Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Now more than ever, LinkedIn is a level playing field, whether you have one follower or whether you have 2,000 followers.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: And so when consumers are searching for help or for just information, LinkedIn is something that AI will draw from.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: People like to learn by watching videos. So whatever you can do to deliver value, deliver it to them.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: These are all things that are working together. Your social media is one component of it.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Those are the type of things where just be a part of the community, organically be a part of it.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Today we are talking about how you can optimize your social media presence, especially ahead of AEP or whatever your busy season is. We're really framing this around. If you set up your profiles for success today, you'll experience that success tomorrow. And we're going to break down three of our top platforms for our audience of agents and advisors out there, Joe, and that is Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. And let's start with LinkedIn, because I think among those three, that might be the platform that surprises an insurance agent or financial advisor the most. Why is LinkedIn beneficial to our audience?
[00:01:10] Speaker A: Well, there's people on LinkedIn that are 65 plus. So all of those people, everybody, when you hit that 65, is looking at Medicare or, you know, getting enrolled in Medicare. So it's the perfect opportunity to connect.
It's how you position, position yourself on there and the type of content that you share. But it's absolutely a valid platform if you look at the age groups and
[00:01:29] Speaker B: who's over there and what kind of content tends to work there. And I want to preface this by saying the shelf life of content on LinkedIn is often a lot longer than other platforms. So with that in mind, what type of content should we be producing?
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah, that was an algorithm update that they did probably about a year ago where all of a sudden posts started lasting for three weeks. I mean, you'd see posts coming up in your, you know, in your feed from three weeks ago that are still out there and just generating. And now more than ever, LinkedIn is a, is a level playing field. Whether you have one follower or you have 2,000 followers, it doesn't matter. LinkedIn right now is all about value and it's all about being helpful. So if you're producing content that is truly valuable to that target audience, you want to make sure. So if it was, if you're looking at LinkedIn and you know, that being on Medicare and still having a job and still having a salary might, you know, could affect, and there could be things that they need to know about that's the type of stuff that you should be posting over there. Knowing most of the people on LinkedIn are professionals and so a lot of people when they turn 65 are still working. How did the benefits from where they're still working, how did has that worked with Medicare? Those are the type of questions that you can be putting out there and answering those type of questions that are helping, knowing that that target audience on LinkedIn is most likely professionals still working
[00:02:45] Speaker B: and you have an opportunity through that content to position yourself as a subject matter expert in your field and an authority figure in your field. Joe, what does that mean to our audience though? Why is it important to build authority in your industry?
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Well, people are researching, people want to find the answers themselves and somebody has to give them the answer. So can you go, you know, you can go to the government sites, you can go to different profiles, but people like to connect with people and Medicare is a very complex topic. There are so many different scenarios that a, that a client could be in and somebody who understands those scenarios and can understand and, and help them be informed about the, the choices that they have, that's critical. So you want to make sure that you're the one that's positioning yourself to where if they have those questions that you're providing those answers or you're providing the education to those questions, somebody's going to do it. And people like to learn by watching videos. They love those shorts, LinkedIn. We I create videos on there all the time. Quick one minute videos of just giving advice. They do good. Those carousels. Carousels are doing amazing on LinkedIn right now. And even the text only posts are doing very well right now. Now there's a difference between the desktop and mobile of which ones are doing better on which devices. But those are all great things to test. And it's one more area where people are spending their time. Now would I say of the three, if you had to pick one, that LinkedIn would be the one that you would pick? Absolutely not. I would absolutely say Facebook is most likely that, that platform just because the majority of people probably aren't comfortable creating enough content for YouTube. So if we're talking about the majority, Facebook is where you want to spend your time. But LinkedIn can be that platform if you can put your time there and make sure that you're adjusting your content to meet that audience well too.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: We're no longer just creating content for other human beings anymore. We're also creating online content for AI.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: And AI likes LinkedIn because it's already a professional network. And so when consumers are searching for help or for just information, LinkedIn is something that AI will draw from consistently because of its reputation as a reputable source where professionals share direct firsthand knowledge and experience.
We won't get into it today. We have a great podcast on it, but Reddit is another platform that AI really likes to draw from because it's that direct conversational nature where you're sharing expertise.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: What's important about LinkedIn and AI that you just mentioned too is a lot of people might think, oh, it's my post posts that AI is pulling. It's not. It's actually the comments that you leave on other people's posts that AI is pulling also. So it's not just about posting and it's not just about putting out the information that you want. It's about being a part of the conversation. And so it's responding to things that have to do with your topic and giving your two cents and making sure that you're being social on social media.
That's where I think a lot of people get surprised by those LinkedIn comments getting pulled into the AI feeds.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: Yeah, let's talk about Facebook now because we would both agree that that is the big one, especially during aep.
That's where our main audience is living and spending most of their time.
What type of a mindset a month before AEP should our audience be in when they're trying to optimize their Facebook profile for such a busy season?
[00:06:13] Speaker A: I think if you go into Facebook and you and you are treating it a hundred percent as I need this to be a sales platform and I'm going to check to see what my sales are on this platform. You're going about it the wrong way.
