The insurance industry happily plods along as befits an industry
that essentially hasn’t changed for 300 years. There is the occasional moment
of excitement or panic such as with the emergence of Insurtech but once
startups stopped talking about “disruption” and replaced that with “partnering”
things calmed down.
Previous to Insurtech, social media very briefly threatened to
be disruptive with policy-holders taking control of the message. With anyone
capable of becoming a publisher, negative stories could go viral in an instant
with insurers unable to challenge the veracity constrained by compliance and
natural inertia. Well, it didn’t happen, or not to the level feared and people
have reverted to using social media to stalk family members and discuss the
menace of dog owners that don’t clean up after their pets.
But social media also promised an intriguing upside; inexpensive
or even free direct access to customers. By 2015, over 100 million people had
signed up as ‘fans’ of insurance companies on Facebook in the US. Insurers
scrambled to exploit the opportunity, creating new forms of content and
learning how to manipulate social platform algorithms. However, the upside or
at least the free part was short-lived as platform vendors decided that their
investors wanted to see revenue.
Eight years on, few insurers have closed social media accounts
and continue developing and posting content to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
now Instagram. But it’s no longer free or even inexpensive, content creation is
expensive, as is getting that content in front of the right audience. Add to
that the cost of educating or supporting local agents, the increasing cost of
necessary tools and the growing expense and time needed to collect and analyze
data. Social media is now, like the industry itself, starting to plod along as
a nice but not critical add-on to marketing and public relations.
The growing cost of social media demands
greater scrutiny and it is increasingly common for senior executives to ask for
increased justification. As part of this examination, it is appropriate to ask deep
and uncomfortable questions.
The growing cost of social media demands
greater scrutiny and it is increasingly common for senior executives to ask for
increased justification. As part of this examination, it is appropriate to ask
deep and uncomfortable questions. How much original content needs to be
produced? Should local agents be supported on social media and for what
benefit? Do Facebook pages provide value? Can visual platforms like
Instagram really help insurers reach millennials? and of course, what are other
insurers doing on social media and does that create a competitive advantage?
Social media has a role to play, in no small part as an
influencer channel. But marketing through influencers, be it agents, employees,
or partners and gaining implicit endorsement is more challenging than paying
for targeted ads. Taking the case of local agents, they have proven to be an
essential but very unpredictable social media route to the customer. Agents
have other priorities and, as a group, not totally convinced of the benefits.
Even those agents that show favor towards social media are inundated with
similar content from multiple insurers. There are just so many times agents can
offer advice on frozen water pipes. Insurers need to provide
differentiated content around a strategy to maximize distribution and influence
but most importantly help agents drive business.
It is time to step back, conduct a competitive social media
audit, reposition overall strategy, business goals, and budget requirements.
The Customer Respect Group have reviewed the social
media activities and strategies for more than 400 insurance companies over 9
years. While the most practical aspects of social media have changed, the
fundamentals are the same. It is fair to say that we have seen and
reviewed thousands of social media initiatives and probably seen every technique, campaign, and
initiative. Our ability to conduct Social Media Audit is unrivaled.
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