Tips on how social media positively affects the sales cycle!

1. ...and the sales cycle!
Cindy Donaldson
Director of Marketing & Sales
Founders Insurance Group, Inc.

2. Overview: Why using Social
Media gives you the edge
• Broader Networking
• Research
• Branding
• It shows the people
behind the brand
• Hiring
• Your competition is
doing it!
• It’s viral
• http://youtu.be/3SuNx0U
rnEo - great video!

3. The Good …and the Bad 
• Social media allows a company and their
employees to be transparent.
• People buy from people they like, know and
trust.
• Social media in the business world needs to be
monitored and have procedures behind it.
• If done correctly, you win. If not managed you
lose.

4. On your mark, get ready,
STOP!
Before you do anything…
• Know who you are and who you want to be
when you grow up.
• What type of business are you? Are you
solo? Managing a team? Own a company?
• What is the make up of your client base?
– Gen x & y? Baby boomers? Matures? A mix?
• Have a 12 month marketing plan that
includes your social media game plan

5. Before you dive in!
What is YOUR personal digital imprint?
• Google your name – what do you
find?
• Clean up your digital dirt
• Create a “Power Profile” - LinkedIn
• Be professional – including pictures
• What gets posted on Facebook and
Twitter – doesn’t stay there. It’s not
Vegas!
• Create a personal Brand that
matches that of your company. First
perceptions now are on the web!

6. Who are your prospects?
Understand how different demographics operate!
• 4 main Groups
– Matures, Baby Boomers, Gen X & Gen Y ( the next
will be Gen C – those in high school now!)
– Matures are leery of putting information on the
web and to some extent so are Baby Boomers –
but there are always exceptions so don’t be afraid
to look for them!
– Baby Boomer women are one of the largest users
of Facebook & Pinterest!
– Gen X and Gen Y – grew up with the internet, are
very comfortable posting on all forms of social
media.
• Different types of people will be on different
types of social media.

7. Why is the use of social media in
sales so important?
• Social media creates a “conversation”
• It is the main way Generation X & Y get their
information and connect with their peers
• It offers a vital source of information
• Combined with effective social media marketing –
prospecting on the web reduces your sales cycle
• Your competition is using it
• 78% of consumers buy based on what other
people are saying – that includes who they are
buying from

8. Let’s get started!
• After you’ve done your homework, cleaned up your digital dirt,
created your social media policy, and have communicated with your
staff, it’s time to choose what types of social media you will use.
• Again – be realistic. Start small
• Key is to be consistent and repetitive
• Start with the basics
– Facebook
– LinkedIn
– Twitter
– Pinterest
– Blogging
– You Tube
– Google+

9. “Social Media 101” – The Basics
It’s all about
People
Keeping it
Repeat…
simple
Choose your
Tell people!
flavor
Make it
interesting, Consistency is
make it about Key
you

10. My LinkedIn Account
http://www.linkedin.com/in/
cindydonaldson
A MUST FOR Salespeople!!!!!!!
• Business networking sight – people that are
on LinkedIn WANT to connect with other
business professionals!
• Over 100 million users – 44 million in the US
• Demographic: age 25-45 60% male
• Used by 69 of the Fortune 100 companies
• Online version of your resume
• Connect B2B and B2C with key decision
makers and centers of influence
• Establish yourself, your team and your
company as experts in your field, show your
team as trusted advisors
KEY POINTS
• Update often!!
• Make sure your staff is using it
• USE ONLY professional head shots – this is a
business site and casual pics are a no no
• Use your business email
• Ask for recommendations & recommend
others
• Endorse others and they will endorse you
• Join groups that will connect with your field
of business and interact with members
• Have twitter/blog feed
• Link to those that will help your grow

11. Friend me…Fan me!
Founders Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/foun
dersinsurancegroup
• Personal & Business do
they mix? Sure!
• Create a business page
• Engage your personal
friends and your staff’s
friends to “Like” your
business page.
• Have contests to engage
“Likes”
• Have fun – don’t always
post personal things.
• Post often, tell stories

12. Blogging
My work blog:
www.foundersgrp.wordpress.com
• Blog=Web Log.
• Combine work &
personal.
• Pictures!!!
• Links to other sites
• Subscribe to others and
post comments!

13. Tweet On!
• Micro Blogging
• @,#,RT, DM, Twit, Tweet,
Twitterverse – what do they all mean! My work Twitter
www.twitter.com/foundersgroup
• Very viral
• Great way to get people to your
website, Facebook, blog et al
• Follow people that you want to do
business with and/or will help your
business
People you should follow!
@brookhollow (that’s me!)
@FoundersGroup
@ChrisBrogan
@LizStrauss
@mashable

14. Founders on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/foundersgrp
• Post videos of your
staff
• Commercials
• Check out your
competition
• Again – being
transparent!

15. Pinterest the latest online obsession!
• It’s all VISUAL – a must for anyone in retail, the arts, crafts, design,
marketing
• People “pin” things they like on “boards” – people then can follow you or
your specific boards and repin and/or like your information
• If you click on a “pin” it will take you to the original website it came from
• VERY VIRAL
• Many sites now have “PIN IT” buttons on them

16. WWW Founders on the web
http://www.foundersgrp.com
• Use your website to
promote your
social media!
• Twitter feed
• Fan page for FB
• Real time news
• Links to Social
Media

17. QR Codes
• Great marketing tool
• www.mobile-barcodes.com

18. Just do it!
• The key to success is implementation and
consistency
• Blog what you tweet, and tweet what you blog
• Connect all the dots, connect all your friends,
fans and followers = Viral Marketing
• Have a process, have a point person
• Get your team on board

19. Resources
• Mashable.com – all things social with Pete
Cashmore
• Chrisbrogan.com – How human business
works with social media guru Chris Brogan
• Connect with me – I’m there to answer
questions and help!