Entire purpose of Facebook is to meet the consumer where they're at. They're spending time over there for friends and family and education and entertainment. You have to keep that in mind. When people are on Facebook, there's no intent. They're not there looking for Medicare, they're not there looking for that specifically. They're scrolling. They're spending two hours a day there. So as you're creating content, you want to make sure that you're creating content that try to be entertaining, try to be educational. So that's where those frequently asked questions and just sharing your input or sharing your stories, share as much as you can on there to where when people come across it, they relate to you. And really it's about being social again. You want to make sure that you're you know, you're showing them who you are. Give them a day in the life of show them what AEP is like. It's okay to do that and say, you know, today I helped 25 clients or I talked to 25 clients today with all great questions. Here's the number one question that they asked. That's a great piece of content.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: It's also free exposure for you if you are out engaging on other people's posts because we'll take you as an example. You post often on LinkedIn, but I will get served content on posts that you were just commenting on, but yours will be the featured comments. So you're not to your point. Your own owned content is not the only way to get your name and your business distributed out into the Facebook ecosystem.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: No, those community feeds are gold. They are absolute gold on there. So if you go into those community feeds, we have one in our area for the Seminole area, there's Clearwater, there's county ones and be interactive on there. And it's not just about every single time you're on there, make sure you're mentioning what it is that you do. Be a part of the community. If people are talking or asking for recommendations, recommend. If you have a network of friends and family in that area and they see somebody asking, hey, does anybody know a Medicare agent? Ask them to help recommend you. Also, there's so much that you can do and even just providing value and not asking for anything in return, just putting out an information piece out there that says, hey, you may not know this, but I think, you know, for anybody that's turning 65, you, you know, here's something to keep in mind. Those are gold. That's gold pieces of content. And the more engagement you get, it's not just about the friends and family anymore. It's going to serve that to other people that may have interacted, like you said, with pieces of content that were similar.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah. If we look at LinkedIn as that is where you are buttoned up and professional. That's how you're speaking with other professionals in your industry and your colleagues. Facebook is about being a friendly neighbor. It's about going over to next door and asking for a cup of sugar if you need it. I mean, you're just offering your knowledge and expertise not to get anything in return.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: But just to help and be a friendly neighbor. And so if you ever need a mindset to operate in, that's a great one for Facebook. And as you mentioned, people are going straight. They're asking Other people?
[00:09:08] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: For a Medicare agent that they've had success with, a life insurance agent that they've had success with, and we could run the gamut.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: People love other people's opinions. They love those experiences. That's why reviews go so well. That's why people love Reddit right now. That's even why AI is pulling Reddit so much, is because it's opinions that people are putting out there and their experiences of what they've had, you know, in their past and what's worked and what hasn't. Same thing with Facebook. That's why those community things do so well. It's the community coming together and giving their recommendations. It's also the community coming together and saying what they didn't like. That's a lot of it, too. But those are the type of things where just be a part of the community organically be a part of it. And don't go in there trying to sell. They're not there to buy from you.
Will they buy from you? Yes, if you build that relationship. But don't go after it like that. Go after it with the mindset of, how can I be as helpful as possible?
[00:09:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And, and it go. That goes such a long way, too, because from a consumer's perspective, if I am, if you're just reaching out to me to inform me of a change in my plan that I currently have, I mean, that just feels like I have somebody looking out for me. And, and, and if you are looking out for your audience, that will come through. And when they truly need somebo likely going to be at the top of their list on who they're going to call.
I want to talk about content that works on Facebook, but I want to bring in YouTube now into this conversation because we know that video works really well on Facebook, and you can't talk about video without talking about YouTube. Why is video so important to our audience on both Facebook and YouTube?
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Well, it makes things digestible. So video is very easy to understand, especially those shorts and those reels where you're talking a minute or less where you can, you can watch something and then it. And it's, you can understand it within a minute and it's not wasting a lot of your time. And so those are extremely popular. And the more value you can bring in that one minute, the better. And so that's really what it's about is it's, it's trying to get those shorts, it's trying to get them following you and engaging with you. And then you try to drive them to the longer form content. If they want more information, really it's about meeting again, it's just meeting the client where they're at, what is it that they like. Right now video is dominant across the board, especially those shorts. We know that. So start creating them, get them out there.
