Because Together Everyone Achieves More

An interview with NASPA Board Member Steve Kramer,

Kramer Insurance Agency, Langhorne, PA.

Length of time on Partner XE: 1 year

Question: How do you use Partner XE to market your business?

CROSS-SELL

You want multiple policies per client because the higher your ratio is per household the higher your retention rate becomes. The Search features within Partner can be used to identify where you are missing out on client business so you can actively cross-sell to them. For example, you can run a sort of clients with auto, but not home coverage and then actively begin pursing their home policies as well. It works the same with commercial lines too. Do they have a business policy, but not commercial auto? Market accordingly.

WIN BACK LOST ACCOUNTS

The other thing we do is when a client becomes inactive… if they left us for one reason or another we do a “win back” campaign. We can run a search in Partner XE to identify these folks, we already have their basic information in the system, so we will go back and call them and say “hey, how can we win back your business.”

RENEW & RETAIN

We use the Partner XE Scheduling tools to set reminders… to keep what we need to do and on what day. Client renewals for example, if a renewal is coming up on the third of February we are calling him on the third of January so we are ahead of the game, not behind.

We also do quarterly contacts with our clients. We schedule in Partner when to call them or when it’s time to reconnect – the system keeps us on a schedule.

The NOTES feature really helps us with customer service. When a client calls in the first thing we are getting into the habit of doing is opening the notes to the last conversation. It helps you from a marketing standpoint. If you have that history in front of you and know that client better when you are talking to them it gives you a more professional position working with the client.

GET NEW BUSINESS

We do a lot of email marketing. We send out an average of 30,000 targeted emails per month. One specific campaign we do is to used car auto dealer. We have six or seven different solutions for them, from liability insurance to odometer insurance. We design the emails and the advertising on a one year campaign, hitting them hard in the beginning then spreading it out over time so that the client isn’t getting hammered with an email every day and getting annoyed. We find that it takes three to four sometimes even six months until we get a bite. We are chumming the waters and waiting for the fish to bite.

We probably get six auto dealers a month calling and out of those six we will close four of them.

We cannot do bulk emails directly out of the Partner XE system (yet… that’s one thing I’d love to see happen!) but we can export our prospect lists out of XE and then import them into our emailing system. Once they come back as leads it is all tracked in Partner XE.

Document where you are now

The first step to improving any process is to gain a full understanding of the way it being done now. Many independent insurance agency owners, caught up in the day to day drama of running a business, find it difficult to make time to document procedures and even more difficult to ensure they are implemented/ enforced.

Borrowing from a lean manufacturing philosophy, the primary goals behind implementing documented systems and processes are to identify inefficiencies, reduce time spent on individual transactions, increase productivity (sales), while executing processes that consistently focus on customer value.

If you have not documented your processes and procedures, the first step you’ll need to take is to identify how things are currently being done and map each process from start to finish.

• Get your team together to review the processes and collectively identify information bottlenecks and areas for improvement that are negatively affecting your bottom line.
• Get input from the entire team on the areas where improvement could most directly affect their ability to sell more.
• Prioritize improvements based on ease of implementation and overall impact.

Once you have documented your processes you can focus on improving them.

As indicated in the Harvard Business Press’ “Pocket Mentor: Improving Business Processes”¹ a business process improvement cycle has six stages. Although complex improvements will take more time at each stage than simple process improvements, the stages apply to both.

Plan

• What is your overall goal driving the need for improvement?

Analyze

• Do you have documented workflows that leverage your technology?
• Are these workflows built into your technology?

Redesign

• Adjust documentation of procedures to reflect new goals/ processes

Acquire Resources

• Is there technology available to improve this process?
• Can I outsource activities ( like marketing) and ultimately improve my bottom line?

Implement

Continually Improve

• Review processes regularly (at least once a year) to insure you are taking advantage of all available resources.

In analyzing your current workflow, you may find that simple, yet effective, adjustments can be made just by getting everyone in the office to uniformly take advantage of tools you already have (like a digital document storage system, Real Time or a uniform to-do list. You may also find that you don’t have the necessary tools or resources to get things done and need to make some adjustments.

Partner XE from SIS – an online hosted, feature rich, affordable, easy to use, scalable agency management system designed to streamline workflow and increase productivity for independent insurance agencies of all sizes gives agencies the tools they need to succeed.

