Editor's note: Tom Hodson is asocial media strategist at Project CAP

Independent agents for years have been aiming to extend thereach of their presence and expertise with social networking. Someare just starting out on the road of social networking, some arecruising along, and others feel like they've turned down a dead-endstreet.

Here are four reasons that social media campaigns don'twork:

Reason 1: You're talking aboutinsurance.

It sounds counterintuitive, but the independent agents whodiscuss insurance least get the most engagement with consumers.

"When's the last time you checked your flood insurance policy?"as a social media post simply isn't a way to engage on a sustainedbasis. Insurance posts get little traction because typicallythey're not interesting to consumers. Insurance agents have toremember that what they find interesting and relevant in theirindustry isn't necessarily going to be of interest to consumers andbusiness owners.

Is the source interesting? That's the No. 1 question an agentshould think about when creating social media posts.

There are three criteria for interesting social networkingposts:

1. Humorous
2. Intellectually engaging
3. Emotionally pulling.

If your posts don't have one or more of those attributes, theywill drop way down on the scale of engagement for consumers. Socialmedia sites are not a soapbox to talk about yourself, your businessand your knowledge. Rather, they're a way to connect with people ona human level–to talk with people, not at them.

Agents also should get content from other sources and share it.If you found an interesting article or video on a website that youspent five minutes reading, chances are someone else will find itof interest too. It's simple to copy that website URL and put it onyour own social networking sites.

There are thousands of websites dedicated to finding interestingarticles, photos, videos, infographics and so on. Try sites likeMashable, a local newspaper orTV station site, and/or sites for local events, organizations andbusinesses. And even a few carrier, wholesaler, trade associationand vendor websites have interesting material that agents can tapinto and use.

Another way to engage and show interest in your community andyour peer businesses is by reminding your followers about localbusinesses that you like. For example, if there is a localrestaurant that you like, post a link to its menu and mention adish that you like to order. Or you can point out local charitiesand activities that make your community special.

Your social networking site should have an occasional post–Icall it a "maintenance post," and it's done once a month orso–related to your industry, brand and organization. This remindsyour followers and contacts of your professional bona fides. Itinvites them to post a comment, share one of your posts, or reviewyour professional services.

Reason 2: You don't represent yourself enough ashuman.

Independent agents sometimes act like their social networkingshould solely be intellectual, financial or professional. Actually,it should be balanced and represent you as a person. Insteadof constantly talking about insurance and financialservices, engage as a person within your community.Interact on a human level, not merely a technicallevel. Remember the adage: If you want likes, belikeable.

You have a built-in advantage over the big-box directwriter and captive-agent carriers with multi-million-dollaradvertising budgets:

• You are independent.
• You are local.
• Consumers can actually meet and interact with you as anindividual, instead of the remote call centers of thebillion-dollar competitor brands.

Arthur Blaszczyszyn of ArthurBlaszczyszyn Insurance Agency in Colorado Springs,Colo., has balanced the personal and the professional inhis agency social networking on Facebook.

Although it might seem as if his Facebook page is notdoing anything special, Arthur is thinking visually. Heposts photos regularly and mixes in personal observations,information for homeowners, and links to items of interest–alongwith a dose of insurance information.

His agency Facebook page doesn't have an overwhelming number oflikes, but those who do like his page are highly engaged. In fact,his one-producer agency is getting engagement that agencies withthousands more clients are missing out on.

To generate positive reviews for his business,Blaszczyszyn rewards each review with a freemovie from RedBox. His invitation is along the lines of:"I build my business on referrals from people that I serve. Pleasestop by my site and leave me a review." After the review ispublished, the client gets a code for a free movie rental courtesyof the agency. By humbly reminding your contacts that you needtheir assistance and offering something in return, you can raiseyour profile and engage them to help you in a way that rewardsthem.

Reason 3: You stick with one social media platform forsimplicity.

Project CAPrecommends independent insurance agencies create and build 4 to 6social media presences. We call these important social networkingsites "The Holy Four":

1. Facebook
2. LinkedIn
3. Google+
4. Twitter.

The reason: Google and other search engines "index" all of thesesites (they "crawl" and add them to their database of informationabout the agency's local area and the agency's site'sinformation). 

The more your agency is present on these social networks, themore you'll be added to the search engine's store ofknowledge–and be found by web users searching the topicsand locales covered by your social media sites.

 Each social site has its own characteristics:

1. Facebook has a massive base of 1.9 billion users and providesan easy means to combine visual, video and text elements inposts.
2. LinkedIn is the business network for connecting with people youalready know from your career experience, and it's especiallyrelevant for agencies active in commercial lines.
3. Google+ might be less popular than Facebook, but it is owned byGoogle — which has committed the money, people power and creativeexpertise to attract users and advertisers going forward. AndGoogle+ is also a pipeline for an independent agency to make itselfknown to Google, the world's biggest search engine, for beingindexed.
4. Twitter amalgamates posts that can be read quickly, allowingusers to find out what is going on in the world at large, in theirareas of interest, and in their local area.

Reason 4: You are spreading yourself toothin.

Some agents set themselves up well–even creating presences on"The Holy Four"–but then they let them lie fallow.Effective social networking requires regular posting andinteracting.

Experience shows that agents who get traction in socialmedia–gaining views, reviews, followers, likes, andinteractions–post three times per week. If you don't do this, youwon't get the attention as someone who does.

It's a common objection: "I don't have time to create thecontent for one social site, much less four!" Of course youdon't.

That's all the more reason to tap existing content–notonly content from industry sites like TrustedChoice.com but, evenbetter, from interesting non-insurance, non-financial sites. Onceyou have that content, you can package it as a link and a briefintroduction for one of your sites. Then adapt that packaging forthe other three sites.

For example, you might have a photo and a three-sentenceintroduction or commentary of an article for your agency Facebookpage. Then, adapt it as a Twitter post (much shorter and with nophoto). Then, you might craft a LinkedIn post with more of abusiness angle. Finally, your Google+ posting could look much likeyour Facebook posting, since the two sites are similar in theiruser interface.

Commit to posting on social sites on Monday, Wednesday andFriday, even during weeks with holidays. And I don't mean for acouple of weeks or a couple of months.

Regular care and feeding of your social sites will help thehuman (and computer) readers of social sites see whatyou're all about as a person and a business. And then they're morelikely to be receptive to you, be aware of your expertise, and turnto you when they have a question that isprofessionally relevant for you to answer.