Erie Insurance
Going social, simply.
The Complexity
Imagine you're a Fortune 500 insurance company with a broad network of independent agents responsible for your brand and revenue. Many of these agents are a little old school - resistant to change and still working the phones and yellow pages for new business. Meanwhile, social media is exploding with a seemingly endless array of tools, techniques, opinions and best practices. With a lot to learn and a competitive marketplace, Erie was looking to get their agents up to speed fast.
What We Did
To make it easier, we went on a 10-city educational tour across Erie’s business footprint. We wrote and designed a one-hour keynote speech on social media strategy and followed this up with breakout sessions covering three levels of experience (newbie, basic and savvy) on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, SEO and more. The crash course took one day, and every agent was given hands-on experience optimizing LinkedIn profiles, building Facebook pages for their business and making sure they were visible in their markets. We even sent everyone home with handouts and worksheets.
The outcome:
After writing, designing and presenting 13 hours worth of course work to hundreds of agents over a four month tour Erie reported and increase in social activity among its agent base of +1200%. We went on to tape the entire program so that it could be distributed further for e-learning. We were even invited back two more times - once to present to senior management and once to offer a half-day refresher course to agents gathered for an annual sales meeting.
NOTE: This project was done in the employ of Source Marketing, Erie Insurance's agency.
“Since January, [Symplco founder] Corey has been assisting our team with the Company’s social media strategy and execution. In this short period of time he has helped us focus our efforts to vehicles and approaches that will work for us given our budget. He’s been very creative yet practical in his insights and suggestions. Corey has quickly become a trusted adviser to our marketing team.”