I have not been content with the number of hits I am receiving on my Blog so I did what I should have done when I started. I Googled: “Increase My Blog Traffic.” This is where I found some great information: (http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingtips/tp/TipsIncreaseBlogTraffic.htm)
I gleaned two suggestions and applied them in the last week. The very day I applied the following two suggestions, I got over 100 hits in one day. I encourage you to do the same.
1) Put your Blog address on your signature line, so on every email it is seen, forwarded, and shared. I have a quote shared from my blog posts that wets the appetite of the reader and then invites them to follow the link for more. (Provide value before the sell.)
2) Register your Blog with Google and Yahoo. The link above will help you do that. It took literally 30 seconds to do each one.
There you go. Get your Blog on and have fun watching your hits sky rocket this week.
Like what you are reading? Prove it. Here’s a few ways you can. The easiest is to leave a comment. The second easiest way to prove it: forward on my link. Third, share with me your success stories.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Top Five Social Media Steps You Need to Take Today
I had two agents read the blog and decide it was time to dive into the Social Media world. Good for them.
They wanted to know how to get started and this is what I told them. The first baby steps into the Social Media world:
1) Yelp- Don’t just register on Yelp, go get some people to make some comments about you. (Last night on The Office, Will Farrell made reference to Yelp.) The more people that comment on you and your agency, the more you come up. Go get referrals that way.
2) Get listed .org– I mentioned it before. I hear you can do this and the results take a few days to kick in. I.e., if you put in all your info and then look for immediate results later that day you will see failure, go back and look for yourself in a week and you will be happy with the results.
3) Facebook- Have you been reading my other blogs? Do I really need to dig in any deeper here? If you have not gone this route yet, shame on you. If you have and you don’t have as many friends as you ought to, shame on you. (How many friends should you have? Go read the blog, it will tell you.)
4) Google Local listings- Google runs this world. Others are trying to get a piece of the action but Google makes the world go round. The last time you went to find a business how did you find it? Everyone Googles everything. Bing, another search engine is spending lots of millions to own some of that market share. The thick of the plot: If Google is providing you a FREE way to get seen and listed as a local business, so they can put the Yellow Pages out of business, then jump on it and quit paying the phone book sales guy.
5) If you blog it, they will come- Make yourself look like a professional online even if you wear shorts to the office every day. A blog is slow moving. You have a captive audience and hundreds if not thousands of client emails to send your links to. Every time you write a posting, send it to your audience via email, Facebook, and link it to your website.
There is one problem with blogging. If you start down this road. You will start tracking your hits and become obsessed with it. Who wants to write at 6am and not see the hits they deserve for their labors? J/K
Need ideas about what to write about: Go to www.thetruthaboutinsurance.com. There are hundreds of ideas there. (Just a side note, when I take an idea from somewhere, I usually provide the link to that website. That way I am not plagiarizing and the original writer or source gets a chance at growing their hits as well, by people who follow their link from your page.)
They wanted to know how to get started and this is what I told them. The first baby steps into the Social Media world:
1) Yelp- Don’t just register on Yelp, go get some people to make some comments about you. (Last night on The Office, Will Farrell made reference to Yelp.) The more people that comment on you and your agency, the more you come up. Go get referrals that way.
2) Get listed .org– I mentioned it before. I hear you can do this and the results take a few days to kick in. I.e., if you put in all your info and then look for immediate results later that day you will see failure, go back and look for yourself in a week and you will be happy with the results.
3) Facebook- Have you been reading my other blogs? Do I really need to dig in any deeper here? If you have not gone this route yet, shame on you. If you have and you don’t have as many friends as you ought to, shame on you. (How many friends should you have? Go read the blog, it will tell you.)
4) Google Local listings- Google runs this world. Others are trying to get a piece of the action but Google makes the world go round. The last time you went to find a business how did you find it? Everyone Googles everything. Bing, another search engine is spending lots of millions to own some of that market share. The thick of the plot: If Google is providing you a FREE way to get seen and listed as a local business, so they can put the Yellow Pages out of business, then jump on it and quit paying the phone book sales guy.
5) If you blog it, they will come- Make yourself look like a professional online even if you wear shorts to the office every day. A blog is slow moving. You have a captive audience and hundreds if not thousands of client emails to send your links to. Every time you write a posting, send it to your audience via email, Facebook, and link it to your website.
There is one problem with blogging. If you start down this road. You will start tracking your hits and become obsessed with it. Who wants to write at 6am and not see the hits they deserve for their labors? J/K
Need ideas about what to write about: Go to www.thetruthaboutinsurance.com. There are hundreds of ideas there. (Just a side note, when I take an idea from somewhere, I usually provide the link to that website. That way I am not plagiarizing and the original writer or source gets a chance at growing their hits as well, by people who follow their link from your page.)
