Why Buying Followers is a Waste of Money

When agents begin marketing their agency via social media, they tend to focus on the quantity of likes and followers as opposed to the quality of those likes and follows. You’ll see advertisements all over the web trying to sell you “real” followers and likes for anywhere from $5 to $200 depending on how many you purchase. But 2,000 spambots and fake accounts (by the way, they're never real followers) do not make a successful social media presence. Basically, all buying follows and likes will do is make your page seem more popular than it is. It’s like paying to sit at the popular kids’ table at lunch.

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A Hit Parade of Twitter Mistakes

If you're new to using social media for business and still trying to figure out how Twitter works, you can easily end up spending too much time on the social network. It's also easy to make mistakes that could cost you followers.
To help you avoid the awkward learning phase and start building a Twitter following, I've put together this hit parade of Twitter mistakes to avoid.

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Gaining Followers

Here's another presentation in  our Masters of Marketing webinar. This presentation discusses how to use social media marketing to gain followers for your brand. If you would like to join us every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. CST when we discuss marketing tips, you can register here.

Masters of Marketing: Social Media & Gaining Followers

View more of our presentations

Don't Know What to Tweet? 11 Ideas For When You Have Writer's Block

One of my biggest pet peeves about businesses on Twitter is when they make it all about themselves. The beauty of Twitter is how easy it is to have conversations with brands as consumers that we couldn’t have before. Twitter is not a broadcast medium and shouldn’t be treated as such. Otherwise, you will be spinning your wheels instead of gaining traction as you try to build relationships and position yourself as an insurance expert.

A good rule of thumb for brands on Twitter is the 1:10 ratio. Meaning for every one tweet  you share about your agency, you need to have 10 that are about other topics. 

So what do you tweet  about if you aren't supposed to tweet about yourself? Read more

What is the value of a Facebook "Like" and a Twitter "follow" to businesses?

Most, if not all, know about Facebook and Twitter, but many times you don’t know if you should start using them because you don’t really see the value that they could add to your business.  What is a tweet, a Facebook post, a Twitter "follow" or a Facebook "Like" worth?

Based on an extensive research, Imbue Marketing created an infographic that shows what tweets, likes, shares, and follows are worth.

The infographic shows really interesting information. A person is 47 percent more likely to do business with a brand that he or she follows. Also,  social media has increased the effectiveness of marketing for 63 percent of the companies. Additionally, Social media has increased customer satisfaction and has reduced marketing costs, as the graphic shows.

Do you need help with Twitter and Facebook? Our SEO team at Insurance Website Builder can help you optimize your insurance websites as well as your Facebook Page and Twitter account. Call us today at 1-800-383-3482 for more information.

(Source:  Imbuemarketing.com)

Keeping It Fresh

One of the biggest challenges for today’s websites is keeping Google happy and interested. It’s not that it’s difficult. It’s simply time-consuming (when done correctly) and overwhelming if you don’t have a strategy setup to guide you.

As the saying goes, ‘Content is King,’ and it’s fresh content that keeps visitors engaged, because really, who wants to read about your Christmas Contest in March? Unfortunately, more than half of business owners fail to update their site even once a month. To put it in perspective:

– Sites that update their content  5 times a month receive 300% more traffic
– Businesses that utilize social media marketing receive 400% more site hits

Source

4 Easy Types of Content to Make Google Happy

Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging and the other various social media sites attract millions of people every single day. News articles, helpful tips, or special events posted on Facebook, or even a 140-character tweet about new products on Twitter all have search engine optimization advantages. Since social media content is essentially the epitome of fresh & relevant content, it is the most likely to be picked up by Google.

Press Releases

By definition, a press release is the announcement of something new. This makes it another type of content that search engines favor. Press releases can target your SEO keywords, improve your brand-association, and in the end, be posted to your social media accounts. Benefits like that should never be ignored.

User Generated Content

As an insurance agent, your business can rely heavily on the comments and reviews of your customers. This can be a double-edged sword, but the rewards definitely outweigh the risks. Invite people to comment on your blogs or your Facebook wall. Direct them to reviews on your Google business listing. Many consumers rely on the experiences and evaluations of others to determine the quality and value of your services. Search engines take into account how people interact with your site, so to gain new visitors, be sure those returning visitors are making their satisfaction known. Most importantly, you can also combine these efforts with your social media platform.

Marketing Automation Content

Lastly, this overlooked, yet important tool is essential to your website’s overall optimization and relevance. If you have helpful information that’s industry specific and appeals to your audience, post it on your site! Use it to gain more information about your visitors. With this focused content, people will not only want to gain access, but the content itself will help build relevancy for your target keywords. An example of this is to offer free reports for download off of your site in exchange for a Name & E-mail address. It’s a win-win-win for all parties involved. Consumers gain free information, Businesses gain leads, and search engines gain helpful data.

Source

Gain access to even more tips, help, guidance, and strategy for your Insurance Website today!

5 Reasons Why Your Business Should Use Twitter

Facebook is the biggest social network in the world and many business owners have understood how useful Facebook could be for business. Twitter, however is also another important network that could be useful for your business.

Twitter reached 500 million registered users just a couple of days ago and you can find a good mixture of comments, connections, content, images, videos, people and news that are presented in real time within your niche. Twitter is a platform that updates really quick, breaks worldwide news, influences major brands and allows small businesses to promote their brand just like the big companies.

There are many reasons why you should consider Twitter for your business and we would like you to understand the top 5 reasons:

1. Real Time News

Many of the most important worldwide news have been shared in Twitter before any other media in the world. Its simplicity is a key element that allows us to share something within seconds from a cellphone, computer, tablet o any device connected to the Internet. If you want to know what is happening about a specific topic, you can use Twitter as a search engine to get really good information related to this topic.

