At last week's Aartrijk Brand Camp, attendees (mostly independent agents) were asked to name their biggest issues relating to social media, branding and marketing. The “rants” flew fast and furious, with gripes ranging from the lack of time to do social media correctly, to countering the pernicious image of insurance being a “boring” business.

The second half of the exercise challenged attendees to break into groups and brainstorm solutions to the problems they'd identified. Because “what happens at Brand Camp stays at Brand Camp” (not really!), we've summarized the solutions each group presented, without including their names.

Read the following pages to learn what they recommend.

Problem: Achieving balance/priorities/time management of social platforms/content.

Solution: Turn the perceived problem into the solution by using technology to manage your time.

Set aside 15 to 20 minutes twice a day to plan out future content. Use an Excel spreadsheet of each social media platform you use to plan and schedule entries for a week or more in advance.
Plan ahead, but build in “wiggle room” to address developing issues.
Share information by retweeting relevant posts and non-insurance-related items of interest. Use mobile apps like Feedly (a news feed app), Buffer (a management tool for creating content, finding articles and scheduling where and when to send), Pocket (a “read it later” app), Zite (for creating personalized magazine feeds) to aggregate info.
If you want to delegate the job, consider hiring someone from outside the firm. Even paying someone $30/K salary will pay for itself in new business.
Social networking is a two-way street; not only are you touting your expertise, but you're also learning about your clients and prospects.
Get your staff involved. For example, develop Twitter teams within the agency by lines of business.
Clearly define where social media fits into your agency's overall marketing strategy to get management buy-in.
Find your target audiences, pick a social media platform to best reach them, and preplan to execute.
Generate original content. This takes more time, but the content can be repurposed, curated and deployed over all social media channels.
Get help if you need it. If there's only one social media guru in your company, you're dead.
Focus on what works and don't get distracted with other stuff.

Problem: Becoming and remaining customer-focused in social media and service.

Solution: Find out what they want while educating them on what they need.

Go to the source: Conduct a simple survey and ask customers what type of insurance information they want and how they want it delivered.
Be realistic: Balance these findings with your agency's own procedures and workflows. A prospect who expects a face-to-face meeting for a simple homeowners' policy renewal may not be the type of customer you should target. Find customers who want to do business as you do.
Define your agency and your target audience to attract your ideal customers; like attracts like. For example, understand your target audience's collective needs and gear your blog posts to those interests.
Create lists of clients in each social media platform you use to see what they're doing and share–not just insurance information, but everything from communication tips to holiday-related content.
Never make service reactive. Social media lets you be proactive with prospects and clients by providing you with a way to reach them with noninsurance helpful information.
Culture is critical; if your culture is social, these aren't add-on “projects” but core to your organization.

Problem: Being honest/authentic/transparent as a brand.

Solution: Communicate the fact that you're an insurance consumer, too.

Your business isn't the only branded product; you and your employees each have a personal brand, too. Mesh private individual brands with your business brand by empowering employees to engage in social media.
Dealing with events like natural disasters are an opportunity for you to shine, especially if your office was struck by the same disaster your customers are struggling through. Share steps to filing a claim, FEMA information and more on social media.
Talk about the good and the bad, including employees' personal stories, staffers with claims and rate increases, etc.
Let your true personality show. Share personal interests and passions on social media where appropriate and allow your staff to do the same. It creates empathy with customers and prospects.
If a mistake is made, own up to it publicly as soon as possible and take immediate steps to make it right. Don't hide behind company policy or stance. If you get slammed on a customer review site like Yelp, don't ignore or deny the criticism. Apologize on the forum and offer to fix the situation.
Stick to what you stand for. If your agency is committed to hiring veterans, take every opportunity and use every platform to convey that commitment.
Being authentic doesn't mean being silly or unprofessional. Company culture is relevant. Customers who like doing business with you will do more business with you if they see you as honest and transparent.

Problem: Making insurance less scary/boring/complicated/impersonal.

