Social media is a powerful tool for businesses to connect with their audience, build brand awareness and drive engagement. Setting up business accounts and maintaining a consistent presence on various platforms can significantly boost your online visibility and engagement.

Here are five things to remember when setting up social media accounts for your business:

1) Set up a business profile, not a personal one. When it comes to setting up social media accounts for your independent insurance agency, an important first step is creating business profiles rather than relying on personal accounts. The distinction between a business profile and a personal account is essential for establishing a professional image and effectively engaging with your target audience.

When creating your business profile, remember to add an agency-related profile photo. When adding a cover photo, consider a team photo, your office building or the agency logo. Avoid adding headshots to the business profile so visitors don't think they are viewing a personal page.

By creating a business social media profile, you convey a sense of professionalism and legitimacy to your audience. It allows you to showcase your agency's brand identity, values and services.

2) Add contact information. Include accurate and easily accessible contact information. By providing contact information, such as phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses on your social media profiles, you make it convenient for prospective clients to reach out to your agency.

Whether it's requesting a quote or asking general questions, making it simple for users to get in touch with your agency increases the likelihood of engagement and conversion. If any of your contact information changes, update your social media accounts.

3) Link between your website and social accounts. Linking to your agency website on your business social media accounts—and linking to your social accounts on your website—is a great way to drive traffic and encourage engagement between your agency and visitors. It creates a bridge between your social presence and your business, helping build engagement, drive traffic and strengthen your agency's digital footprint.

Linking to your website from your social media profile can also positively impact your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Google considers backlinks from reputable sources, including social media platforms, when ranking websites. This can improve your website's search engine rankings.

4) Create a strong bio. A compelling bio or About Us section acts as the digital storefront of your business, offering visitors a quick glimpse into who you are and the services you provide.

First impressions are important in the digital world and your bio is often the initial point of contact for potential clients. A well-crafted bio can leave a lasting impact and encourage visitors to explore more about your agency. Additionally, a detailed bio can help establish credibility and trust with your audience by showcasing your expertise, experience and core values in the insurance industry.

By incorporating calls-to-action or engaging language, you can prompt visitors to further explore your services or initiate contact with you.

5) Develop a content strategy. A well-rounded social media presence requires the development of a strategic content plan. By outlining what content to post, when to post it, and how it aligns with your goals, you can ensure a consistent and engaging online presence.

A good content strategy not only builds your brand identity but also increases engagement with your audience. It helps you to create posts that resonate with followers, sparking conversations and interactions that can help build a sense of community around your agency. By sharing valuable insights and information, you can build credibility and trust with your audience, ultimately strengthening client relationships and driving business growth through your social media channels.

Mia McGowan is marketing and communications manager at Trusted Choice®. This article was originally published on the Trusted Choice blog.

Don't know where to get started in planning out your social media strategy? Trusted Choice® has a monthly social media content calendar to help you map out your social posting schedule. The ready-to-use social media content covers a variety of different topics and occasions. Each new calendar is released 30 days before the start of the new month. View the social calendars and sign up to receive them directly in your inbox each month.

For agencies that have limited time to dedicate to social media content development and planning, leveraging automation tools, such as Social Jazz, can be a game-changer. Social Jazz creates a custom content calendar based on topics you choose, automatically scheduling posts, monitoring engagement and analyzing performance metrics. By incorporating this automation tool into your digital strategy, you can enhance efficiency, maintain a consistent online presence and focus on delivering high-quality content that resonates with your audience hassle-free.

Big “I" members can take advantage of special pricing on Social Jazz—just $15 a month instead of the usual $199 a month. Learn more and begin your 30-day trial.