2. Share Your Knowledge and Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog

Twitter is one of the best platforms to share information and your knowledge. Posting tweets related to specific or different topics can help you increase the number of followers and sharing good content will help you drive traffic to your website or blog. Twitter can also help you increase the number of fans or likes that you have on your Facebook page.

3. Build Your Brand

Many people are on Twitter and it provides another channel to build your companies brand. People could recognize your brand later If you customize your Twitter profile, with a picture, a unique background that coincide with the feel and look of your brand, a link to your website and a bio that explains who you are or what you could offer.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Links shared on Twitter have a direct impact on search engine rankings and many have tried to use this information to improve search rankings. Remember to include keywords as well as a link to your website in your profile.

5. Build a Community

People are sharing and commenting in real-time and you can build loyalty, commitment and sense of belonging to a topic. Many people are looking to connect with different communities on Twitter.

Are you or your business taking advantage of Twitter? Our SEO team at Insurance Website Builder can help you optimize your insurance websites as well as your Twitter account. Call us today at 1-800-383-3482 for more information.

https://twitter.com/InsWebBuilder

From Jocks to Geeks--Happy Friday!

Whether you were Captain of the Football Team, Class President, both, or nothing at all, there's a social media site out there that complemented your social circle. Or lack thereof.

Even more so now, there's a social media site for everybody. Each with its own, unique personality. It's these personalities that can determine their popularity, their use, and most importantly, which one you feel most comfortable using. The different sites reach different audiences, so take a look and see how your favorite social media fares in the public forum...if social media were a highschool.

Twitter Reaches 500 Million Registered Users

Twitter exceeded 500 million users registered and keeps growing with 10 new users per second, according to the tracking website TwopCharts.com.

Even though Twitter has not yet confirmed the number, Twopcharts.com has been using Twitter’s data to calculate the number of registered users the social network has. The third party site looks at ID numbers associated with each account, which are unique and appear to be sequential, starting with number 1 in 2006 when the micro blogging site started.

It is expected that Twitter will reach 600 million registered users in mid-June 2012.

While Twitter has a little bit over half a billion users, Facebook is expected to reach the 1 billion mark in the next couple of months. Google+ has more than 100 million users.

Are you or your business taking advantage of Twitter? Our SEO team at Insurance Website Builder can help you optimize your insurance websites as well as your Twitter account. Call us today at 1-800-383-3482 for more information.

https://twitter.com/InsWebBuilder

Today is the Day

Most content is shared on Wednesday mornings.

This infographic from AddThis displays just how 1.2 billion users
have found a way to share 10 million ideas. Effectively.

The next idea someone shares should be yours.

Link Your Facebook to Your Twitter

Social Networking is one of the best, and now easiest ways to reach potential clients and customers directly. Follow these easy step-by-step instructions on how to link your Facebook Page to your Twitter Feed so you can share everything you publish with everyone you know.

1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/twitter/
2. Login, then select the button reading "Link a Page to Twitter"
3. Your available pages should be listed with a button to the right that reads "Link to Twitter"
4. Select the button corresponding to the page you wish to link
5. You will be redirected to a Twitter page asking for your Twitter Username & Password
6. Enter your login information and select the button that reads "Allow"
7. You will be redirected back to Facebook and a list of Settings to Edit will be visible
8. You can choose to share any or all of the choices that include Status Updates, Photos, Video, Links, Notes, and Events.
9. Feel free to leave all the selections chosen
10. Select "Save Changes" and you are now connected!

You are now more connected to social networking and will easily generate twice as many postings.

Additional Resources

• Facebook Page Help
• Business Page Tips from Facebook
• How Facebook boosts Rankings
• Social Media and the Insurance Industry

Setting up Twitter on your Website

Twitter is a very powerful social networking platform that can significantly increase the number of visitors to your website, if used correctly. IWB websites have the capability to automatically tweet with appropriate web addresses, any changes made to the website, e.g. updating pages, posting blogs, adding content. This is great for busy agents like yourselves.

1. Set up a Twitter account. Go to http://twitter.com and sign up for a account. Your user name should be your company name rather than your main keyword phrase (kp). A company name is better in the long run, as you will be changing out your main kp in a few months, and you would have to start your campaign all over again.
2. Make it look nice. Customize your account with your main kp as best as you can. The bio line should include your main kp. Make sure to include your website address in the profile settings. Your background and link colors should match your home site. If possible make your image a 72 pixel by 72 pixel version of your company logo. Nothing turns away a visitor faster than a default-looking, no-customization page.
3. Network with your website. Log in to the Admin Console, under Communication Settings, click on Social Networking Settings. Enter your user name and password and make sure to check the box that says Enable Twitter Posting. Now every time you make a change to your website, Twitter will know about it. 

Twitter is a great way to communicate with current and potential customers. Even though the website automatically tweets for you, don't let that be the only thing your feed is about. Integrate community news and events, current affairs, insurance news, and company news and promotions, to make your status updates more interesting. Happy tweeting!

Additional Resources:

• Read more about Twitter for Business.
• Learn how to set up a Facebook Business Page.
• Link Facebook to Twitter. 
• How Twitter is changing: A new study reveals Twitter’s new direction
  
• Social Media and the Insurance Industry

Twitter for Businesses

With Twitter releasing their new business model "Promoted Tweets" more businesses may want to look at creating a Twitter account. Check out Twitter 101 - a Special Guide for Businesses thinking about tweeting.

http://business.twitter.com/

Learn how to automatically Tweet from your IWB website.

Learn about Social Media and the Insurance Industry.