Simple and practical tips when using social media

Please consult your Managing General Agency (MGA) or National Account compliance officer to ensure your social media practices are compliant.

Here are some helpful tips when using social media in your practice:

  • Create an online presence. Take full advantage of this opportunity to professionally represent yourself online to a mass audience.
  • Search your name and check what's written online about you.
  • Conduct yourself in a professional manner. Refer to your distribution and carrier code of conduct.
  • Think carefully about how public you want your profile and information to be.
  • Engage your audience but think before you share; who you are sharing the information with, and how it will reflect on your reputation.
  • Provide information and insight. If someone asks you for advice or a recommendation, ask them to contact you directly, offline.
  • Be aware that any time you link to online content; you are implicitly endorsing that content.
  • Remove content that is derogatory, racist or offensive.
  • Properly source content that you did not create. Be sure to give credit where credit is due.
  • Your best to be innovative or open to new trends.
  • Keep things concise to get your point across quickly.
  • Be selective about who you accept as a friend/contact.
  • Periodically reassess who has access to your information.
  • Have a damage-control plan. An emergency preparedness plan should be created in the event of a public relations disaster - this will allow you to tackle the issue with better clarity.

  • Neglect your account. If you cannot commit to using a platform on a regular basis and setting it up in a way that clearly represents your brand, then reconsider your presence on social media.
  • Be lenient with your privacy settings. To keep control over the comments/posts that your audience can make, we recommend you adjust your settings to request your approval before posting.
  • Post anything you don't want to share.
  • Over share. Keep personal or sensitive details (for example, home address, birth date, photos, account numbers) private.
  • Post controversial content. Anything that you post online is permanent, so content that may hinder your professional reputation should be avoided.
  • Ignore negative comments. Not everyone will like what you do or say online, but use any negative feedback as a means of constructive criticism.
  • Forget to keep your page visually appealing. The meat of your social media interactions is textual, but it is essential to keep visual aspects in mind. A professional profile picture along with dynamic visual content will make a good impression on your audience.
  • Accept everyone as a friend. If you are not sure who the message is coming from, don't open it.
  • Simply re-post content. Be sure to change elements of your posts in order to either highlight certain information within the post or target a specific segment within your audience.
  • Be a robot. DON'T send scripted messages. Sending a personalized one will make you sound much more approachable and shows you take the time to get to know your contact.