Insurance and Social Networking
Wikipedia refers to Web 2.0 as “web development and web design that facilitates interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web”. For the insurance industry that thrives on information and communication, one would consider the advent of new technologies that enable social networking, a web 2.0 tool, a godsend. But has the insurance industry adopted social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn etc. with the expected gusto? Probably not, if industry analysts’ reports are anything to go by.
As I see it, the insurance industry is probably the best suited to leverage social networking to the fullest for a variety of reasons (not in any particular order)
• A huge workforce – both direct (employees, career agents) and indirect (insurance brokers, other channels)
• A demanding client base of various ages, financial background
• Dependence on paper and people – for underwriting and servicing insurance policies
• Operational areas working in silos – limited room for collaboration
• A constant need to liaise with various partners - doctors, labs, Motor Vehicle Office, Claims Adjusters, regulators etc.
• A large variety and amount of information to share with its internal and external constituents - changes in rules, policy updates, new product launches, rate quotes and the like.
But many insurers feel they have gone the full distance after they set up a wiki site to enhance internal communication. Why is it so?
One reason for the limited adoption of social networking tools from the carrier side could be the insurance industry’s traditionally conservative approach to new technologies and business practices. And then there is the question of security - social networking often involves sharing sensitive and personal information.
Any thoughts on insurance-specific inhibitors that could be holding back the insurers in whole-heartedly embracing social networking?
Comments
One possible reason in India, why Insurers like LIC still hold themselves back from embracing the Social Networking tools, is, that they still do not understand the full fledged benefits of Social Networking sites. These age old firms have recently turned computerized and it was already a mammoth task for the management to teach the staff about how to use computers to finish day to day operations. Being so new in this world of WWW may be they still need to go a long way understanding about the business usage of Social Networking tools available.
Posted by: Supreet | September 15, 2009 6:19 PM
Social network analysis views social relationships in terms of network theory about nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. The resulting graph-based structures are often very complex. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. Research in a number of academic fields has shown that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.
Posted by: social networking software development | September 18, 2009 4:03 PM
Bloggers who utilize a social network to maintain a blog should also carefully consider the potential audience for the blog.
Posted by: social network design | September 22, 2009 6:02 AM
Social Media or Social Networking in insurance has taken large leaps in the last 12 months. According to a Nielsen study, Twitter had 20.9 million unique visitors in June 2009, compared with about 1 million
unique visitors during the same period. Social Media Marketing is redefining the way internet insurance marketing is being done: Blogs, Youtube, wiki, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, InsuranceNetworking etc. Some of the leaders in the insurance industry are
(a) GEICO-cavemanscrib.com, mygreatrides.com
(b) Progressive – Pet gallery, Facebook page
(c) Allstate- allstategarage.co.
Insurers have taken this seriously enough- a leading insurer in the US has appointed a President of Social Networking!!
Incidentally, one of the leading technology providers globally has a tool which can 'listen' to conversations about your company, and can provide abalytics on the same.
Posted by: Partha Panda | October 5, 2009 11:41 AM
Good post Sanjaya...you're right, there hasn't been many Insurance agents/brokers/companies using Social Media effectively
And hence I decided to dedicate my book to this industry...the book is appropriately titled Social Media For Insurance Brokers
In fact the book/website was just launched 4 days back and we've got overwhelming response (16 sales in less than 4 days)
You may wish to check out the website here: http://SocialMediaForInsuranceBrokers.com
Have a fabulous day ahead!
Ash
Posted by: Ash Patel | December 7, 2009 6:17 AM
You are quite right about your reasons why Insurance must embrace social media. Insurance is renowned though as being slow on the uptake and those who embrace this before the pack will be overall winners!
Posted by: Car Insurance | February 19, 2010 11:28 AM
Insurance Companies are taking a stride towards embracing Socialmedia in a big way. The traditional chanels like email, phone became static, and highly formal, and the consumers want to switch to "agile" interactions via Socialweb.
Its the turn of Insurance companies now to follow the new Consumer Decision Journey by setting up social channels such as Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn. At Virtuos, we have floated a new division to handle the Socialweb, SocialXRM, Communities & Idealabs along with SocialMobile.
Posted by: Venky Vijay | December 14, 2010 6:35 PM