Organic Growth in Social Media: Express Your Culture

Your Team is Your Client

When looking at your social media reach and your opportunities to convert those potential clients, you might be tempted to want to sell all the time. Don’t get me wrong: it’s okay to sell and to want to sell; however, I believe most managers are focused on selling to the wrong client segment. As an owner, leader, manager, and marketer, you should maintain a laser focus on only one client: your team.

Let me be clear: building company pride and showing our culture to the public are more than social media tactics; those two strategies inform all of our decision-making.

If you visit our office, you may observe that we have nice digs. We present a modern, industrial look with stonework, reclaimed wood walls, and bold colors. We provide motorized standing desks and hand-made desks made from reclaimed barn wood salvaged from Kentucky horse farms for all our team members.

Now, if you appreciate the comfort of our office, that’s great. If you’re a client, I want you to have an amazing experience when you visit. But that’s not what is most important to me. My focus is to provide the best possible experience for the team occupying that space daily. I want their environment to give them the best opportunity to be inspired and creative and operate at the highest level. I believe if they’re excited to come to work, they’re going to be happier. A happy team will produce at a high level and take better care of our clients. As a result, we’ll have a proud team that generates ravings fans. It’s a win-win-win.

Another example of how my team is my first priority: at Real Good Group, we have no vacation days or personal time off. That’s something I let potential team members know upfront. I say, “We hired you as an adult, and we will treat you like an adult. If I have to manage you, there’s a problem; you’re not the right person for the job.” If they want to take a vacation, I just ask for 30 days’ notice if they’re going to be gone for longer than three days. Otherwise, they’re welcome to work from home or, really, anywhere they want. We just need to know about it.

We have a lot of flexibility, but flexibility without structure is chaos. My purpose is to offer my team a creative and free-flowing environment. As long as they’re achieving, I’m not too concerned about the exact number of hours they’re at the office. I pay most of my team for productivity, not to sit or stand at a desk for a certain number of hours.

Sing Their Praises

When my team sees one of my posts about Real Good Group, I want each one of them to swell with pride. I also brag about them all the time. I don’t do it to impress clients; I want my team to feel loved and appreciated. If I can find the opportunity, I’m going to sing the praises of my team on Facebook or Instagram. “Janie did this amazing thing for one of our clients. She’s such an awesome person, and she’s always boosting our reputation.” On our business page, I’ll give three reasons why Janie is awesome and then I’ll share them on my personal page. Side note: I brag on people in our team meetings and in person far more than I do on social media. You should too.

Best Practice: You should always share on your business page first so you can track engagements. Then share what you posted on your business page to your personal page. Be sure to write a few sentences on your shared post so people don’t pass over it.

Put Your Culture on Display

So I want my team to be proud; that’s strategy number one. Strategy number two helps people feel what it’s like to be part of Real Good Group.

When people see my posts about our team members, they say, “Man, my boss never talks about me like that. I wish I worked in a place where people talked about and treated each other that way.”

We talk about love and caring for each other at our agency and I believe that if I can show people how we talk to each other, hug each other, and work cohesively together, they’ll think, “Wouldn’t that be a great place to be insured by? Wouldn’t that be a great place to do business?” I’m always looking for the next rock star. So, again, the “client” I’m looking for here is not the one who will buy insurance. It is the one who will take my team to the next level.

People like to do business with a business where people like to work.

Be Real

Of course, all of your external commentary on social platforms has to be true; it can’t be some ploy. If my external conversations do not match what is happening internally, I will be creating a cultural divide in my agency. Bitterness, resentment, and jealousy will grow. We have to live these truths if we are to share them.

I take what’s true and maximize it to show who we are. Whenever I do educational videos, my main purpose is to show we are an open-handed organization. A potential client should be able to take anything I share and use it anywhere else to benefit them. Business owners should not have a mindset of “promote, promote, promote” and hope all that effort turns into sales. We want to show how good life at Real Good Group can be. When I post about our company, I’m saying, “This is how we live. We’re so busy, we don’t need to ask for business.” That’s much more appealing and magnetic than it is to say, “We’re better, so you should buy from us.”

If you ever see a server eating at the restaurant where he or she works, you can be confident they think highly of the food and how it’s prepared. After all, they know what is going on in the kitchen. They see how everything is handled behind the scenes. Through my social media posts, I want people to go behind the scenes. I want them to see I love the people at Real Good Group and they love being here. Those are the foundational building blocks to building trust with clients.

Trust Is More Valuable Than A Sale

People like to do business with a business where people like to work. This shouldn’t be surprising. Think of the stories emerging from places like Amazon, Southwest Airlines (see our post “Match Your Why” where we mention them), Zappos, Chick-fil-A, and Nordstroms. These companies have more than customers; they have fans.

At most businesses, employees are either paid really well but treated poorly, or they’re treated really well but paid peanuts. I believe you should pay someone equal to their value and I know you can treat team members even better than their workplace value. I want people to know that this kind of place exists. I want them to know that Real Good Group is that kind of place.

At the end of the day, we are not selling insurance. We are selling trustworthiness.

– CHRISTIAN MOORE

We don’t want people to simply buy from us; what we really want is for people to trust us. I tell clients, “I don’t care if you buy from me today, but I do care if you trust me today. In five years, I want you to be able to say that I gave you advice that stood the test of time, not just sold you something.” If we approach people the right way, with open hands and good advice, they may do business with us down the road, even if they decide not to today. Ultimately, if you bring on a client and have not first established a relationship built on trust, that client can be as much of a liability to your agency as uncovered risk is a liability to your client.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Make your team your number one priority. Treat them as though they are that client you never want to lose. Then watch as your clients become fans, your team becomes a family, and your business reaches new heights.