network with other insurance professionals and pick up some new small business insurance leads and clients. Why not make a New Year’s resolution to establish your insurance agency on LinkedIn if you haven’t already done so?
Using LinkedIn for Insurance Agency Networking
The problem with LinkedIn for some users is that it is a little more complicated than some of the social sites that are intended for a general audience. Some agents get overwhelmed by all of the features, so they never really exploit the website as well as they could. However, you can take some practical steps to focus on the important parts of LinkedIn to establish an effective presence there in a couple of hours. These are some suggested steps to establish yourself and your agency on LinkedIn:
- Focus on setting up a professional profile: The profile is what other people see when you invite them to connect with you or they see your name on an article or message board post.
- Join relevant groups: There are thousands of targeted groups for every imaginable industry, so you should join insurance focused groups and participate in the discussions when you have something useful to contribute. If LinkedIn is like a giant city, these groups are like neighborhoods and small towns where you can connect with the people you hope to attract to your own internal network.
- Find connections: LinkedIn has tools that make it pretty easy to find people to connect with. You might look for your current clients, other local agents, community influencers, and business owners.
Once you have established yourself, you may want to gain more attention by posting your own blog articles and even creating your own focused groups. Even though all of the features of this large website can make it intimidating, it is possible to take it in steps in order to give yourself time to learn the ropes. While you are building up your insurance networking with LinkedIn, you can start following the American Agents Alliance. We’re a national insurance association for independent insurance agents dedicated to helping you thrive through advocacy, education, and networking.
