March 13, 2013 / in Blogging, Content Marketing, General Information, LinkedIn, Social Media / by Jason Terry
Post written by Jason Terry, Entrepreneur | Social Coach | Web Developer | Scuba Instructor | Guitar Player | Cruise Traveler | Lego Collector
Many people would agree that Banking, Medical and Insurance are verticals that are generally behind the curve when it comes to keeping up with social tools and techniques. There are good and bad reasons for this reality.
A good reason is the fact that these industries have compliance and regulatory issues to pay attention to. They have to be careful what they say in their marketing efforts, or risk being slapped with hefty fines. HIPAA and FINRA are just two of the organizations that dictate what these kinds of companies can say.
The bad reasons are statements like, “I don’t have time.”, “I don’t care what people are having for lunch.”, or “We don’t want our competitors to know who our clients are.” These statements, and so many others that we hear on a regular basis, are an educational issue.
If people understood the importance of being social in their business or practice, they would make time for it.
If they understood that LinkedIn is a fantastic way to stay in touch with peers and not just a place for people to find jobs, they might change their mind about using LinkedIn more often.
In Banking, we would tell you about Alterra Bank. I have been friends with Jason Moxness for years. We are in a peer advisory group together. Jason is the Director of Loan Programs for Alterra Bank, and he is the reason we met Jeff Chambers and Pamela Berneking to talk about LinkedIn training and blogging.
After two meetings, they were completely on board and we have been working together now for many months. They have a great team and are doing a great job of telling the stories that matter about their team, their clients and their community. For an example, check out Pamela’s recent blog article A Sense Of Place: JJ’s Is So Much More Than A Restaurant.
In Medical, we would tell you about Kansas City Internal Medicine. Mic met Lori Mallory after he sent her an email congratulating her on one of her articles in the Kansas City Business Journal. Lori ended up hiring us to create a new website for KCIM, train some of their doctors on LinkedIn, publish their weekly blog posts and send out a monthly email newsletter to their patients.
They understand how important it is to stay connected to their patients and peers. They also understand how important it is to provide relevant stories about their practice on the new website and in their email newsletter.
In Insurance, we would tell you about SRA Insurance. I met Randy Larsen at an Enterprise Bank Board of Advisors meeting. I was talking about growing a business through trusted relationships and using LinkedIn to accelerate that process. He agreed with what he heard.
We recently completed on-site LinkedIn training for 20 of their team members and begin working with them on their blog effort in April. The interesting part of this story is that Randy, David Wetzler and Dan Murray are including their entire team as contributors to their new blog. Awesome.
I mention the people and companies above because they are well known in their respective verticals… and you probably know them personally, or have at least heard of them.
The business adoption of social is happening RIGHT NOW.
Companies are spending the time and energy to educate their teams on LinkedIn. They are baking processes around LinkedIn into their sales and marketing efforts. They are blogging on a weekly basis and staying top of mind with their growing audience. They “look and feel” different than other companies because they are tearing down the corporate walls by being real people telling real stories.
None of this happens overnight. It takes MONTHS. You need to set goals. You have to get your team moving in the right direction. You need to put together a blogging team and come up with compelling, authentic and relevant content about your people, clients and business.
The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be to catch up. Whether you work with Blue Gurus, some other company, or an internal team that you create, you need to get going.
The crazy thing is, you probably know it and for whatever reason, haven’t acted on it. No more procrastinating!
We have worked with Blue Gurus since 2010, and in that time they've become trusted colleagues and friends.
"One thing becomes very clear soon after you meet Jason. He genuinely cares about you and helping your business. We have worked with Blue Gurus for more than six years and in that time they have become trusted colleagues and friends. Including our new LaunchKC website, they have guided us through four new Wordpress websites for our various initiatives at the Downtown Council.
In addition, they have taught us the importance of having a strong presence on social media and have helped us grow our audience on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Blue Gurus always makes this process very fun and affordable. I have not worked with a better team in my ten years at the Downtown, I am honored to call them business partners and friends."
Tommy Wilson
Program and Marketing Manager – Launch KC
