5 Ways to use Twitter as an insurance agent

1. Drip marketing for my blog posts: When I write a new blog post the very first thing I do once I've hit the Publish button is Tweet the post (I actually have a WordPress Plugin that does this automatically but it's still the first thing). I want the post title and link out on the interweb. Once your post is in the Twitter feed people can Re-Tweet, comment, share, etc., with all their friends. I also have a plugin on my blog that will grab an old blog post and Tweet it as if new every 2 hours (Tweet Old Post). This keeps information I created a year ago continually in front of current and potential clients.
2. Follow local and national business news: In order to be effective in the insurance business you need to always be up-to-date on what is going on in the business world on both the local and national level. There is such a negative perception of the insurance business (Which is entirely unwarranted) throughout the general public that politicians at every level find attacking our profits an easy mark. Staying aware of the economic conditions and legislation always looming over the insurance business is a must.
3. Re-Tweet clients & prospects marketing messages: People ask me all the time how you “Do Business” on Twitter. If you want to do business with a prospect, what is the Number One, the Numero Uno way to get their attention? Anyone? If you answered, Send Them A Referral, then you are a winner (If you didn't know that start reading John Jantsch). I have a Private List (Click on the link for information on Twitter Lists) of all my clients and a separate private list of all my prospects on Twitter. I watch both lists. Anytime I can help either of them by referring business, a service provider, another professional, whatever…. Whenever I can add value to them I do. And an easy way to do that on a regular basis is Re-Tweet their marketing messages.
4. Network with insurance professionals: My favorite part of Twitter is the insurance professionals that I have connected with (See Insurance Community Rocking the Social Web for a great list to get you started). These wonderful people have helped me in so many ways. Besides being funny, and interesting, and some cases hysterically crazy, they are very good at what they do, insurance & marketing. I've learned so much about the insurance business from the online insurance community its unbelievable. Its weird to think but I consider myself friends with many people I have never even met.
5. Stay updated on latest insurance industry trends: Insurance is a complicated business. If you are not in “The Biz” then you probably just rolled your eyes and said “Yeah right Insurance is boring and stupid and you can buy it online so how complicated could it be,” and you would be a jerk. Unless you live and breath insurance every day its hard to understand how dynamic the insurance industry actually is. There are changes almost every week it seems and as dedicated independent agent we need to stay on top of changes. So I follow all the Insurance trade journals, magazines, and websites out on the Inter-Web so that when change does happen I can take it to the street.

Twitter is not just a 140 characters. 140 characters is the last thing that Twitter is. True, 140 characters does make you use the creative side of your brain and I understand that is a debilitating limitation to some of you. But I promise, if you take the time to really think about how you can utilize Twitter in your own business and industry the shade of online marketing will be drawn aside and the blissful glow of communication will brighten your world for ever more…