Find out why so many independent insurance agencies are switching to Partner XE. Call 800-747-9273 or click here to schedule a free agency management system assessment and consultation.

Resources

[1] Harvard Business Press. Pocket Mentor: Improving Business Process. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2010.

As ACT Executive Director, Jeff Yates wrote in AUGIE Survey: Agency Technology Having Big Payback for Many Agencies, “There is a multiplier effect starting to take effect for agencies that implement new technologies consistently and successfully. The biggest benefit seems to be that these efficiencies enable the agency to grow without increasing staff.”

One such opportunity for independent agents, discussed in a previous post, is Real Time. Another is the ability to move to a paperless work environment.

Why paperless makes sense for an independent insurance agency

Consider the following two scenarios: First, imagine having to print each email you receive from your insured, get up and walk over to the filing cabinet, search for the insured’s folder, find the correct spot in the folder to place the printed email. Second, imagine a system that did it all for you – automatically. That is what you get with Partner XE and its Outlook Plug-in feature. In Partner XE the Outlook Plug-in will automatically attach that email to the document section of the customer folder – no additional work required. Even if you only got one email per day this would be a nice feature. When you figure multiple emails per day for multiple employees, the time saving factor is huge. (Not to mention the green aspect of it all!)

In addition, especially with the advent of SaaS, workplaces are increasingly more mobile. To maximize efficiency, agents and customer service reps should ideally have access files and source documents anywhere, anytime. With a paperless system, tied to an online hosted agency management system, it’s a slam dunk.

Best practices for going paperless

1. Implement an agency management system such as Partner XE from SIS that uses an internal transactional filing system (designed to be compliant with existing E&O standards) to manage storage and store all system files and activities.
2. Work with staff to determine the best method to scan and import documents into the system. This may depend on what type of scanning equipment you have in your office. Some agencies have big expensive multiplex scanners. Other agencies have less expensive workstation scanners. If you have a choice, our suggestion is to go with the latter. Overall, we have found that the workstation scanners tend to be the most effective, primarily because they alleviate the constraints posed by a one-scanner system when more than one person needs to scan at once.
3. Determine how you will handle old files. The two main choices here are whether to scan all old files into the system so that ALL documents can be accessed digitally, or to pick a starting date and go digital from that point on. It is important to speak with your service staff to collectively determine what makes the most sense for your agency. Making a big decision like this could lead to frustrations if team members aren’t on board and it’s not all planned out ahead of time.
4. Establish a consistent document naming system. This is critical to be able to find files (no matter who created them) where you need them, when you need them – even several years down the road. Example: Emails should be tagged with “EML” and then the description, ACORD forms with “ACORD,” etc. By doing so, you can easily run a “sort” and group all of your emails / forms, etc. together
5. Create and integrate new workflow procedures and ensure all personnel are properly trained. Make sure all involved understand what documents are attached to what within your agency management system, etc.
6. When best practices are followed, an electronic document management system can go a long way towards helping organizations tackle their operational processes and achieve increased productivity and better customer service.

For more articles on the subject see the following links:

Insurance Journal, Trends for 2012 – Soft Market is Here to Stay

Insurance Journal, How Agency Technology Drives Profitable Growth

IIAA, ACT Says Careful Move to Paperless Environment will Benefit Independent Agency System

About the Partner XE Agency Management System

Partner XE from SIS is an easy to use, online hosted insurance agency management system with logical workflows, exceptional download and comparative rater integration capabilities and best in the business Outlook integration.

Challenge: Inefficiency from dealing with different carrier interfaces

• Duplicate entry
• Multiple passwords
• Too much time spent on training

Business Process Improvement (BPI) Goal: Save time and money by simplifying processes

Solution: Adopt new workflows and/or systems that leverage Real Time tools

Independent insurance agencies should be aware that there is a widespread initiative afoot, known as the Real Time/ Download Campaign (www.getrealtime.org). This initiative is dedicated to improving the competitiveness of the independent agency distribution channel through a streamlined and efficient workflow approach.

Increased efficiency = more time for selling

As the following figures put out in a recent Real Time Campaign Statement indicate, a large number of agency management system users (63%) are already employing Real Time to access multiple carriers at once for a significant increase in productivity. Consider:

• The use of real-time rating tools for personal lines saves agencies an estimated 68 minutes per employee per day.
• About three fifths (62 percent) of those using real-time rating also use real-time inquiry and service transactions through management systems.
• Real-time inquiry and servicing are saving 50 minutes daily for those employees using the functionality.

