The state of the P&C industry's social media presence in 2018

Having an active, engaging social media presence is a must for any business looking to connect with existing and future consumers. This is especially true in financial services, where financial advisors and insurance agents rely heavily on having an authentic and trustworthy personal brand.

Creating and maintaining a strong social media following can be daunting to professionals in the insurance industry, so many invest in corporate digital marketing professionals and teams to recommend on-brand, relevant and compliant content to publish on their business social media profiles.

But are these social media content programs effective? What content actually drives engagement from their followers? These are questions companies must ask themselves from time to time.

Hearsay, which provides digital client engagement solutions for more than 150,000 advisors and agents, analyzed social media publishing data from leading organizations across wealth management, life insurance and the property & casualty (P&C) insurance industry. Social media content was categorized under lifestyle, industry or corporate.

Here are the latest findings from Hearsay’s 2018 Social Media Content Study on the P&C’s social media presence.

Related: How busy insurance agents & brokers can leverage social media

The hybrid model works

The P&C sector had an average of 548 publishes per suggested post, the highest amount of content published by advisors and agents. It also had the highest total number of touch points from followers, as well as the highest average engagement rate across all types of content (39%).

Rather than the traditional 70/20/10 percent rule — 70% lifestyle content, 20% industry content and 10% corporate content — many P&C insurance companies use a hybrid model for their social media content strategy that more heavily promotes branded, corporate content, even at the local agency level.

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Tis the season

Hearsay found that the top content library search terms with P&C insurance agents were dominated by seasonal topics like “storm,” “boat,” hurricane” and “wildfire,” as well as holidays (“Memorial Day”) and special occasions (“graduation”).

Since many of these types of events are recurring, P&C marketing teams and agents can save time by queueing up seasonal content in advance so they can be quickly both before and after these events occur.

Related: 5 easy-to-implement social media strategies for busy insurance agents

Best practices for social media

While the P&C insurance industry’s current social media practices clearly pack a punch, there’s always room for improvement. Here are four best practices companies can keep in mind when it comes to social media.

• Put an engaging spin on industry and corporate content: Advisors want and need a variety of industry-related content. Frame posts in a way that entertains or provides a local context to make them more engaging and relevant. Lists and how-tos, as well as personal stories, are sure to increase social media traction.
• Share more lifestyle content: The 70/20/10 rule isn’t necessarily the right approach to social media, but Hearsay found that clients and prospects are most engaged with lifestyle content across all lines of business. Positioning oneself as an interesting and relatable person sets the foundation for the advisor-client relationship.
• Maintain an open dialogue between corporate marketing teams and the advisory field: Advisor social media initiatives sometimes fail because of a lack of communication and input between corporate teams and the field. A simple one-pager that states what advisors can and cannot do on social, especially when it comes to lifestyle content, will increase the odds of advisor activation and success.

Social media is constantly evolving and companies must evolve with it. A company’s brand and customer engagement depend on it, so it is critical that companies continue to leverage social media to make their presence felt.

Related: 2 ways social media renewed my faith in the independent insurance agent