For most independent agents, social media is a hobby at best andan afterthought at worst.

Social media is classified as something that independent agents“just have to do” — and there's very little emphasis placed byindependent agents on social media strategy or tracking ofresults.

It doesn't need to be this way. Social media is capable of beinga viable tool to help you retain existing customers and grow newbusiness. As a medium, it will allow you to interact with yourprospects and customers on their terms.

Related: 9 ways to unleash the power of social media ininsurance

But, it's difficult to commit. Where should an agent begin? Whatshould the focus be? What if you've already developed a socialmedia presence and you want to expand it into something moresuccessful?

So, starting now, you're a social media marketer. Welcome to theteam. Follow this social media playbook to get your agency off theground or expand what you're already doing on your social channels:

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Pick a lane

Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. YouTube. Vine. LinkedIn … I'm justscratching the surface.

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the number of social mediaplatforms available to a business looking to get active in thistype of marketing.

The first step in improving your social media presence as anindependent agent is to choose your lane, and stay in it.

Do you really need to be on Snapchat or Periscope (or both) tohave success in social media for your business? Perhaps, butprobably not.

The reality of social media is that it is so ubiquitous andattracts so many users that you could quite literally invest in asingle social media network and still get results. The first step,then, is to decide what you want to invest in — and for mostindependent agents, the answer will be Facebook and Twitter, withthe possible additions of Instagram and LinkedIn, depending on yourcontent ambitions. More on that later.

Related: Stats on 4 social media platforms financial &insurance advisors are adopting

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Don't go this alone —set up your social media tools

I can't stress enough how many great social media tools are outthere: Hootsuite. Sprout. Buffer.

Many of these tools are free, they're awesome, and they cancreate lots of efficiencies for you in your social media efforts.Once you've chosen what social media networks you want to focus on,utilities like the ones I just mentioned are next on your to-dolist. It will take mere moments to integrate your accounts withutilities such as the ones mentioned above.

Related: Twitter strategies for insurance agencies andbrokers

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Create content and play to your strengths

Let's put social media aside for a moment. Why should customersdo business with an independent agent like you?

Certainly, your focus on customer service and your underwriterrelationships are two key reasons. A third reason is your industryexpertise and ability to give unbiased, relevant insurance advice.This is the exact kind of content that plays well in social media —content that brings a unique perspective and educates thereader.

Once you've got your social media setup and your social mediamanagement utilities working, leverage your strengths as anindependent agent and use social media to distribute content thatwill highlight your insurance knowledge and how consumers might usethat expertise to make more informed decisions about theirinsurance purchases. According to HubSpot, lists pull well in thefinance vertical, so how about “Top Five ThingsInsurance Buyers Screw Up When They Buy Insurance”?

Another way to play to your strengths is to be yourself, whichis to say, be local. Most independent insurance agents serve localor regional geographic areas. Don't try to write content for themasses when you don't care about the masses — you care about yourimmediate customer universe. For example, MassDrive is aMassachusetts-specific independent agent that is part of thenational auto and home insurance platform at my company. If youlook at what our team is doing on social media (you can check thatout our Twitter and Facebook), it is veryMassachusetts focused and stays true to messages and content thatwill resonate with MassDrive's local audience.

Related: 3 reasons why insurance agents struggle withdigital marketing

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Create some visuals

Social media — even those historically text-based such asTwitter — have never been more visual. The creation of a socialmedia presence that is visually strong can be very intimidating forcompanies new to the medium.

Luckily, it's never been easier to create visually compellingcontent for distribution on social media. Sites such as Canva exist purely for thisreason — to help social media marketers who don't have a designbackground create great-looking visuals for social media.

Related: Want to make videos to engage with your clients?Here are some tips

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Let your most satisfied customers do the heavy liftingfor you

You're lucky. As an independent agent, a member of your teamexceeds the expectations of at least one customer or prospectsdaily. There is no better way to elevate your brand on social mediathan to capture testimonials from those customers and distributevia social media.

As it turns out, testimonials are hugelyeffective at helping companies be more successful in socialmedia. Get your best customers to agree to allow you touse a quote in your social media efforts. If you want to be reallyambitious, film a video testimonial and post that content on socialmedia. The point is, social media is the best venue available toempower your customers to sell for you.

Related: 18 ways to shake up marketing and sharpenresults

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Hype your social media efforts to yourcustomers

It's an online/offline world. Your offline interactions willbleed into your social media and a customer you interact withonline may be knocking on your office door the next day. That's thereality of customer-centric marketing in 2015.

As independent agents, this reality can be spun to youradvantage. It's my guess that your agency touches a lot ofcustomers each day; face-to-face, via the phone and via e-mail.Each of those touchpoints is an opportunity for you to hype yoursocial media efforts and gain greater traction.

So, once you've gotten this far down your social media to-dolist, make sure that your team adds social media links to theiremail signatures, integrate social media messaging into anyscripting you may have, add social media icons to your website, andtrain your team to talk about your social media presence whenspeaking to prospects or customers.

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Keep an eye on results

You're a businessperson first and a social media marketersecond, so you need to worry about the return on investment of yoursocial media efforts.

After all, what is the point of doing all this marketing if it'snot going to drive results of your business?

Brandwatch has a stellar list of free social mediamonitoring tools you should review. I personally likeusing Hootsuite, FollowerWonk, Topsy, and Google Analytics for mostof my social media monitoring, but there are plenty of viableoptions.

If you want to pay for more extensive monitoring tools, thoseare available as well. Look for metrics like reach, engagement, andamplification to understand how your message is amplified. If youhave the technical chops, use custom variables in Google Analyticsor other tracking tools to more directly track how users whointeract with your social media engage with your website afterthey've clicked on your content.

There is so much nuance to what success looks like in socialmedia and this list should serve as a set of foundational buildingblocks for the independent agent.

Don't forget to interact with your followers in a timely mannerand that, in combination with this list, will put you on the pathto social media success.

Paul Pennelli is the head of marketing at Next GenerationInsurance Group and MassDrive Insurance Group. Follow him onTwitter @paulpennelli.

Related: How insurance companies (and independent agents)can use social data to better market themselves

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