Room for improvement

Turn those figures around though and a full 37% of those surveyed are NOT taking advantage of the benefits of Real-Time. Whether this is because they are working with agency management systems that do not employ the technology or whether they are just hesitant to use it is not clear. Regardless, for an agency looking to curb inefficiency, the use Real Time should be part of day-to-day business operations.

Employ best practices

For those who have Real Time capability, but just aren’t sure how to use it most efficiently, we’d like to share Agency Real-Time “Best Practice” Workflows & Implementation Strategies, recently published by the Get Real Time campaign and touted as “ a road map for implementing ‘best practice’ real-time workflows.”

The time is now

For those not using Real Time, there is no better time than the present. As Daniel Burrus, CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends, wrote in The High Risk of Wait and See, “One thing that’s certain regardless of industry or profession is that we have massive business process transformation taking place. Which processes? Virtually all of them: purchasing, logistics, accounting, sales, marketing, communications, collaboration, innovating, educating, training, managing, releasing new products, engaging our employees…the list is endless. We’re transforming all of these things plus more, and if you don’t initiate the transformation, someone else will.”

Find the right agency management system

If you are using an agency management system that does not support Real Time, consider switching to Partner XE from SIS, a feature rich, affordable, easy to use, scalable agency management system designed to streamline workflow and increase productivity. With Partner XE and Real Time you’ll be closer than ever to straight through processing.

Find out why so many agencies have been switching to Partner XE insurance agency management system from SIS. Call 800-747-9273 or click here to get in touch with a representative.

It is reprinted here with his permission. 

---

Independent Agencies Prefer Real Time Over Carrier Portals

Recent Survey of Over 3,100 Independent Agents Confirms a Strategic Vision

Download a .pdf of this article

The Real Time/Download Campaign was founded to champion the adoption of Real Time and Download for independent insurance agencies and companies. Real Time provides agencies with a consistent workflow through agency management systems or comparative raters when doing business with multiple carriers, rather than having to learn the workflow of each carrier portal and enter data multiple times into these portals.

Some 7,500 independent agents answered a survey on carrier communications in 2006, leading to the campaign’s launch that fall. They said their primary challenge was dealing with “different proprietary company interfaces.” That challenge was followed closely by “duplicate entry,” “multiple IDs and passwords,” and “training agency staff” on different carrier workflows.

Real Time workflows were designed to ameliorate the challenges created by carrier portals. Today, carrier portals continue to play a role in enhancing some Real Time transactions and in providing additional information to agencies that is not otherwise available. But portals should not be seen by carriers as a substitute for implementing Real Time transactions for the many agencies which prefer to work through their agency management systems and comparative raters.

Vision Confirmed

Over the past five years, the adoption of Real Time has continued to expand and deliver outstanding benefits to agencies. This confirms our vision that Real Time offers these firms a more efficient and responsive workflow than navigating through various carrier portals. Consider what 3,110 agencies and brokerages told us in the campaign’s latest agency survey, conducted a couple of months ago:

• Fully 63 percent of agency management system users employ real-time rating on comparative raters and management systems to access multiple carriers at once. This represents an increase of six percentage points over a similar 2010 survey.
• The use of real-time rating tools for personal lines saves agencies an estimated 68 minutes per employee per day.
• About three fifths (62 percent) of those using real-time rating also use real-time inquiry and service transactions through management systems, most often for billing, policy and claims inquiries, but also for endorsement processing (55 percent for personal lines, 29 percent for commercial).
• Real-time inquiry and servicing are saving 50 minutes daily for those employees using the functionality, because the real-time tool can enter IDs and passwords automatically. And it can either return the information directly to the management system or navigate precisely to the information on the carrier website.

Moving Forward

Our industry has an excellent opportunity in 2012 to increase implementation and enhance the benefits being delivered by Real Time to our distribution channel. To encourage more agencies to implement Real Time, the campaign is planning a National Real Time Day on Feb. 29, 2012, during which the campaign, individual vendors, user groups and carriers will hold events to help agency owners and employees fully understand what real-time functionality can do for them. Details for the day will be announced soon.

