The financial world, blogosphere and just about everywhere elsehas been waiting with bated breath over the last several days withthe news that Facebook would be doing an IPO. The deal finally went down yesterday, to the tune of $5 billion,opening the door to more speculation as to whether we might be onthe cusp of a new tech IPO boom.

Whether or not the offering will usher in a new dot.com era,however, is a moot point. The real interest in Facebook's successlies in an issue that's dear to the heart of insurance:understanding young customers.

Nothing illustrates more clearly the power of Millennialsthan the Mark Zuckerberg story. Many news accounts of the FacebookIPO start with the awed comment: “What started in a Harvarddorm room eight years ago is on its way to being the biggesttech IPO ever.”

Granted, Zuckerberg is not your average 20-something–he'sa multilingual computer programming prodigy who as a kidcreated video games instead of playing them and was known forquoting from the Iliad at college. But he's alsoa true product of his generation, weaned on technology and thecollaborative, team-focused methodology of the modern educationsystem.

Zuckerberg's true genius lies not in his technical or businessskills, but his ability to tap into the basic human need toconnect. And although he invented neither the need nor theInternet, Zuckerberg (and others, some might argue) was savvyenough to build a platform around networking and developingpersonal relationships–something any good insurance salespersonunderstands.

An interesting study came out from Bazaarvoice this week looking at Millennials and branding. The upshot was thatalthough they still respond to branding when making a purchase,Millennials are more likely to rely on their peers' opinionsin the form of user-generated content (UGC). More thanhalf (51 percent) of the survey respondents said they trustUGC more than information on a company website (16 percent) ornews articles (14 percent) when researching a brand, productor service.

When shopping for financial services products such as insuranceand credit cards, 29 percent of Millennials say they won't completethe purchase without first consulting user-generated content.

Millennials are also three times as likely to turn tosocial media for opinions on products, not just from theirpersonal connections, but from experts and people with commoninterest.

For businesses, the message is clear: put customer opinionsfront and center and take action on suggestions forimprovements (a great consumer example of this is how Domino's pizza changedits products based on negative customer feedback, turningthe rebrand into a marketing coup).

I don't know about you, but I'm a big user of UGC onplatforms like Yelp, andthese survey results sound like some pretty smart thinking tome. It simply reinforces what insurance agents have known allalong: business is driven by relationships and word of mouth.The advent of social media hasn't changed this, simply made iteasier to forge the relationships and access the information.

It's estimated that by 2017, Millennials will have morespending power than any other generation. Visionaries likeZuckerberg have helped make it easier to tap into these buyers, butit's up to us to be as social, transparent and engagingas they need us to be.