Social Media Tips for Medicare Agents

by Andrew Makoid

Below are some tips for using social media and engaging with your potential clients. These tips are assuming you have a professional profile already created. If you need help creating your profile please reach out to me and I can provide you some guidance. My contact info is at the bottom of the article.

·       Keep your message focused- It’s okay to post about different topics, but keep it limited just the things you are trying to project or sell. Keep everything on-brand for you. What is your goal for using social media? Every post should drive potential customers toward that goal.

·       Don’t Spam – No matter what you do, stay away from spamming your current or potential customers. They don’t like it and will be more likely not to engage or unfollow you if you spam. You are not trying to build a brand based on spamming people, and that is not the reputation you want to project.

·       Add a call to action to every post – The call to action is the MOST IMPORTANT part of your SM marketing efforts. Add a call to action to every post. You want to encourage users to visit your website, contact you, or engage with your content on every post you make. It is important to provide clear contact information.

·       Figure out what your target audience is – If you don’t know who you are specifically targeting how in the world can you effectively market to them? Spend some time thinking about your perfect client. You want this to be very pinpoint specific. Do some research and rely more on data than your gut.

·       Keep your eye on our competitors – Why reinvent when you can circumvent? Check out your competitors and see what works for them and what you notice you shouldn’t do. Competitors can give great inspiration for your social media activities. They can also show you how to avoid a trainwreck by seeing their failures.

·       Establish your social media voice and tone – Every time you talk, write, design, post, respond, thank, or connect with others, you’re exercising your brand voice. Every time… Whether you want it or not, people are building up an impression in their mind by all the ways you appear online. You should be very deliberate about how you want people to see you on SM. Write from the readers perspective, to make them, not you, the hero of the story. Avoid sensational headlines. Be clear rather than clever.

·       Follow SM rule of thirds – Well, what is the SM rule of thirds? It is a rule of thumb that states you should divide your posts into three categories, and each one should get equal posts. 1/3 of the time, you should share posts that promote your business, convert clients, or generate leads, 1/3 of the time you should share posts with ideas from influencers in your industry, and 1/3 of the time you should share personal stories to build your brand. Why should you do it this way? It has been proven to show that you know your industry, you collaborate, and where you are positioned in our industry.

·       Respond to all comments and mentions promptly – If you don’t it makes you look lazy and unwilling to work with people who connect with you. Social media+comments+mentions+respond now (not later) = meaningful connections

·       Do not make political posts on your work Social Media. Roughly half of the people on social media say any political posts are annoying and roughly 70% of political posts result in some sort of disagreement in the comments. Also about half of all users on SM report that they have unfriended or unfollowed someone because of their political views. Avoid putting yourself in that situation, just don’t post about politics.

·       Medicare Advantage/PDP brokers cannot make direct unsolicited contact with individuals who interact with their social media pages. For example, if an individual likes your posts or follows your page, this does not grant you permission to make unsolicited contact.

·       You may post things that fall under the “communications” category under CMS. Do not post anything specific to carriers or plans about MA or PDP. You may, however, post carrier marketing material that has already been approved by CMS. Make sure the carrier allows their material to be distributed to the public.

·       Guide all questions and inquiries to contact you directly over the phone or in person. You do not want clients or potential clients publically posting their information on your social media pages. This can violate HIPPA and other privacy laws without you even doing anything.

Facebook post guidelines:

·       Keep your facebook posts less than 80 characters. FB posts under 40 characters receive up to 86% higher engagement.

·       Never exceed 120 characters.

·       Questions perform well on Facebook; they do prompt discussion among your potential customers.

·       Hashtags do nothing for engagement or metrics on FB, so keep them to a minimum and use them only for visual emphasis.

·       Posts with video see up to 58% more engagement.

·       Don’t use clickbait or engagement bait language, like “Share this post”, “Tag 5 friends”, or “Comment with your favorite”. This language is penalized in the FB news feeds and will result in lower visability of your post.

·       The best length for video on FB is 3-5 mins.

·       The best image resolution for FB is 1080x1080 pixels.

Linkedin post guidelines:

·          Keep your posts between 75 and 100 characters.

·          Avoid question marks; exclamation points perform better

·          The best length for video on Linkedin is 30 seconds or less. Make your impact point within the first 6 seconds.

·          The best image resolution for Linkedin is 1200x628 pixels.

      Disclaimers

·       For Medicare Advantage Posts giving your contact information: According to Medicare rules, we need your permission to contact you to discuss your Medicare plan options. By accepting this, you are agreeing to a sales telephone call or an email from a licensed sales agent to discuss the specific types of products above. The person who will be discussing plan options with you is with or contracted by a Medicare health plan or prescription drug plan that is not the Federal Government, and they may be compensated based on your enrollment in a plan. Requesting this contact does NOT affect your current enrollment, nor will it enroll you in a Medicare Advantage Plan, Prescription Drug Plan, or other Medicare plan.

As always if you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to reach out to us at Network Insurance Senior Health Division (800.662.5080) or Grupo LatinoAmericano de Seguros (877.719.8716) or me directly: amakoid@nishd.com 800.662.5080 ext. 72379