Insurance agents and brokers can leverage Facebook to extend their marketing reach. There are four important Facebook features agents and brokers can utilize. These include: Facebook News Feed, Facebook Contests, Facebook Ads and Facebook forms.

Below is a brief description of each feature:

1. Facebook News Feed

The Facebook News Feed can be helpful to identify coverage opportunities. Think of it this way: Facebook news feeds are full of people who are getting married, having children, buying new homes or relocating.

These all represent opportunities to approach prospects online or offline to offer insurance related services.

2. Facebook Ads

Facebook allows organizations to create targeted ads. Use Facebook Ads to generate inquiries, quotes and to collect prospect contact information. Often, the best way to make this approach work is to offer contacts a free service or promotional opportunity in exchange for their information.

3. Facebook Contests

Contests on Facebook are another good way to collect prospect contact information. Creating a contest is easy with platforms like Wildfire (now owned by Google) and Votigo. Agencies need to determine what they want to offer as a prize, and then encourage entrants to share their information, and then share the contest details with their contacts.

4. Facebook Quote Forms

Though agencies and brokers would typically try to drive prospects to their insurance websites, it's important to note that they can create a form directly in Facebook, allowing prospects to quickly share their contact information (or to request an insurance quote). This makes it fast and easy for prospects to interact with agencies, without requiring them to leave their Facebook environment.