It took the telephone 89 years to reach 150 million users.  TV, 38 years.  The cell phone, 14 years.  iPod, 7 years.  Facebook: 5 years.  And adding up to 600,000 per day.  Today I want to start sharing the most basic tips on getting started on your Facebook Marketing System.

#1. Make the critical strategic decision.  Do you want to use Facebook to communicate with clients?  If so – and this is an important decision – be very clear on this: mixing up casual communications with strategic business communications can confuse, and even turn off, your business audience.  There are strategies to keep them separate (Groups, etc.) which we’ll talk about later.  But for now, beware, if you’re going to be positioning “the reason to do business with you” on Facebook, don’t muddy it up with messages like, “OMG, it was great to see my old college buds.  Hadn’t been that s$%#-faced in 15 years, and the strippers are gettin’ hotter by the minute!”  Okay…you get the idea.

#2.  Now let’s balance that out.  This is where you have a BIG advantage over some of the “mega-competitors” that want to plunder your client base.  GEICO can deliver a lizard.  Esurance, a robot.  Progressive has that little hottie, Flo.  But you can deliver YOU.  And people want to do business with PEOPLE.  People trust people, not institutions.  And that’s especially true NOW.  (Trust Bear Stearns?  Nah.  Trust banks?  Nah?  Trust AIG?  Hell no.) 

So: give careful thought to pulling back the curtains on who YOU are in your Facebook profile.  And do the same with your postings.  Be a real person.  Make it possible for people to feel a CONNECTION with you.

Social Media Marketing allows you MUTIPLY the “round of golf” or dinners agents used to rely on to build relationships.  It doesn’t replace the depth of intimacy, but it can multiply it by hundreds or thousands and, when skillfully crafted, can deliver 60% of the “touch.”  Those are very good numbers.

This must be part of you overall marketing strategy.  Your clients are already there.  You should be, too.

Michael

PS: Agents who are DEAD SERIOUS about their Internet Marketing Strategy, go here:  www.insuranceinternetmegaconference.com