Social Media

Businesses in many categories have embraced corporate participation in social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Twitter, and YouTube.  But what about insurers?  Social media represents a powerful tool to strengthen your brand, generate  leads, and boost customer retention.  There are, however, hidden costs in underestimating or misusing the enormous power of social media and in not addressing the legal issues that participation and non-participation poses.  We offer four distinct services to help insurers navigate social media.

The Social Media Insurer Profile

Every insurance company, whether it participates formally in social media or not, projects an image and is exposed to risks that naturally result from the independent participation of its producers, employees, and policyholders.  This participation impacts not only a company’s reputation but also potential compliance issues associated with insurance, intellectual property, and privacy laws for example.

As a first step, we can help by providing a “snapshot” of your company’s current image  We do this based on our understanding of insurance, how social media are being used and our knowledge of what and where to look for information and place in its proper context.  We create an independent, impartial Social Media Profile of your company so you can see yourself as cyberspace sees you.  In a report that usually takes only a few days to complete, you will discover, in a systematic manner, the following:

• Who is posting comments and information, what they are saying, and the direction conversations are taking.  We sort out the significant, the important, from the chatter.
• How to identify negative or risky activity with potentially adverse consequences.
• A cost-efficient process to monitor social media conversations on your own.

The Social Media Profile is your first step towards monitoring, managing, and maintaining your company’s good image in social media.

The Social Media Management Program

Even if you have begun researching how best to get started, our Social Media Management process can help you develop the most effective program or improve one already in development or in place.  The program cuts through the hype and technical jargon and fast-tracks, often in no more than 3-4 weeks, the development of an effective, risk-averse social media program that addresses three critical components:  communications, legal* (see below), and technical.   The program is tailored to take full advantage of an insurer’s unique style, distribution models, and market profile, and can be implemented in phases at the company’s discretion.

The program starts with a THW&A team meeting face-to-face with company executives, including the chief communications and IT officers, legal counsel, human resources, claims, and others to understand how the company communicates with its various stakeholders and to determine what guidelines are already in place.  We develop specific strategies and procedures to add appropriate social media sites to the existing communications mix.   We identify topics and techniques to create thought-provoking, value-added content and to detail ways the company can “converse” rather than pitch, listen and respond, and stay true to the company’s core values.  We pay particular attention to areas often overlooked, such as compliance issues, and provide technical advice to maintain the integrity of a company’s information infrastructure.

The legal challenges connected with social media receive special attention.  We support this by first helping a company understand the inherent areas of exposure that come with a medium that is spontaneous, public, and published.  This lays a foundation for the next step which is to establish clear objectives for using specific social media sites and adoption of corporate guidelines for using them.  Insurers and producers need to develop best practices and guidelines to minimize the risks and strengthen compliance in the use of social media.  We can develop acceptable use guidelines from scratch, or review and make recommendations on those already developed.

Lastly, we detail how an insurer can monitor and measure its social media activity effectively and at low-cost.  Monitoring and measuring the company’s social media activity is a constant process which should follow the conversations about the company, the competition, and specific insurance issues.  It also serves as a way of measuring customer satisfaction on a real-time basis.

THW&A’s approach is unique in helping insurers address the communications, legal*, and technical issues and how they affect insurers specifically.  We believe this approach is the best way, and indeed the only way to use social media in a regulated industry.

*Legal reviews and assistance are provided independently through Bruce Foudree, principal at the insurance law firm of Boundas, Skarzynski, Walsh & Black, LLC.  Mr Foudree is a former Iowa Insurance Commissioner and a past president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

The Social Media Tune-Up

For those companies already using social media, we offer a one or two-day review of an existing program to identify tactical changes to boost productivity and reduce risks.

The Social Media Training Program

Our Social Media Training Program provides participants with an instructional roadmap for navigating various social media options in a risk-averse manner , i.e., practical “how-to” guidance for the individuals who blog, tweet and otherwise post on an insurer’s behalf.

The training is customized to match a company’s particular social media strategies and procedures.   If blogging is part of your social media arsenal, our program will include information about the purposes and goals of blogging, terminology, the increasingly authoritative nature of blogs, quick tips and best practices for writing a blog, developing “blog cred,” strategies for increasing readership, ways to beat blogger’s block, the Google effect and more. Individualized training includes discussion of sample blogs and writing and review of practice blogs.

Our training program also demonstrates writing styles and linking strategies for Twitter, Facebook and a host of other insurance-focused web communities and social media venues.