Unmetric, the social media benchmarking company, releases the results of its a new report detailing which insurance companies have done the best job establishing a meaningful presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The report: “Who's Covered? Insurance Social Media Showdown,” assesses more than just raw number of fans. It breaks down how insurance carriers across the U.S. are building, updating, and engaging their communities through social media.

Unmetric examines the activity of the 13 most active American insurance companies on social media over a two-month period, from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, 2012. Unmetric gave each insurance company a score based on a blend of quantitative and qualitative metrics, weighted and averaged to produce a single number ranging from zero to 100 for each social network—one score for Facebook, one for Twitter, and one for YouTube. These scores are based on metrics such as content strategy, engagement, growth, timing, and frequency of posts, tweets and videos on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

“Today, social media is a natural extension of physical communities into the online world,” says Unmetric CEO, Lux Narayan. “Insurance agents have always been skilled at building and maintaining long-lasting relationships, so it's no surprise these companies have taken to social media like a fish to water.”

Farmers Insurance leads the competition with over 2.3 million fans on Facebook. Second place goes to MetLife, which claims 554,438 fans. Enthusiasm for Farmers on Facebook doesn't translate to Twitter or YouTube. This may be due to the fact that Farmers sponsored Facebook's Farmville in 2011 and saw extreme fan growth; millions of people 'liked' the page in return for free digital goods. The company pales in comparison to USAA and GEICO, which lead on Twitter and YouTube with over 35,000 followers and 17,000 subscribers respectively.

Although Farmers, USAA and GEICO boast the most social relationships overall, Liberty Mutual has had the most success in growing its fan base, according to Unmetric. The company has experienced a 170 percent growth in Facebook fans and 84 percent growth in Twitter followers over the time period measured.

While earning fans is certainly a step toward asserting popularity, engaging with them is what sets one company apart from the next. Unmetric weighted all the likes, comments, shares, and estimated impressions generated by each company on Facebook to determine which insurance companies see the most engagement with their fans. Despite having the smallest following of any company measured, Travelers Insurance led the way with an average engagement score of 303. By comparison, the next closest company, USAA, earns only 124, followed by MetLife, which rounds out the top three with a score of 105. The average U.S. insurance page earns an average engagement score of 61.

As far as what content is grabbing the attention of fans, for the insurance industry, posts focusing on corporate social responsibility are not only the most popular, but also earn the highest average engagement scores. For example, a post from American Family Insurance offered 50,000 meals for the hungry in exchange for 20,000 Likes.

Engagement on social media is just as much reactive as it is proactive. To determine the most reactive brands on social media, Unmetric broke down reply metrics for each company on Facebook and Twitter. Esurance is the most responsive brand on Facebook, responding to a whopping 76.5 percent of incoming posts. The company takes four hours and ten minutes on average to respond, second only to State Farm, which replies in just under four hours.

Looking at Twitter, Farmers is quickest to reply, in an average of two hours and 28 minutes, followed by American Family with an average of just over three and a half hours. While Farmers is quick to reply, State Farm actually replies to tweets twice as often. Interestingly, State Farm publicly apologized 41 times during the time period measured. By comparison, Allstate and GEICO posted the second most apologies, each with six.

The insurance industry has long honed the art of the TV commercial to make their products and services relatable. Despite strong showings from Progressive and Allstate, GEICO is the leader on YouTube. The company garnered nearly 50 million video views and over 17,000 subscribers in the time period measured.

Unmetric also took a look at the popular mascots that have popped up in more recent years to humanize the insurance industry. Flo from Progressive, Mayhem from Allstate and the GEICO Gecko each maintain separate Facebook pages from their parent companies. Flo dominates in terms of popularity and growth, with nearly five million fans and a steady growth rate of 4.9 percent. Mayhem from Allstate has the most engagement with fans, earning an average engagement score of 219.

Here's a breakdown of some gathered during the sample period:

Facebook

Unmetric Score

1. MetLife – 58

2. Farmers – 56

3. Liberty Mutual – 48

4. USAA – 41

5. Allstate – 37

Total Fans

1. Farmers – 2,312,884

2. MetLife – 554, 438

3. USAA – 287,723

4. GEICO – 278,214

5. State Farm – 270,606

Growth

1. Liberty Mutual – 169.9%

2. Allstate – 67.4%

3. American Family – 34.6%

4. Esurance – 15.2%

5. Travelers – 7%

Highest Engagement (Calculation of Likes, Comments, Shares, and Impressions that each FB post receives)

1. Travelers – 303

2. USAA – 124

3. MetLife – 105

4. American Family – 89

5. Nationwide – 69

Response Rate

1. Esurance – 76.5%

2. MetLife – 61.5%

3. Allstate – 48.9%

4. State Farm – 45.1%

5. USAA – 41.2%

Average Reply Time (HH:MM:SS)

1. State Farm – 3:53:00

2. Esurance – 4:09:00

3. American Family Insurance – 5:17:00

4. Nationwide Insurance – 7:02:00

5. MetLife – 7:34:00

Twitter

Unmetric Score

1. @Allstate – 64

2. @StateFarm – 63

3. @WeAreFarmers – 56

4. @Nationwide – 48

5. @amfam – 47

Total Followers

1. @USAA – 35,904

2. @Allstate – 29,730

3. @StateFarm – 28,576

4. @Nationwide – 15,959

5. @Progressive – 15,394

Growth

1. @esurance – 11.1%

2. @StateFarm – 10.2%

3. @USAA – 8.6%

4. @WeAreFarmers – 8%

5. @GEICO_Service – 7.9%

Average Reply Time (HH:MM:SS)

1. @WeAreFarmers – 2:28:00

2. @amfam – 3:33:00

3. @Nationwide – 3:47:00

4. @TRV_Insurance – 3:51:00

5. @StateFarm – 4:17:00

YouTube

Unmetric Score

1. GEICO – 76

2. Allstate – 65

3. MetLife – 59

4. State Farm – 54

5. Progressive – 49

Total Video Views

1. GEICO – 48,828,698

2. Allstate – 26,738,065

3. State Farm – 22,569,700

4. Progressive – 14,161,451

5. Nationwide – 3,122,372

YouTube Viewership Growth

1. Liberty Mutual – 84.1%

2. American Family – 54.5%

3. Progressive – 13.3%

4. Nationwide – 12.9%

5. USAA – 9.7%

Total Channel Subscribers

1. GEICO – 17,576

2. Allstate – 8,541

3. State Farm – 7,064

4. Progressive – 3,835

5. USAA – 1,187

Channel Subscriber Growth

1. USAA – 17.4%

2. American Family – 17.3%

3. Nationwide – 14.9%

4. Liberty Mutual – 12.4%

5. MetLife – 11.7%

Mascot Facebook Showdown

Unmetric Score

1. Flo from Progressive – 74

2. Mayhem from Allstate– 41

3. GEICO Gecko – 30

Facebook Fans

1. Flo from Progressive – 4,699,955

2. Mayhem from Allstate– 1,407,479

3. GEICO Gecko – 292,705

Facebook Growth

1. Flo from Progressive – 4.9%

2. Mayhem from Allstate– 2.6%

3. GEICO Gecko – 1.7%

Highest Engagement (Calculation of Likes, Comments, Shares, and Impressions that each FB post receives)

1. Mayhem from Allstate – 219

2. GEICO Gecko – 46

3. Flo from Progressive – 21

Overall

Combined Unmetric Score

1. Allstate – 166

2. State Farm – 148

3. GEICO – 145

4. Farmers Insurance – 130

5. MetLife – 129

Special Reports /

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