Hello, insurance professionals. I know your focus is getting clients and prospects the life insurance coverage they need. My focus is to help you reach them—efficiently and effectively—through social media. I run all things social for Life Happens, and I’ll be sharing tips and tricks here to make that part of your job easier.

1. Your image matters. Let’s talk Twitter. I’ve seen many be guilty of this, including me. When using links in a tweet, always try and include an image with it. Using an image catches the users’ eye as they’re scrolling through their timeline. They’re more likely to stop if there is an image with the link. 

Images no longer count against the 140-character count for Twitter—so there’s no excuse not to use one.

If there’s an image on specific page you’re linking to, use that. If not, at least use a screenshot of the page. On a Mac, use Shift-Command-4. For a PC, go here or download an extension from the Chrome Web Store that will help you make a screenshot.

Here’s an example where I used a screenshot with a tweet. 

2. It’s all in the timing. Let’s move on to Facebook. What time of day are you posting your content? I suggest posting at a variety of times and seeing which times are best for your audience—when are you getting the most likes, shares and comments? That’s the way to go. 

Save you best content for the evening and in the P.M. when consumers are finally at home from work. You want to catch them when they’re relaxing and scrolling through their accounts at the end of the day.

3. Speaking of content … Life Happens Pro has a wealth of great content from graphics to flyers to videos. And soon will be rolling out a personalized social feed feature where you can automatically have our content post to your social channels based on your pre-defined posting schedule and settings.

4. Let’s stay safe out there. Did you hear about the bug that potentially exposed user and security data from millions of sites last week? Right now is a great time to reset the passwords of your agency’s social accounts. Don’t forget your personal accounts, too.

Questions or comments? Feel free to contact me at nmcgrath@lifehappens.org or 703-888-4444.