20. www.linkedin.com/in/cindydonaldson
www.facebook.com/cindydonaldson62
www.facebook.com/foundersinsurancegroup
www.twitter.com/brookhollow
Cindy Donaldson www.twitter.com/FoundersGroup
Director of Marketing & Sales
Founders Insurance Group, Inc.
860-482-3506
E: cdonaldson@foundersgrp.com
W: www.foundersgrp.com
www.foundersgrp.wordpress.com
http://pinterest.com/cindydonaldson

21. Shameless plugs
The ROI of Social Media Monday June 14, 2010
By Heather Baldwin
If you still think Twitter, Facebook, and other social media are just nice-if-you-have-the-time tools, take a look at how Founders Insurance Group
used them to grow sales a whopping 20 percent in one year.
When Cindy Donaldson, director of marketing and personal lines sales, joined Founders about a year ago, she launched a multipronged, social-
media campaign to raise the profile of this Torrington, Connecticut-based insurance organization. She started a blog post, launched an e-
newsletter, created a Facebook page, and gave the company an active presence on Twitter. And while it's often difficult to trace the exact results
of specific marketing efforts, you simply can't argue with what has followed.
"Since we started our social-media push, our branding has increased tenfold," says Donaldson. "People find us on Facebook. Someone sees us on
Twitter, and when we call [the prospect], he or she says, 'Oh, I just read about you guys.' People in the community know us now, whereas they
didn't before." Most importantly, sales have grown 20 percent in the year since she started that social-media thrust.
There's no magic here; it's simply a constant and active presence online that has generated these results. For instance, Donaldson started a blog
at WordPress, a free and easy-to-use blogging platform. Every time she posts something new, she puts a teaser line and link to the blog post on
Twitter. Of the 10,000 collective hits Founders has gotten on its blogs, a good 30 percent have arrived via Twitter. And that's not counting the hits
the company gets on its Facebook page each month.
The cost of acquiring all those eyeballs: nothing. Facebook is free; Twitter is free; WordPress is free. The only new media tool for which Donaldson
pays is her e-newsletter, in which she offers insurance tips, staff profiles, and community tidbits to a circulation of about 4,500 readers. But at just
$450 a year, the e-newsletter is barely a blip on the expense sheet. Compare those numbers to advertising via the old, traditional methods -
radio, TV, and newspaper - on which Founders once relied. Donaldson says she "easily would have had to spend $250,000 or more" to get the
same kind of growth via the old media that she's getting nearly for free on social media.
With results like these for costs like these, you'd think lots of insurance companies would be doing the same thing, right? Wrong. "When I started
the blog, it was unique in the insurance world," says Donaldson. And competitors are still slow to catch on. "I know some insurance companies
that are still advertising in the yellow pages!" she says with incredulity. "Who uses those any more?"
The bottom line: If you're not already leveraging social media to connect with your clients and prospects, you need to move it to the top of your
priority list. "Companies that aren't using social media aren't going to be able to keep up with those who are," concludes Donaldson. "It's the new
way of connecting and selling to people."

22. And more…
http://rickmorganconsulting.com/blog/2009/08/07/on-point-with-peter-van-aartrijk-and-rick-morgan/

23. Aartrijk’s first industry conference for branding in a 2.0 world was attended by 90
top executives from insurance companies, agents and brokers, associations and
trade media, September 28-30, 2009 in Chicago.
Welcome to Brand Camp!
Be a Better Blogger
Maureen Wall Bentley leads an informal group
discussion about effective blogging.
Group includes:
-Cindy Donaldson, Founders Group
-Kristin Rielly, Irwin Siegel Agency
-Nibby Priest, Vaughn Insurance
-Laura Mazzuca Toops, American Agent & Broker
Cindy Donaldson is a Member of ACT – Agents Council for Technology for the
Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America.
Social Web Work Group

24. Excerpt from Independent Agent (IA) Magazine March 2010
March Cover Story
Social Selling
Marketing is taking on a whole new meaning as social media
Build Brand Equity sites change the way agencies get the word out.
Founders Insurance Group in Torrington, Conn. began using social media about one year ago to strengthen its brand.
The agency is a merger of several older agencies, and the goal was to market the new firm in connection with its well-
known principals and its staff. To do this, the agency hired former consultant Cindy Donaldson as its director of
marketing. “We now have the “Founders Forum blog, and we Twitter and Facebook a lot,” says Donaldson. “All of these
things have been a big help in our brand development.”
The concept, Donaldson says, is to make the agency more visible in the online community so that users will get to know
the firm’s people, values and products. “We don’t sell on price, we sell on value,” she stresses. “We believe having
people understand this will eventually help our bottom line.”
Donaldson’s latest goal is to convince more clients and prospects to follow her and the agency on social media sites.
“This will make us more personal, and not all of it is about insurance,” she admits. “We really just want people to know
who we are and to like us – and that’s a subliminal sell.”