My Short Post On Social Media

Are you leveraging social media to help your business? Are you posting daily and creating content like the "experts" say to do? Most importantly, are you getting results?

I've tried using most of the more popular platforms for my insurance business, as well as my writing and speaking business. To say the results are "mixed" would be generous. This may be because I really haven't invested much into advertising on these platforms.

The way I see it, when Facebook, for example, allows me to set up a free page for my business, that is like a "free trial" to see if I can get any interest in my product or service. After nearly 15 years of this trial period, I have garnered little to no business.

One can come up with two arguments here. The first is why would you throw money at advertising when you haven't seen any returns. The other side is that "you could have done better if you had quit being a tight ass penny pincher." Fair enough.

But I have gotten some results for free. Some results weren't exactly as I had planned though. For instance, my YouTube channel has actually gotten me a couple of appointments, despite a tiny number of subscribers. LinkedIn has actually gotten me referrals from other insurance agents. And after throwing my line out on Instagram I've gotten a nibble or two.

By far the worst result has come from X (formerly Twitter). Even with a decent number of followers, I've never had any result. I don't know if the platform has become too toxic or if anyone actually looks at the feed anymore at all. The alleged alternatives, Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon haven't generated much enthusiasm.

As a huge fan of the TV show Shark Tank, I have come to realize that many of the entrepreneurs with large sales are dropping a large amount of money on social media advertising. As someone who doesn't (at the time of this writing) have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on marketing, I think there's a strategy out there that works for the rest of us.

I'll delve into this in upcoming posts but in the meantime, let me know what kind of results you're getting WITHOUT spending money.

Chris Castanes is a humorous speaker and former comedian who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. His newest book, "Nearly Motivated", is yet another humorous look at sales. For booking information, click here. As president of Surf Financial Brokers he sells life and disability insurance in several states.

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