How to Write a Social Media Policy for Your Insurance Agency

Insurance agencies no longer have a choice when it comes to social media presence. An active social media presence is vital to their success, as social media touches everything from brand awareness to customer support. However, the growth in social footprint is not achieved by brands alone but in combination with employees who use these platforms to strengthen the agency’s unified message.

It is estimated that nearly 47 percent of employees use social networks to connect with potential and existing customers, and this is likely to grow as businesses continue to understand the power of social platforms. Allowing your employees to be active on social networks without any guidelines can expose your insurance agency to the risk of creating a disturbing brand image. In worst-case scenarios, your insurance agency may build a damaged online reputation or face legal repercussions if compliance issues are overlooked. A strong brand identity translates into loyal customers, higher sales, better employee engagement and ease of recruitment. A damaged brand identity could mean disaster for your agency.

In the past, concerns regarding compliance on social networks were handled by ignoring the platform altogether. However, if you want to attract more traffic and increase your conversion rates, you cannot afford to overlook employee advocacy on social networks. Instead, it is important to invest time and effort into developing an effective social media policy that builds up your brand image along with drawing focus to industry regulations.

A social media policy is a set of instructions compiled to outline how your insurance agency needs to position itself in front of the target audience. This document can help to protect your brand image and enable employees to share information responsibly. It is important to provide your employees with simple guidelines that are easy to follow. Here are the key goals of a social media policy:

◾Establish rules for employees when using social networks.

◾Help employees understand their responsibilities when they are active on social networks.

◾Promote and maintain organization-wide compliance.

There are some basic elements you must consider when creating a social media policy for your insurance agency. Make sure your policy document:

1. Outlines procedures for airing grievances before employees decide to express them on social media. In your policy document, be sure to include suggestions for employees to discuss their grievances with HR before they take to the Internet.

2. Outlines your agency’s expectations for appropriate employee behavior on social networks. For instance, restrict your employees to express controversial opinions when mentioning your company. Your policy document must also include guidelines on how you want employees to respond to mentions of your brand. In addition, the document must define what company information should not be shared on social media under any circumstance.

3. Outlines potential legal consequences. This is because most of the problems that emerge for businesses on social media are linked to labor issues. So you will need to write your social media policy considering how much control you have over an employee’s social presence.

4. Outlines online security threats, such as phishing scams. It helps to be vigilant when it comes to protecting your agency’s online presence and reputation. Your social media policy can help protect your brand from such risks by making employees aware of online threats and ways to avoid them. Your policy should provide tips on how to create secure passwords, avoid phishing attacks and how to respond to a security breach.

5. Provides examples of best practices for social media communications. In order to refine your social media policy, you must explicitly outline what you consider acceptable. Although you cannot control everything your employees post online, you can be specific about the nature of content to be shared online. Remind your employees to exercise caution whether they are sharing information on behalf of the company or their personal social media pages.

If you are writing social media policy for your insurance agency, be mindful of the tone and language you are using. It is advised to avoid using legal jargon because most employees may not understand it, while others will avoid reading it altogether. It is also important to highlight critical information with bullet points or other formatting techniques. A social media policy is an important document for employees to refer to if needed.