Independent agency owners are busy people, to be sure. But as we enter a new year, the campaign calls on even more agency leaders to take a step back and examine—desktop to desktop—how employees write and service business. Real Time provides strategic benefits that enhance agency productivity. But there’s more: If principals insist on Real Time as the required workflow for all employees, it promotes consistent workflows across the firm, which simplifies staff training, allows managers to monitor employees’ performance more effectively, increases the security of processing, and creates better transaction records for E&O protection.

Carrier & Vendor Role

More carriers need to offer Real Time and carriers and vendors should continue to enhance the functionality they provide. Agents clearly told us in our latest survey what further improvements in Real Time they want to see:

• Have additional carriers introduce Real Time.
• Have those carriers offering Real Time provide the full array of real-time functions across the major lines of business, so that agency employees can count on Real Time as a consistent workflow across carriers.
• See vendors and carriers continue to improve the real-time functions they do provide so that the response times are faster.

To give carriers and vendors a road map for implementing “best practice” real-time workflows—whether they are just starting to build out the functionality or seeking to improve and expand the transactions being provided— the campaign has just completed Agency Real-Time “Best Practice” Workflows & Implementation Strategies.

In addition, in 2012 ACORD will be developing specifications and implementation guidance to assist the industry in implementing ACORD standards and forms. The campaign also will encourage greater use of real-time transactions and download within the E&S market and for mid-commercial submissions.

About the Campaign

Launched in 2007, the Real Time/Download Campaign (www.getrealtime.org) is dedicated to improving the competitiveness of the independent agency distribution channel. The campaign isn’t advocating a specific technology, but a workflow approach that frees up more time for agencies to sell, process and service business. Most agents can leverage tools already contained in their agency management systems or comparative raters.

Campaign participants include agents, brokers, carriers, technology providers, user groups, and agent and industry associations. The campaign is led by industry groups and sponsored financially by ACORD and the ACORD-User Groups Information Exchange (AUGIE); Allied Insurance; Applied Systems; Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet); Artizan Internet Services; CNA; EMC Insurance Companies; Erie Insurance; Grange Insurance; Harleysville; The Hartford; Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) and its Agents Council for Technology (ACT); IVANS; Liberty Mutual Agency Corporation; MetLife Auto & Home; Network of Vertafore Users (NetVU); PIA of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut & New Hampshire; Progressive; Travelers Insurance; Vertafore; and Westfield Insurance.

While it would be nice to think that we are all perfect, there are very few, if any, organizations that operate at a level of 100% efficiency – and as more and more technology is introduced, the higher that bar becomes. The trick is keeping up, making the most of what is available and knowing when it is time to reevaluate and find something better.

For example, there was a time when the Franklin Planner was the best way to track appointments – then came Outlook… and then the ability to sync Outlook directly to your agency management system. There was a time when using carrier websites to transfer data was the most efficient way of doing things – then came Real Time. There was time when an in-house server was the way to go – then came the cloud. The list goes on.

Change as Opportunity

The trick is knowing when it makes sense to adopt new technology and knowing when to stick with what you have. It is also in investing in technology that will continue to be updated as a matter of course – without a lot of thought or work on your end.

In “The High Risk of Wait and See,” Daniel Burrus, CEO of Burrus Research argues for adoption, stating that, “When you start looking at the certainties around you (which point to opportunities), rather than focusing on the uncertainties (which point to risks), you can see how detrimental a “wait and see” approach can be—how you’re actually missing major new opportunities for sales and growth.”

Analyze Business Processes

When uncertain about adopting a new technology or way of doing business, a business process plan/ analysis is a good place to start. At the get go, it will help you identify inefficiencies, define problem points and identify areas for improvement. It will also help you as you move into the adaptation of new processes should you choose to do so.

As Michael Hammer wrote in his HBR blog, The Process Audit, “In virtually every industry, companies of all sizes have achieved extraordinary improvements in cost, quality, speed, profitability, and other key areas by focusing on, measuring, and redesigning their customer-facing and internal processes.”

Improve Effectiveness

Business Process Improvement is really about changing business processes to improve effectiveness. From a technology standpoint, this could translate to upgrading to new systems or programs. It could also translate into merely learning to properly use the tools you already have.

As an independent insurance agency, questions to consider might be:

• As an organization are we making the most of the tools we have available to us?
• Are we benefiting from the flexibility and scalability afforded by the cloud?
• Am I able to give my employees access to the information they need?
• Am I able to access critical information I need for my business?
• Are we using Real Time technology to its fullest?
• Can I get access to accurate information in one place…for all my carriers?
• Is my system scalable and easy to train on?