And YouTube. YouTube's not going anywhere. So the biggest thing between the two platforms is keeping in mind they're not together. So YouTube is separate than meta, the Facebook platform. So Facebook is not going. If you take a YouTube link and you put it on Facebook, they're not going to overly promote that because why are they going to drive traffic from their platform over to this platform? They're two completely separate companies. So you want to make sure that you're posting your video over here on YouTube, but at the same time you're natively posting that on Facebook. And you can use it as tests of what's doing well. And if something's doing really well as a short over here, go ahead and toss it as a short over here. And you may want to redo it more professionally for LinkedIn. And so that's really what you want to start measuring and paying attention to is who's engaging, who is asking questions and really what are those impressions for each one that you're posting.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: I'm glad that you mentioned cross posting and not in the context we know we can't cross post from Facebook to YouTube. But within the meta ecosystem you do have Facebook and Instagram. We're not going to spend much time on Instagram because we know that that's not where our core audience is are spending their most time when compared to these other platforms. But if you're posting on Facebook, meta and the CR in the creator suite that it has makes it very simple to just cross post. And short form video works really well, obviously not only on Facebook and YouTube, but Instagram as well. And short form video works as a discovery layer. So that's how people might be finding out who you are for the first time. They may come across a short form video and that's how they learn that you exist. What would be that next step, Joe, if you've captured their attention attention with short form video from the marketer's perspective,
[00:12:56] Speaker A: well, really it's all about just making sure that they're continuing that journey. So if you have a CRM that's set up and it's across your, your channel, say you have a short form video that's driving to your website, while on your website, if you have tracking, you know, that that social media channel sent them to your website, put retargeting on that website. That way, no matter where they go, you're following them around with your ads and what it is that you do and you're trying to get that frequency up. You want to make sure that you're delivering value. So whatever you can do to deliver value, deliver it to them. And we know contact information is still key of collecting that contact information so you can keep in touch with them via email.
So you want to keep driving them down a journey. People aren't going to see you for the first time and be like, oh my gosh, I trust this person. I want to, you know, I want to build a relationship. I really want to work with this person over time that happens. And in order to do that, it's frequency. We say it all the time. You know, car dealerships aren't out there running all this advertising because they know that you're looking to buy a car now they are hitting you with frequency. So when you are ready to do something, you're top of mind. Mind. That is why you want all that content out there. You want to be top of mind when that person is ready to say, hey, I really do need to talk to someone. I'm, you know, I've done enough research. It's time to make a decision. You want to be top of mind, all that content and that journey helps with that to make sure that happens. So it's all about frequency. Ton of content out there and making sure that you're delivering that content where they are.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: One of the biggest frustrations that I feel from our audience is often that they are posting frequently, but they feel like they're just posting into the void or that they're not getting as much out of social media as they think that they should be. So what would you say to an agent that approached you and is like, joe, I have been posting. I have been consistent. Why is, why is the needle not moving?
[00:14:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it's great because, you know, there's so many people where really what a, what a lot of it is is it's the attribution and giving credit where credit's due. So that's why email marketing gets so, so much credit as being the top roi. Well, the fact is, is email marketing is the top ROI because all that other work happened to cap information to get them into your email. All you're doing now is nurturing them and it's eventually converting them into a client. But you would have never had them in your CRM if it wasn't for all those other efforts. And so it really is getting harder and harder as, as people's attention is more scattered than ever to draw it all the way back to that original source that created it. But it's all those touch points that add up to eventually get you that conversion. And so the best way is you just have to see the efforts you have out there. Where are they? Where are those people coming from? What can you tie it back to? And ask your clients, hey, where did you originally find me? You'd be surprised of how many people say, oh, well, I Googled you or I googled the question or I went to AI and then your information popped up. I checked out your Facebook page to see who you were and you'll start to notice there's a lot of research that goes into that. And it's all of those touch points that build confidence. You know, the website lets you know they're credible. All right, They're a real business. They have a website. I see an address, there's a Google my business. I see they're real. Let me go to Facebook, let me go to social media and see who they really are. There's where the culture starts to come out. And then go over to YouTube. Oh my gosh, there's all these great videos that they're sharing. That's where I mentioned on another episode, when, you know, when you look at email marketing, how many people click the social links? They're curious, who are you? What are you? How long have you been around? How often do you post? Are you relevant? Those are all things that it's connecting. And then at the same time, then they're going to Google you and see what else is out there. So it's really important that you check for yourself of what's out there digitally and own your digital presence.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: As you were sharing that, Joe, all I could think about was that holistic approach to marketing. What you described was a system in place where social media is working with your email and it's all leading into a CRM and your website gets brought into the mix and that. So it's just so interesting as you lay it out like that and that I hope our audience understands that these are all things that are working together. Your social media is one component of it. And when you have that holistic approach and a complete presence across Google and social media and you're engaging on email, you are. You're covering your bases. Yes. And I would argue that it is much more valuable to your business to have one prospect turn into a client from a single Facebook post. Then have one Facebook post get a thousand likes, and it doesn't lead to a single.
So when you're gauging your own success, try not to get wrapped up in the vanity metrics that is social media. What truly matters is the business outcome that social media is feeding into. And so that's why your goals are super important for each platform. And then consistency is key.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: Joe, any final thoughts before we sign off?
[00:17:40] Speaker A: Nope. It's all about owning your digital presence. And the social media channels that we talked about today is a critical role of that because that's where our clients are hanging out. Our potential clients are hanging out. We have to meet them where they're at. Don't expect them to just come over to you. You have to meet them where they're at, show value, get them to, you know, build trust with you and wanted to have a conversation with you. That's what it's about.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And we talked Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Today we take deeper dives into all three of those platforms and we will link to those podcast episodes in the description below. So if you're new to Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube, those are great starting places after this. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Amerilife Marketing Mentors podcast. I'm David Belville.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: And I'm Joe Barker.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: And we'll catch you next time.