Friday, April 1, 2011
Social Media is the New Cold Call
Jeffery Gitomer says, “Business social media is the new cold call!”
Some things to think about if this is true.
1. Cold calls were never fun to make. (Have you ever made a cold call? I have, it was not a good time in my life.) Isn’t it nice to know that there is a virtual, faster, and a much more fun way to do this horrible job?
2. Cold calls were never very effective. So, I’ll be the first to admit that your Social Media results may not be as good as the referrals you are currently getting, but I had an agent tell me this week that it is his social media network that is providing him some of his best leads. Why not ask your clients for leads through a number of different methods? What is the harm of proving yourself a professional “online” as well as in your conference room? How much faster can you prove yourself as a competent professional to your social following (as opposed to one by one in a conference room)?
3. Cast a larger net. Cold calls simply filled the leads funnel. Social media does so much more. When your professional social network is rolling, it sets you apart as an industry professional providing value before, during, and after the sale. Clients and prospects will be able to point at something and prove you know your industry, your policies, and your competitors' policies. It provides another point of value. Again go to www.thetruthaboutinsurance.com. There is value there! That agent provides value. THAT IS HIS COLD CALL! And does it pay dividends? You bet! (Rick, please post a comment, telling us briefly the dividends it pays to your agency.)
4. Cold calls almost never work. You want to find a nugget of gold? Get a reference. Want more references, talk to larger audiences. The perfect example is my buddy writing the aforementioned website. On the first day he was not getting 300+ hits a day. He was not getting paid by advertisers to write. And yet now he has a great ball rolling. He has industry professionals reading his stuff and regurgitating it. His writings alone stand on their own two feet now.
Potential clients asks him, “Why should I choose you as my agent, you can’t save me any money?" Response, “Does your agent understand the industry like I do, go read my website. Does he provide you that added value?” Trust me, my friend is no genius (above average maybe, jk), however, due to his presence he comes off as an industry professional, he comes off as knowing more about insurance than Joe at Halfstate, Jack at State Ranch, or Jonnie at Rancher’s Insurance down the street.
Does your online presence do that for you?
5. Cold calls serviced questions one by one. You don’t have to do that anymore.
“Oh I like your radio advertising idea Mr. Radio Sales Rep. But tell me again, how many people listen to your radio station? And how many people will hear my commercial?”
Why answer the same question 8,000 times on 8,000 different cold calls? Answer it once to the whole group via social media. Better yet, let some of your clients answer the question for you.
Read the Facebook posting below for ideas on how to do that. Get them talking.
Some things to think about if this is true.
1. Cold calls were never fun to make. (Have you ever made a cold call? I have, it was not a good time in my life.) Isn’t it nice to know that there is a virtual, faster, and a much more fun way to do this horrible job?
2. Cold calls were never very effective. So, I’ll be the first to admit that your Social Media results may not be as good as the referrals you are currently getting, but I had an agent tell me this week that it is his social media network that is providing him some of his best leads. Why not ask your clients for leads through a number of different methods? What is the harm of proving yourself a professional “online” as well as in your conference room? How much faster can you prove yourself as a competent professional to your social following (as opposed to one by one in a conference room)?
3. Cast a larger net. Cold calls simply filled the leads funnel. Social media does so much more. When your professional social network is rolling, it sets you apart as an industry professional providing value before, during, and after the sale. Clients and prospects will be able to point at something and prove you know your industry, your policies, and your competitors' policies. It provides another point of value. Again go to www.thetruthaboutinsurance.com. There is value there! That agent provides value. THAT IS HIS COLD CALL! And does it pay dividends? You bet! (Rick, please post a comment, telling us briefly the dividends it pays to your agency.)
4. Cold calls almost never work. You want to find a nugget of gold? Get a reference. Want more references, talk to larger audiences. The perfect example is my buddy writing the aforementioned website. On the first day he was not getting 300+ hits a day. He was not getting paid by advertisers to write. And yet now he has a great ball rolling. He has industry professionals reading his stuff and regurgitating it. His writings alone stand on their own two feet now.
Potential clients asks him, “Why should I choose you as my agent, you can’t save me any money?" Response, “Does your agent understand the industry like I do, go read my website. Does he provide you that added value?” Trust me, my friend is no genius (above average maybe, jk), however, due to his presence he comes off as an industry professional, he comes off as knowing more about insurance than Joe at Halfstate, Jack at State Ranch, or Jonnie at Rancher’s Insurance down the street.
Does your online presence do that for you?
5. Cold calls serviced questions one by one. You don’t have to do that anymore.
“Oh I like your radio advertising idea Mr. Radio Sales Rep. But tell me again, how many people listen to your radio station? And how many people will hear my commercial?”
Why answer the same question 8,000 times on 8,000 different cold calls? Answer it once to the whole group via social media. Better yet, let some of your clients answer the question for you.
Read the Facebook posting below for ideas on how to do that. Get them talking.
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