Depending on your answers, you may find that you HAVE the technology you need, you are just not using it. You may also find that the system you have is nowhere near as efficient as it could be.

Partner Effectively

When considering an agency management system, the answer to some of those questions lies in the feature the product offers, the answer to others lies in your agency management system partner’s commitment to understanding the evolving needs of an independent agent and whether or not they embrace an environment of continuous improvement. For more details on how to find a partner that’s right for you, see our post Evaluating Your Provider.

SIS is that insurance agency management system partner – stable, committed, progressive, responsive and independent.

Find out why so many agencies have been switching to Partner XE insurance agency management system from SIS. Call 800-747-9273 or click here to get in touch with a representative.

A letter from Alex Deak | President + CEO

Greetings from SIS,

On behalf of the entire SIS team, I would like to take a moment to thank you for helping us make this past year one of tremendous innovation and progress.

2011 saw a 50% increase in the number of individuals using Partner XE. While this is undeniably good for our business, it is also good for yours. These increasing numbers make continuing product investment possible and collectively strengthen the voice of the National Association of SIS Partner Agents (NASPA).

So much has happened over the course of the last year, that I’d like to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve done and where we are going. Here are some of the highlights from 2011:

Ongoing Product Development:

2011 saw two different version releases of Partner XE as well as the release of a new and improved Outlook Plug-in. These releases combined to provide you with:

• Enhanced marketing campaign functions,
• New searches and reports,
• Enhanced certificates workflow,
• The ability to open documents with a Windows default viewer,
• Improved ACORD 125 forms printing,
• New accounting reports,
• Improved server communication, overall performance and response time
• And much more.

New streamlined features in the Outlook Plug-in include the ability to sync recurring appointments, add an entire email folder to Partner XE at one time and tag emails with a category.

Increased Service Staff:

In keeping with our commitment to providing excellent customer service, we have increased our service staff by 50% over the last six months. We’ve also added experienced developers to accelerate the pace of product enhancements and adjustments. With these additions, we now have the operational scalability we need to best serve our customers now and well into the future.

A New Online Resource:

In addition to increased service personnel, we’ve also created PartnerNet , a centralized online support website intended to reduce the volume of service requests and allow our service staff to delve deeper into product and workflow issues as needed.

Increased Capacity & Security:

Not only have we improved our product and added staff, we’ve also upgraded and migrated to the latest Cloud technology for increased system performance and capacity and added a redundant offsite backup to insure that your data is safely stored in multiple geographic locations.

What you have in SIS today is a growing organization focused on continuous improvement. We are committed to making Partner XE and our service delivery the premier solution in the industry for our customers.

Having invested in technology, people, and process to scale, we are now well positioned to do that and are looking forward to more improvements and an even broader customer base in 2012. We’re working with NASPA to form workgroups defining priorities and deliverables, because the old adage is true:

Together Everyone Achieves More.

It is easy to look at all the things that frustrate you about your current agency management system and want to run to greener pastures. Think about it. How often have you

• Wished your agency management system was more intuitive to use,
• Thought about how great it would be to reduce or eliminate IT and server costs,
• Wished your agency management system gave you better visibility into your business so it could be managed more effectively,
• Wished you could take advantage of all those Real Time and download capabilities that are out there,
• Gotten frustrated with a vendor who keeps making you switch platforms, but then got hung up on the misconception that it would take too long to recoup your investment if you decided to switch systems?

When you switch to the cloud based Partner XE agency management system from SIS, the issues above will be a thing of the past.

The question is, however, is whether it’s worth the time and money it takes to invest in a new system.

To help you decide, we’ve put together a return on investment worksheet that we can review with you at your convenience. Just contact us and let us know you’d like to do an ROI analysis and we’ll walk you through it.

Ultimately, things to consider include your one-time upfront investment, your monthly support fees, I.T. fees, the cost of upgrading your system software for servers, third party backup server fees and more.

If you are currently running an in house server based system, think about how much you have invested in

• Servers
• Installation
• Networking
• Routine maintenance and security patches
• Implementation of large scale patches and upgrades
• Unexpected troubleshooting/ maintenance
• Employee down-time when they have to take time off to perform the above tasks

And think about the future investments you will need to make should your server become technologically obsolete.