Solution: Tell real-life stories of how insurance helps people every day.

There are hundreds of stories within your agency that customers and prospects would love to know about. Write about an unusual auto accident and how your business handled it; film a short video on unusual claims or lines of coverage.
Tap into your customer base for content. Do you place personal lines coverage for an unusual collection (animal skulls, hatpins, Lincoln memorabilia)? Get your customer's permission and post their collection on Pinterest. Collectors love to share their passions, and the unusual is custom-made for sharing on social media.
Find local news stories to tie into an insurance coverage discussion. Example: a recent Patch news item about a home that sustained $30,000 in damage from a skunk infestation lends itself to a great homeowners' coverage analysis.
Encourage your staff to share their own stories, hobbies, passions and interests to show that insurance is far from a button-down world.

Problem: Being interactive and following through in social networking.

Solution: Don't stop at communication.

Strike a balance between sales/advertising social media (highlighting specific products and services) and pure communication (sharing information unrelated to insurance to engage followers).
Create a culture of interacting with your customers and integrate that culture into your social media interactions. Successful social media requires a loop of communication, where you share information and respond to followers.
Be proactive, not defensive in your communication methods.
Use tech tools to promote and build relationships with local businesses. For example, Cash Mob is a mobile tech tool that encourages people to show up en masse at a local business to buy something and give their business a boost. It's a great way to build community engagement, help a local business (and potential client) and generate interest in your own agency.

Problem: Creating and leveraging original content in social networking.

Solution: Do it yourself–or not.

In social media, content is still king, and original content is solid gold–the most effective way to differentiate you and your agency from the crowd. It is also the most expensive and difficult content to produce.
Tout your expertise and position yourself as a thought leader by blogging (or developing videos or podcasts) on what you know best.
Stumped on what to write about? Ask your staffers to list all the client questions they've fielded this week. It will provide you with a stream of content ideas, and ties in with the need to be relevant to your customers.
Go back to your agency strategy to tie into your original content to build it from the ground up.
Original content doesn't have to be complicated to be original or effective. For a Fourth of July tie-in, don't just post a stock photo of fireworks or a flag; take a picture of the flag flying in front of your own building to share on social media.
If you don't have the time or the literary talent to write your own original content, hire a professional. Elance is a resource where you can find a pool of editorial professionals who will bid on the job.

Problem: Going from status quo to innovative.

Solution: Dont be afraid to take a risk.

Insurance is a risk-averse industry. And although that's great for building profits and reducing claims, it can sometimes stand in the way of innovation.
Focus on your agency's unique selling proposition to find what you do differently, and build innovation from that base. Stay true to your business's core competencies.
Recognize the strengths of your organization and use them to build a foundation to use to grow business.
The bad news is, our industry lags others on technology and social media. That's also the good news: the innovation bar is set low. Understand the issues and how to use technology and you'll stand out from the crowd.

Problem: Getting the right message to attract Millennials as employees and customers.

Solution: Understand what makes them unique.

Millennials don't communicate, learn or work like previous generations. They're the first generation to have grown up using social media. They expect the businesses they deal with to have a strong, sophisticated web presence, ease of doing business, a commitment to community service and a more laid-back approach.
Build the kind of business where millennials want to work for (and buy from) by providing a healthy, fun, flexible work environment, excellent training programs and strong community involvement.
Attract millennial customers by meeting them where they're at on social media and elsewhere. Educate them about what insurance is and why they need it.

Problem: Differentiating brand rather than competing on price/service.

Solution: Turn price into a non-issue.

Don't brag about your business's “superior service”; good service is a given for any business.
Have a clear, concise written strategy to meet the human needs of your customers. This will help move the discussion away from price and focus on each buyer's unique needs.
Engage prospects and customers by connecting with them on a personal level even before the price conversation takes place. One agency features a website where each producer has a microsite, describing his or her personal interests, making them relatable to customers with things in common.
Leave price off your business's mission statement (the description of what you do) and your vision statement (what you aspire to).

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