SOCIAL MEDIA
Opportunity & Challenge
Presentation for the 6th CEE Communication Meeting Generali PPF
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Contents
− Change is the new normal – different quality
− The brave new world or how internet changed everything and everyone
− A bit of theory for start, graphical views and research
− Corporate fear of reputation risk
− When world of insurance meets social media
− Best practice

“Suffer a sea of change,
into something rich and strange”

What has changed in your
world?
- New trends in corporate communication
- Status of CSR
- Specifics of the financial industry, fin. institutions and fin. PR
- Credibility shift
- Huge media changes – traditional and online

How credible is the story you
hear?
Communication Directory May 2011

Bottom Line
Fiercer market conditions seek more effort to make success, wide
intelligence, targeted approach, precise answer to your target
groups` needs and empowerment through embracing
changes that have taken place.

Welcome to the brave new world!
http://bit.ly/bUnpsV
http://bit.ly/dOXdlv
A world in which word ―social‖
became equaly imporant as the
world ―media‖ and information
monopoly is gone!
http://bit.ly/mL3pRK

Internet has changed
everything
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I79Jmgb8nyw
Especially since social media appeared, and social networks as a part of them

What is changed?
It`s still only a TV commercial, played through a different channel.
Yes, but it can be
seen (or not) as
many times as we
want!
It can be shared
with friends
It can be
commented on
It can be connected
with other similar
clips

All of it will happen...
...only if it is good! (fun, viral, sticky...)

By now we should know
what`s going on
His Highness the Client is choosing! (and is aware of that)

What is our situation?
Competitive advantage is as light as a butterfly's
dream!
To be competitive in your niche, you have to be
different!

What we all have been told
1. about internet publicity and online reputation
2. about two-way communication
3. about user generated content
4. about attention economy...
• You are in the business of selling insurance.
• Social networks and media can help you.
• If you use them in a right way, points 1-4 are implied.

What does a guru say?
Social media is a crucial tool for business sucess today
By becoming part of conversation in a more
meaningful way, you can start connecting
directly to your customers and clients and
finding new ones rigft away... easily and
inexpensively!

A bit of theory for starters
Social media are media for social interaction, using highly
accessible publishing techniques. Social media use
web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive
dialogues.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
In plain words: they are online communities that gather people of
similar interests and activities

Graphical view
Social media tipology

Keywords & Essence
Social media is a group of
Internet based applications
that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of
Web 2.0,
which allows
the creation and exchange of
user-generated content
(Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein)

And a last bit of theory
• Social networks
A social network service is an online service, platform, or site that
focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or
social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or
activities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_service
• In plain words: online communities where internet users meet
and socialize while sharing messages and contents

Are social networks a 21st
century invention?
Of course not, they are only a technological solution that enables different
and spatially unlimited communication

I want to share with you...
... the Force is with you!
It is only a mouse click away.

How to achieve sparkles?
The traditional marketing rules cannot be applied to social media
because social media is not a marketer‟s platform. It belongs to
consumers.
Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or
business through social media channels, and it is a powerful strategy
that will get you links, attention, and massive amount in traffic.
Your activities in social media should focus
on and support your communication and
business goals.

What„s your biggest fear?
− Economist study from 2011 shows the biggest corporate fear and
#1 concern across the globe is the reputation risk.
− Like with competition, the fears too we need to get to know in
order to overcome and fight efficiently.
− Remember: minimal risks bring minimal ROI.
We should try and manage reputation to both build differentiation
against peers and competitors and also to manage the company with
an informed view of the risks of our actions that might start to create
weakness or collapse of our ―Roman Arch‖
(Nir Kossovsky, Mission Intangible)

When a good idea goes bad
− Criticism and bad comments from the clients
− Competition generated harm or collateral damage
− Misuse of the channels
− Your examples?
The key challenge is not to decide whether or not your
company should go online and public, but which combination
of channels and tools is most adequate to provide forceful
support to communication strategy / business objectives.

Ignoring social media does not secure calm waters, but
rather makes you lag behind competition and even be
more prone to crisis and danger because of
unpreparedness.

How to choose the right path?
− Learn all about the media you are to use: have organized
presence, train your team, and be proactive.
− Be honest and try not to be boring.
− Get to know the ―online community‖ and bring them ―off line‖.
− Monitor your online reputation.
− Think before you react and when you do, that should be adapted
to the cause and source.
− Be open for communication, innovative and get as close to your
clients´ thinking as possible.
− And once again: learn and develop with the online world.

What is current situation in the
world of insurance?
Only 20% of insurers use social media today and more than 50% of
life carriers do not have policies and procedures established for social
media (Source Limra http://bit.ly/iueJkO )
Why should this number be higher?
1. People trust their friends for advice – 60% of Facebook fans
and 7% of Twitter followers say they are more likely to buy and
recommend a brand than before they were a fan or follower.
2. The share of people who they trust, more than they trust brands
or organizations, is increasing globally each year.
3. The things that your customer support agents, marketers, PR staff
and recruiters say about you matter less than the things that your
customers and employees say about you.
(Source: “Why Social Media Matters to Your Business”, Chadwick Martin Bailey)

What can an insurance
company do on SM?
Social media create significant opportunities, threats & risks for
insurers
• Dramatically decreasing costs of establishing a new brand;
• Major evolution of Customer Experience Management – a greater
integration of sales, marketing and service;
• Innovative product development applications that affect product
launch, customer education & feedback from customers on new offers;
• Increasing precision and improved economics in recruiting, on-
boarding, training and development;
• Operating model enhancements based on improved internal
communication and collaboration.
(Source: "Accenture Blog on Insurance" [.pdf] http://bit.ly/iselRn)

What can an insurance
company do on SM?
The key elements that insurers need to address include in
online strategy:
1. Creating an overall social media policy, with written procedures
and processes to show evidence of compliance, that can be rolled out
to all distribution and service people;
2. Designing processes and procedures for producers from
registration, training, ongoing monitoring and approval;
3. Designing content templates including risk profile capture,
product overview, and prospectuses, possibly with a real-time
approval flow;
4. Creating an ongoing monitoring capability—to be used by the
company’s registered principals or its compliance department—to
track producers’ social content information for non-compliant sales
practices.
(Source: "Accenture Blog on Insurance" [.pdf] http://bit.ly/iselRn)

What can an insurance
company do on SM?
Fragmented approaches to social media create significant additional
risks for insurers, including:
• Inability to ensure regulatory compliance across business units and
regulatory jurisdictions
• Inconsistent customer experiences across products
• Redundant investments in technologies and human resources
• Inability to consolidate the voice of the customer across channels,
products and segments
• Fragmented or missing customer data
(Source: "Accenture Blog on Insurance" [.pdf] http://bit.ly/iselRn)

Best practice:
State Farm Insurance, website
Besides standard insurance
and banking services
information,
www.statefarm.com website
offers:
• Educational center for
young drivers
• ―Be safe‖ section about
home protection
• Be safe at work, etc.
• On the home page there
are links to all networks
where people can follow their
activities.

Best practice example:
State Farm Insurance, Facebook
Facebook presence is divided
into two profiles:
• Corporate StateFarm Incurance
http://www.facebook.com/statef
arm (about 97k followers) i
brand Statefarm Nation
http://www.facebook.com/StateF
armNation (over 950k)
• The first is about insurance
information, while the other
containts entertaining and
educative contents, and
promotional campaigns
• "TopCar" poromotional cartoon
was created with cars as
characters, that have an accident
and Statefarm safety car comes
to repair them.

Good practice example:
State Farm Insurance, Twitter
Twitter accounts
• Divided like Facebook
accounts
• One is more serious
http://twitter.com/#!/StateF
arm and the other a bit less
http://twitter.com/#!/StateF
armNation
• They respond to tweets,
but if someone has a
problem or a question, they
refer them to the call center

Good practice example:
State Farm Insurance, Youtube
Youtube accounts
• Youtube video channel with
commercials primarily aimed at
younger population
• Video blog #FailFriday (clips
that compare two fails;
Statefarm is sponsoring them) -
each clip has around one million
views
• #FailFriday is becoming big on
Twitter, and a couple of days ago
people sharing their accident
stories where the company
helped them.

Good practice example:
State Farm Insurance, CSR
Facebook activitites that promote Educational microsite connected to
safe teenage driving, because it is social media www.26seconds.com
the most imporant death cause at
that age http://on.fb.me/jsyN7l because every 26 seconds one of
USA high school students drop out

10 things your grandmother can teach you about social media
The same personal qualities and social skills that you learned growing up are what will make you
successful at social media. Here are 10 things an older relative probably taught you that you can apply to
social media, too.
1. Mind your manners. Social media is social. Even though it is virtual space, the same traditional
social rules, laws, still apply. If you act like a jerk, don't expect many friends.
2. Tuck in your shirt. How you present yourself is just as important in the virtual world as it is in the
real world. Make sure you are always aware of how you appear to others.
3. Send a thank you card. People still appreciate being appreciated and when you turn acquaintance to
a friend, it brings more value, so show human interaction and gratitude.
4. Keep your elbows off the table. Acting respectfully in front of others proves that you value them,
which will usually make them value you more. And here, it's all about value.
5. Turn your music down. Don't contribute to the noise and do`nt be distraction to others.
6. Finish what you started. Engagement is a commitment. If you put yourself out there as a friend, be
prepared to be there when people reach out to you.
7. Finish your vegetables. There are some aspects of social media that aren't sexy. But that doesn't
mean they aren't important to your growth and health. Make sure you are not just chasing that buzz.
8. Whatever happened to a good old fashioned…? Sometimes all these new gadgets are not enough
and a good old fashioned email, call, or live contact can accomplish things that social media can't.
9. A man is only as good as his word. The currency of social media is trust (or social capital). And if
people can't trust you, you have no value to them.
10. Think twice before you speak. Everything you say can be heard by anyone, forever, there are just
too many ―finites‖ to not reconsider everything you say before you say it.

Thank you for your
attention
questions, suggestions, impressions?
For further info
www.chapter4.rs
www.internetagencija.rs