Since Partner XE is cloud based you are instead dealing with constant, monthly, budgetable costs (based on the number of users you have on the system) which are easily scaled as you add or drop users.

This is a huge plus when figuring ROI.

Click here or call 800-747-9273 to schedule a free agency management system assessment, consultation and ROI analysis. Once you run through the numbers, you just may decide to join the growing ranks of agencies nationwide who are switching to Partner XE.

We’d like to share with you a few excerpts from a letter we recently received from ACT Executive Director, Jeff Yates that speaks to the level of trust small business owners have for independent insurance agents and highlights what factors are most important to them in working with an agent.

The figures Yates references are taken from a recent survey of 501 small business owners (with less than 30 employees) conducted by The Pert Group and sponsored by Hanover Insurance.

On Trust:

A majority of the small business owners surveyed found their insurance agents to be trustworthy – the highest percentage of any of the types of financial services firm identified: 48% more than banks, 97% more than healthcare companies, and 295% more than stock brokers.

Those surveyed trust P&C carriers: 25% more than banks, 66% more than healthcare companies and 150% more than stock brokers.

On Overall Influence Factors:

Small business owners said that trustworthiness was the most important factor they look for from their property insurance agents. The top factors were:

• Trustworthiness 86%
• Competitive pricing 82%
• Responsiveness 81%
• Value 79%

The above information is good news for independent agents and good news for SIS as well because we work hard empower your agents and customer service reps with technology that can improve their responsiveness, help them track conversations and emails, facilitate personalized mailings and build a foundation of trust with their clients and prospects.

Features like Search Navigation, Contact and Client and Policy Management for example, put the information you and your reps need at your fingertips, enabling you to respond to your customers quickly and efficiently. Outlook integration streamlines your workflow by pulling your Outlook communications into your agency management system. New streamlined features include the ability to sync recurring appointments, add an entire email folder to Partner XE at one time, tag emails with a category when bringing into XE and more.

As one of our clients, Kevin O*Brien, so aptly put it, “Independent insurance agencies are sales and service organizations. When a system takes care of those little tasks it gives us the time we need to interact with current and potential clients. The key is having the right agency management system that lets us interact more with clients – like Partner XE does.”

We are consistently working on enhancements to make sure your Partner XE agency management system enables you to give the highest level of service possible and appreciate our clients’ feedback. If you would like to get involved in one of the National Association of SIS Partner Agents (NASPA) work groups to provide the SIS team with user input and suggestions on on-going product enhancements please contact John Heinsz at john@hsgr.com or(636) 946-2266.

While there is a lot of buzz about social media these days, there are still quite a number of folks who question its effectiveness as a marketing tool. Some because they don’t understand it, others because there only exposure has been seeing updates about their neighbors new dog, or what their old high school friend is making for dinner. In reality the practice of using Facebook as a marketing tool is alive and well in both the B2B and B2C sectors.

In case you are wondering if Facebook is really a good place to create brand awareness for your agency, consider the following stats (taken from Facebook).

• Facebook has more than 800 million active users
• More than 50% of these active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• The average Facebook user has 130 friends
• The average Facebook user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events

But just having a company page won’t do much for you. Just as with any other form of marketing, you need a consistent and well thought out plan in order to make the most of Facebook. You also need to know how to use the tools it has to offer.

Reading the following article is a step in the right direction.

In a recent article for ACT, Three Tools for Maximizing Your Agency’s Facebook Reach, Progressive’s Kevin Ament gives an easy-to-understand primer for agents looking to expand their sphere of influence in the social media world – specifically with Facebook.

He explains step by step how you can effectively use the Tagging, Questioning and Contest features to “extend your reach on Facebook, engage existing fans and build connections with other businesses in your community.”

1. Tagging – “By tagging their Facebook pages, 1,000 additional fans (primarily small business owners and motorcycle owners) have the opportunity to see your update.
2. Questioning – “As your fans vote, the poll posts to their individual News Feeds, bringing your philanthropic message to their friends and family.”
3. Contest – “Using a third party vendor, Facebook allows you to host contests on your agency’s page. You can choose from several different types, including photo, video, sweepstakes, trivia and more. These contests can be used to build Facebook fans, generate customer engagement, and leverage your fans’ networks to generate prospects and build broader awareness of your agency.”

Read the full article