Takeaways from a Trip to Twitter

Will Google Glasses Put Insurance in Focus?  IUL?  FIA?

I recently had the privilege of participating on a trip to the San Francisco corporate offices of Twitter and Google with a small group organized by LIMRA. There’s no substitute for actually visiting firms like this in person and having a free form discussion. Clearly, we all had very defined motives. We wanted to learn how to more effectively use their platforms for insurance marketing and sales. They wanted to sell us more ads in the future. Here are my five takeaways from a 12-hour day in the bay area:

1) Get on Google+. Even though the potential audience may be small, it’s imperative for a businesses to have a Google+ presence and link back to the corporate website. Google didn’t tell us that cross-linking improved search. But it’s clear that the Internet company’s long term strategy will benefit those who have linked their content through a Google+ as well as other platforms.

2) Don’t give up on Twitter. Twitter may be one of the most intimidating social media platforms for our insurance business. However, it also holds the most promise. The ability to openly start discussions with deeply passionate groups in the insurance community has yet to be tapped. Twitter also offers us the means to target micro-segments in ways we never have before – by geography, by profile, by interests, by device. 

3) Google may take a long time to adapt for us. Google+ still does not have the APIs in place to make archiving easy by third party vendors. The company now clearly understands why we want them. But priorities will be set by the needs of the consumer market, not our insurance community. For now, build your strategy assuming that you will only have the same tools at your disposal as a regular Google+ account holder.

4) Twitter is betting on long-term success in insurance. Twitter has built an astonishingly deep subject matter expertise in our industry and is focused on commercial application in our market. I was
pleasantly surprised as to how much a startup really understands our needs.
Their team could take insurance by storm in the not to distant future.

5) Network, network, network. Given the rapid change in technology, marketing strategy, and regulation, it’s critical for like-minded individuals in insurance business to share best practices. This is
the only way we can keep insurance relevant for the next generation of agents and consumers.

LIMRA, the industry association, deserves enormous credit for getting us actively in front of the social media wave. In particular, Jim Kerley, Steve Selby and Jim Huffman deserve a round of thanks for pushing us all out of our comfort zones. The dividends for the industry will be enormous
in the coming years.

Betting on Mobile without Betting the Farm

In a recent study, LIMRA found that in just four years, producers’ ownership of mobile devices with Internet access grew from 22% in 2008 to 62% in 2012.* Ownership is highest among the most important demographic group of our industry -- younger producers.  So what's the best way to make a bet on mobile technology in your firm without running the risk of banking on the wrong platform. 

1. Encourage your employees and agents to bring their own devices to work.  IT departments bristled just a few years ago about the idea of employees wanting to take “random” technology to work and then hoping to link to the network.  Yes, opening your doors to a range of devices can drive up costs and create security concerns. If done thoughtfully, though, it will lead you to email, networking, and storage solutions that are independent of this year’s hot device and probably give you an unexpectedly better disaster recovery plan. You will also end up with a more mobile-savvy workforce that will be bring you new ideas on how to leverage mobile for new business opportunities.
2. Make your all of your websites mobile-friendly. Most of the time, we’re just happy when our website looks good on a desktop and we stop there.  We all need to recognize that it’s more and more common for people to access sites from either tablets or phones. Many of the most popular website hosting and content management systems will offer mobile-specific renditions of your site. I’d actually recommend, though, that you first start by simplifying the menu options on your website and streamlining the content. Do you really need seven navigation buttons at the top of your page?
3. Treat your marketing materials like portable assets. In today’s content-hungry world, your ideas are worth their weight in gold.  But the collateral needs to be designed so it’s accessible in a variety of ways.  When you introduce a new prospecting idea or a better way to present a retirement funding plan, don’t just stop with a PowerPoint. Think about how you take the idea and convert into a video, a podcast, a blog, 10 tweets, and a graphic. Don’t just put it on your website, put it on web applications like SlideShare that people can access on LinkedIn. This way, you can react quickly to changing platforms when content is independent of systems.
4. Find good partners who can share in the development expenses. Don’t walk the mobile path alone if you don’t have to. Reach out to your carriers to see what they are doing in the space and how you can leverage it. Many companies are piloting beta projects and would like to find partners who are eager to try new technology and give active feedback.
5. Talk to your clients and see what they expect.  When it comes to technology, consumers historically haven’t been good predictors of future demand for devices and technology they haven’t seen.  However, this wave of technology has been driven truly by them, not us. Do a quick online poll and ask them what mobile services and feature they will expect from an insurance professional in the coming years. Then listen closely and act quickly.

* From Connected to Mobile: Producer Use of Technology by Mary M. Art; Norah Denley, 8/17/2012