Recruiting top insurance talent is perhaps one of the biggest challenges many agents face. Good insurance agency staff can be hard to find (and employees in general), especially these days. While many companies and employers like to complain about the younger Millennial generation, the fact is, pretty soon, these new breed of workers will not only be working most of the jobs in all industries but will also be serving as managers, bosses, and even business owners.
Much like any new generation, there are also those that rise above the rest – many Millennial workers are talented, hardworking and truly care about their jobs and clients. These are the types of employees you want in your agency. But how can you find them? The best way to attract top Millennial talent is, of course, by finding where they hang out. And these days (with many of them growing up with the Internet) the best place to find them is through social media, in particular, Facebook. If you’re looking to have some great people join your insurance agency in whatever capacity, then you should be on this social network. With more than 1.65 billion people on this network alone, you can reach a lot of people in, and around, your city. But, how do you start recruiting top insurance talent on Facebook?
Recruiting on Facebook isn’t like posting on a job board; in fact, you’re going to have to do it indirectly. Most people use social networks to stay in touch with their friends and family, so how can you start your Facebook talent search? There are two main strategies: organic and paid, and you need both to successfully recruit your insurance agent staff on Facebook.
Organic Methods
Many people think that organic reach on Facebook is dying. And while it’s certainly true that Facebook has been throttling reach to audiences, that doesn’t mean it’s still not useful. When looking at the long-term, organic reach can have more positive effects on your company and your ability to reach out to talented individuals.
So, what organic methods and measures can you do to ensure you can put your agency in front of the right people on Facebook? First if you already have a main agent or agency Facebook page, consider creating a separate page just for recruiting. This way, you can segment your target audiences and you don’t dilute your brand or confuse potential clients who may stumble onto your page. From your recruiting page, you should definitely post about your staffing needs, either creating image-based or text-based posts of what you’re looking for, other requirements, as well as how potential recruits can contact you.
Of course, a full organic Facebook campaign doesn’t just rely on a “post-and-pray” method. You have to build your audience and to do that, you need to post regularly. So, what do you post? Here are some ideas:
- Posting photos of your office and staff – Millennial employees want to know what type of atmosphere they’ll be working in and possibly who their colleagues will be. Use Facebook to show off your office, especially if you want them to see that you have a progressive and modern operation.
- Talk about your clients – Without giving away sensitive information or breaking any laws, use Facebook to show your potential recruits all the things you do to help your customers.
- Upload pictures of your events – You can show potential recruits that you participate in activities outside of the 9 to 5 office setting by adding photos of the events that you support or sponsor. Hopefully soon, you will be able to use the power of video via Facebook Live. Industry executives are working on how to allow Facebook Live video, that is “fully compliant” with the rules/laws of the D.O.I. and FINRA, down the road. Hopefully agents are using this medium for their personal Facebook page, so that when the time comes, they’re prepared to leverage it for their agency.
- Ask friends and fans to share your page and content – You should also ask your friends to like your page, as well as your content. Keep in ind that a “post like” is not equal to a “page like.” Both are good, but “page likes” are even better, because that means they “like” your business…….not just a comment (post) or two along the way. High engagement rates, using Facebook, Twitter & Linkedin, also help your website’s SEO progress in the S.E.R.P.s (Search Engine Resuls Pages).
These organic methods can help attract the right people to your page and put your agency on top of mind when people are looking for a job or know someone who is searching for a new career.
Paid Methods
Mark Zuckerberg’s throttling of “Free” visibility on his network was inevitable. After all, Facebook needed a way to monetize their site. However, the good news is that paid reach, on this social network, is quite affordable, especially compared to more traditional forms of marketing and advertising. Plus you can have complete control of your budget and your audience. Facebook allows you to really drill down and ensure your posts and ads only show up to people who will be most interested in what you have to say. In fact, you can now target down to a radius of 10-miles around your physical office location. Along with Google search, Facebook now allows marketer’s to get quite sophisticated with their targeting interface. Mr. Zuckerberg was quoted in a recent Yahoo Finance article that he is now going to go “head-to-head” with Google for paid search. He certainly has the intellect, audience, and the financial bandwidth, to make good on that promise.
There are two ways you can use paid methods to recruit insurance agency staff with Facebook:
- Facebook Ads – These are the small advertisements people see on the right column of their newsfeed of the newsfeed itself. There are several types of ads, which vary depending on what type of results or action you want from your ads (i.e. click on a link, like your page, sign up for your newsletter, etc.)
- Boosted Posts – These are your actual posts – which could be your photos, infographics, videos, which you can pay to “boost” (have people see on their newsfeeds even if they’re not fans).
Both boosted posts and ads can be limited to a specific audience based on gender, location, age, and other specifications. Which one is better? Well, it really depends on you and your goals. The great thing is you can experiement with both for as little as a few dollars per day, and then decide which one bests suits your needs and that get you the best results.
As you may have guessed by now, recruiting on Facebook doesn’t just rely on organic or paid strategies; rather, a combination of both. With a balanced and efficient Facebook recruiting strategy, then you can definitely attract the right talent to your agency.
Interested in learning more about recruiting Millenials? Then download our FREE e-book, Attracting Millennial Talent to Your Team. It’s absolutely free and you can access it by clicking on the image below:
