As with any business, insurance agents must be stellar relationship-builders. Creating a relationship with someone online versus face-to-face, however, can offer a variety of challenges.

If you have a social media presence or a blog, how are you leveraging those profiles to build relationships? Are you sharing your expertise? Are you highlighting positive events in your community? We’ve mentioned insurance agent and blogger Ryan Hanley a few times here on our blog. We think he has great recommendations for boosting your online visibility and creating more genuine, authentic online connections with prospects. Here are a few of his tips:

1) Use local keyword content. For people in your area to find you, you’ll need to use keywords they would be likely to search for when they visit a search engine.

2) Highlight the thought leaders in your community. What local individuals make an impact? Who are the voices for change? Feature someone who makes a difference as a guest blog post.

3) Ask customers to help you spread the word. Your customers are your customers for a reason. If you’ve taken care of them and they’ve put their trust in you to protect their assets, they probably don’t mind to tell others how you’ve helped them. Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals.

What are your tips for connecting with insurance customers in your community?

We spent quite a bit of time in 2010 talking about the things you should be doing to market your insurance business online. According to the Harvard Business Review, 2011 will be the year that shapes the future of our lives online…so we still have more social media recommendations/insight for you.

Take a moment to consider these viewpoints from the folks at HBR:

1) Determine your purpose for every interaction. What are your goals? It’s so easy to get distracted each time we get online. Having a clear purpose for online interactions will keep you on track with your goals.

2) What is your online persona? How are you perceived by your online prospects/peers? Are you maintaining an identity that is consistent with your offline persona? It’s important that your online persona is parallel with your offline personality. You don’t want your clients to think you have an offline/online identity crisis.

3) Are you leveraging technology to address issues and/or rally around important events? The Internet offers many opportunities to positively impact your community. 2011 can be the year you help a local non-profit organization increase funding, or perhaps you use your insurance blog to answer important financial questions from your clients or prospects.

Head over to the Harvard Business Review blog to read the full article titled – “Social Media in 2011: Six Choices You Need To Make”.

If you haven’t bookmarked Albany Insurance Professional Ryan Hanley, take a second and go save his RSS feed. Hanley is an insurance agent in Albany, New York and who runs a blog about his experiences as an insurance professional.

In one of his most recent posts, Hanley shares how he personally uses Twitter to market his insurance business. Here’s a quick overview of why he encourages tweeting about your insurance agency:

1) Directing traffic to your insurance blog.

2) Staying up to date on local and national news headlines.

3) Fostering connections with clients and prospects.

4) Connecting with other insurance professionals.

5) Following other insurance industry leaders and staying on top of industry trends.

Thanks for sharing Ryan! Click here to read the full post.

When a new insurance customer or prospect visits your website or blog, there’s a good chance s/he will look for your “Bio” page or your “About us” section to learn more about who you are as a professional. This little page has the power to convert a prospect into a life-long client or deter him or her from ever thinking about doing business with you, so how you represent yourself here is extremely important.

One of my favorite business/marketing bloggers is Seth Godin. In his recent post “Five rules for your About page“, Godin shares his top tips for making a lasting, genuine impression:

1) Talk like a human. Don’t use industry terms that only other insurance agents understand.

2) Use a professional headshot. Don’t use a generic stock photo you found online.

3) Be reachable and available. Don’t offer contact information that doesn’t work.

4) Own your story. Offer a true, genuine narrative that others connect with.

5) Use real testimonials from real people.

How does your About page align with this criteria?

If you’re not following Seth Godin’s blog, I highly recommend clicking here to bookmark his RSS feed so you don’t miss a post!

We’ve been talking quite a bit about blogging for your insurance business. If you’ve never written a blog post or read many blogs, you may be wondering what you should write about. Never fear! The possibilities are endless.

What’s important is that what you write is unique and interesting – so Google will send readers to your blog and so readers will stick around and read what you have to say. You can write about:

1. Why you decided to become an insurance agent.
2. What makes you unique from other insurance agents.
3. The insurance industry.
4. Special discounts for certain insurance products.
5. Consumer insurance tips.
6. Commentary about current news events that have an impact on insurance.
7. Things people can do to save money on insurance.
8. Consumer safety tips.
9. Why everyone needs insurance.
10. What one should do if s/he is in an accident.
11. How to file an insurance claim.
12. The basic components of an insurance policy.

So you have 12 insurance-related topics to jump start your writing for your insurance blog. We’ll have more insurance agency blogging tips and suggestions coming soon! Happy blogging and happy Friday too!