Web 2.0 Work Group - Agents Council for Technology (ACT)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mark Goldwich on March 11, 2009 at 9:29am

I use web 2.0 social media in my insurance business, but I am not an agent, I am an adjuster. In fact, I recently was on a group 'discussion board' here on InsCampus and it led to an interview for an article in an industry magazine. It has not printed yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Otherwise, I'm on 18-20 web 2.0 sites, and even have someone help maintain them all. And just today I got a contract to consult based on a Facebook connection. I am a believer in social media.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rick Morgan on March 13, 2009 at 7:35pm

Keep me posted on the article

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mariusz Janczewski on March 13, 2009 at 7:32pm

Hi Rick
I research possibility and use if the Web 2.0 tools in Insurance industry. One of them is this site, forum, and our discussion of course :) Tools are important, but I strongly agree that Web 2.0 is more about attitude, then tools. So the question is are industry members ready for use of it, are carriers customers ready ? The answers is yes, because the general trend in Web today. "If you are now appearing, you disappear". There is a lot of fears about threads, good will, and mistrust. But... if carriers will not come to the Web 2.0 medium, their customers will. So in my opinion there is no other way, but join the main stream. Insurance companies have started some Web 2.0 initiatives. They use youtube for attracting the market, join financial advisory forums, built own pages and make direct contact with their customers. We see more insurance blogs, interactions (with use of livechats). I believe that policyholders self-service is pretty much as Web 2.0 initiative. Insurance gets more mobile, not only for insurance employees, but for policyholders and claimants.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rick Morgan on March 13, 2009 at 7:36pm

All good points. Thanks

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ashwin Riswadkar on April 7, 2009 at 12:47pm

Interesting to learn that you are researching into this area. Like Terry, I too have not yet seen many instances of Web 2.0 being put to use. Can you point me to some good examples?

In my opinion, this is at least 1.5 to 2 years away in terms of real adoption; but it is a certainty given the millenial generation. Not only can one imagine them as retail insurance consumers but also in form of influencers within businesses for commercial insurance and as employees of carriers. This is the generation which has the "attitude" you speak of and hence the sweeping change will take a few years from now. Any idea of how long ago the "online" quoting started ? It will definitely be faster than that adoption rate.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Terry Golesworthy on March 19, 2009 at 7:19pm

I have not seen a lot of web 2.0 activity between insurance companies and customers aside from isolated examples. I think that in other industries that have some success using 2.0 the customer is a more frequent visitor to the website and as such will benefit from a joining a community for self interest. AllState and Thrivent run community forums and we see some chat (Western and Southern, Thrivent), RSS feeds from Progressive but I am struggling to find significant activity but am extrmely interested in finding good examples where there is really interaction with end customers.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Teresa Kitchens on March 26, 2009 at 7:57pm

Rick,
You and I met through Facebook and I have had about four other connections develop from my facebook activities. We are not an insurance agency, but we are connecting with insurance agents out there. We have posted on a lot of different boards and agents are talking. Unfortunately, like the post below, for the insurance agent to really get into the conversation, it is about reaching out to customers. The reality is, that everyone is a customer. If we build a network (without thinking about the C word) the contacts will come and the contacts will turn into clients when they are comfortable with you.

I do have an insurance agency and I am really approaching social media with the focus that it is just like personal networking. My daughter plays volleyball and I have met a few parents there that have in turn become clients. Social networking is the same thing just over the internet. They got to know me, my business, my integrity and they came to me fo assistance with their insurance needs. We at AgencyIQ are really helping agents to focus on the value added so that they won't get as burned out on social media and they will enjoy the ride.

Thanks Rick!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lyndsey on June 2, 2009 at 1:05pm

I do use linkedin and have had some luck in promoting myself and policies however it is not easy for an insurance agent to do. Reason....compliance issues. We have to be very careful with what we say and when blogging...many times it has to be run by the corporate lawyers. This is often a topic at my local NAIFA (National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors) meetings. There is a lot of restrictions on what an insurance agent can say and how we can advertise.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rick Morgan on June 2, 2009 at 1:11pm

ACT (Agents Council for Technology) has a Web 2.0 workgroup (I am Chair) - We have a subgroup on Privacy and Security that also is looking at the issues you mention. We will be making findings public later this year.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ian on July 1, 2009 at 12:50pm

There is no doubt social media is making inroads in just about all industries, including this one. Of course, the big question is, once you set up a Facebook, Twitter or other profile..."Now What?" One of the most important aspects of social media is just that, being social. None of these will work if you think you can set up a profile and watch the traffic pour right in. Matter of fact, even after many days/weeks or possibly months you may still see only a trickle of people coming in. Mark G is fortunate that he has someone to maintain these sites for his because than he can go on about his business. This is much more difficult with one-man shows or small offices; even more so if you aren't all that familiar with how to best manage these sites. We are working on developing our twitter profile http://twitter.com/ltcconnects and feel that over the long run it will prove valuable. The problem with Twitter (and many of the other social media sites) is there already lots of folks in the industry spamming the heck out of everyone, with no real intention of having a conversation or helping out. Many people already have a distrust towards insurance companies, but personally I think social media, if used well, can really change this attitude.

If anyone has any questions or needs assistance with social media strategy, feel free to contact us.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Yount on July 22, 2009 at 4:04pm

Ian,

You make a great point with this: "lots of folks in the industry spamming the heck out of everyone". I think there is a big general misunderstanding of what social media's purpose is and should be for insurance companies. For too many insurance companies (and other industries), social media is about promoting products and services. They see it as a channel to pump advertising through, just like banner and print ads, email broadcasts, etc.

Social media, though, is about joining a community and interacting with the members of that community. If your company joined up with Twitter, grabbed a few hundred followers and then blasted out the weekly specials, then you're not going to get a great respose. But if you talk about what your company is doing (or even what the person doing the updating is personally doing), then you are succeeding in establishing yourself in the community. You increase the level of trust between your company and your clients, you add another bond to the relationship, and you add a channel to give and receive information.

Another area that many insurance companies struggle with is transparency. This touches on what Lyndsey mentioned, compliance, but over and above that is the fact that social media is about opening up to a wider world. And in the process of opening you, you are exposing yourself to the world. Faults are more difficult to disguise, weaknesses are harder to hide and when you mess up, it generally reverberates more strongly. This is a risk for companies to take, and, imo, one of the chief reasons that insurance companies start and then abandon their social media interactions. It's easier to have a regularly updated blog when things are going great and you're writing a ton a business; it's an entirely different thing to regularly update that blog when you've got a major E&O issue on your hands.

It's going to take a big shift in perspective about what social media is about for the insurance industry at large to truly take advantage of social media. I think Irwin Siegel Agency is a great example of an insurance company interacting with a community rather than spamming said community.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rich Mathews, CPCU on September 15, 2009 at 4:54pm

Does anyone have an experiences to share on using social media for policyholder support, specifically P&C?

▶ Reply to This

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page