SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media from page 30
How to have a good post
Posts need to have photos, color, movement (video or gif),
controversy and energy. They need to entice with something
funny, irritating, unique, or unusual to make someone stop
scrolling and read.
When to post?
This is a common question and agents overlook that the day
of the week and time of day are not the critical factor. Don’t post
until you have an audience to consume your information. Posts
take time, if done right, and there is no need to craft a powerful
post if there is no one there to read it.
Stop thinking about your next post and start connecting with
people!
I recommend that you don’t even waste time posting content
until you’ve built up your LinkedIn followers to 3K connections.
LinkedIn allows you to add an indeterminate amount each day, so
max it out daily and in a month or two, you will be ready to devote
time to building content to post.
“The average social media post
only has a four-hour life span.”
Think how you consume Social Media. Do you read every post,
or only stop on the one that manages to capture your attention?
Most posts you will scroll past. What makes you stop on a post?
Photos, color, movement (video or gif), controversy and energy.
So, why do agents keep posting a photo of the seminar they just
gave? A golf outing, they just attended or a plaque they received?
Boring your audience isn’t even a possibility, because LinkedIn
won’t show the post to your followers.
While I’m at it, can I also ask you all to stop trying to be
motivational gurus? You love those Tony Robbins’ quotes and
think reposting them will ingratiate you with your audience.
With too many people shouting inspirations online every day, my
mantra is, “You can’t stand out by fitting in” so nothing screams
lack of imagination
like a tired quote
from Confucius.
Posts die fast
Finding out what day and time to post is easy. Test it. See when
your followers are online. I was shocked to see that my posts did
great on Saturday. I have heard in seminars I teach from agents
that post at 9am because “that’s when I get to work, so I like to
get it out of the way.” You must test your market. Never assume
your target audience is the same as you.
The average social media post only has a four-hour life span. If
your followers are not seeing your post in that time span, chances
are your post will get buried in their news feeds. Post when they
are most likely to be online, in my case that is at 5 pm everyday
but Friday and Sunday. Your connections might be online at
different times, so post and see what time works best.
Time to stand out
The simple rule of digital marketing — you can’t put out boring
content…ain’t nobody got time to read that stuff! Social Media
must have an element of entertainment to catch the viewer’s eye.
“LinkedIn reports less than 1% of
users create engaging content. If
LinkedIn sees no activity, the post
dies on the vine.”
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Perspectives
Q4 2019
Start with controversy
My post “LinkedIn Is Not A Dating Site” got great traction
because I talked about something controversial. When your
followers comment, it is imperative that you respond to their
comments in a timely manner. The more back and forth
conversation your post engenders, the higher your post will rank
with that platform and the longer your post will stay “alive” and
be sent to your followers’ news feeds. I don’t have 21K follower,
but LinkedIn liked the engagement this post got so well that they
sent it to thousands of insurance agents that I’m not connected
to. That’s a total score in the world of Social Media marketing.
Free exposure of my brand to thousands of insurance agents and
I didn’t pay a dollar for the effort.