Joanna Belbey is social media and compliance specialist with Actiance.

Insurance agents and carriers have long relied on in-person relationships and word of mouth to build awareness and trust with their audience, which in many cases, leads to new customers. However, when harnessed effectively, social media provides agents with an opportunity to develop and deepen personal relationships by engaging with those they may never meet face-to-face.

Over the past few years, the corporate marketing departments of insurance companies have used social media in an attempt to build awareness, trust, and find new customers. According to a report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (The Use of Social Media in Insurance), one common approach is to incentivize consumers to “like” them by donating a dollar to a worthy cause. The rationale is that by clicking the “like” button on a company Facebook page, that “like” is broadcast to their social network, and their online friends of the “liker” may be inclined to do the same. Although this may build corporate awareness, and please senior management with large numbers of “likes”, it's hard to believe that this generates any significant revenues that can be measured.

On the other hand, agents can effectively leverage social media in personal ways to engage with their existing clients while building their list of prospects and personal brand. After all, people are most interested and willing to buy insurance during a major life event, such as an engagement, wedding, new baby, etc.

For example, June is traditionally graduation and wedding month, a time when people are planning for their financial future and security. Social networks allow agents to recognize, congratulate, and engage with people at just the right time, when they are thinking about their financial future. However, tone is important; an agent should be helpful, listen, and engage in a conversation rather than just 'sell.'

Before diving into social media, agents must realize that adhering to industry and state recordkeeping regulations is just as important with social as it is with other communications. Each electronic communication is a 'business record' and needs to be logged as such.

Underscoring this is the NAIC statement, “When an insurer or producer is responsible for the content of a specific social media communication, then the insurer or producer is also responsible for complying with state record-retention regulations relative to the subject communication.”

For this reason, many insurance firms, are opting toward third-party software solutions that allow them to leverage social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) with governance and management tools to remain compliant with state and industry regulatory requirements.

In developing a social media strategy for your insurance agents, consider variables such as who will use social media, various channels, the goal of social media for your business, and how to integrate social with other sales and marketing programs. Here are some tips for insurance companies to take to heart:

Social media is best when integrated with other marketing programs. It is really another communications channel, albeit one with some unique capabilities that allow for deeper engagement with others. It can reveal life events, personal milestones, goals, likes and dislikes, that help you understand your client base on a deeper, more personal level.
According to Forrester Research, 70 percent of US online adults trust brand or product recommendations from friends and family and 46 percent trust consumer-written online reviews, while just 10 percent trust ads on websites and 9 percent trust text messages from companies or brands. This is the essence of social media—trust through connection. That's why it is critical for the individual to connect to you, and for you to connect to the individual in order to carry the brand message. In the social media universe, you, your colleague, teammate and client are all 'the brand.'
Converting customers to evangelists is the highest achievement of social media. We have all heard stories about how buying decisions are influenced by online reviews and interactions. As people connected on social media are members of the same tribe, we tend to trust each other's opinions, over marketing materials presented by a company. Let your followers, friends or connections, sell for you.
Compelling content that is compliant with institutional and industry regulations is key. Start with a library of pre-approved content that agents may access and share with their contacts. This library may contain articles on the importance of protecting your assets, providing for your family, the security of guaranteed income or similar topics. Avoid equipping all your agents with the same content at the same time. That misses the opportunity to allow for their personal voice to develop.
Social media has redefined marketing, and as such, requires a different approach to measurement. Your number of followers on Twitter is an important metric, only if you are attracting the right followers. If they are the wrong type of follower your content is off base and needs to be refined. A hundred followers on LinkedIn may be all you need if they are they right followers and they are willing to share what you are saying with their followers. This could be more important than 1,000 Facebook friends. To identify those contacts that matter, you need to see who is saying what and who is doing what. One of the greatest lessons you can learn about social media is that active listening leads to active engagement. Listen to your contacts in real-time, assess their content and respond accordingly.

In summary, social media now empowers individual agents to enhance personal relationships with existing customers, and develop new prospects unfettered by geographic location. Agents can interact with their prospects during those special life events when people are willing to talk about their financial futures and most likely to buy. Social media even offers the opportunity for others to sell on your behalf.

However, like any new business tool, social media needs planning. Social media should be woven into your existing marketing strategy to be most effective, your corporate communications or marketing department needs to create compelling content for the agents to share, and legal, compliance, and other risks need to be mitigated. Training is essential. And finally, whatever strategy you pursue needs to be analyzed so it can be fine-tuned and improved on an ongoing basis.

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