This presentation was given at the 2010 IASA Annual Conference by Jennifer Overhulse-King of St. Nick Media Services and Craig Lowenthal of Glatfelter Insurance. It details the basics of social media, how insurance companies are using it, how technology and service providers can use it, the dangers of social media, privacy and regulatory concerns, and how to put a policy in place to regulate use by your company's employees.

1. Session # 276
Tweet, Tweet, Ping, Ping: Social
, , g, g
Media Strategies for Insurance
Monday, June 7
3:30 – 5:00 PM

2. Introduction
 Housekeeping Items
 Turn off cell phones, pagers, etc.
 Remember to fill out your session surveys
R b fill i
 Q&A at the end of the session
 Today’s Topic
 Tweet, Tweet, Ping, Ping: Social Media Strategies for Insurance

3. Jennifer Overhulse‐King, Principal Owner – St. Nick Media Services
Jennifer Overhulse‐King is the principal owner and founder of St. Nick
Media Services. She is a writer, as well as a marketing and public
relations expert, with more than 20 years of journalism background and
expertise. Jennifer began working with the insurance industry as a
copywriter for The National Underwriter Company, and she subsequently
held various marketing leadership positions with National Underwriter,
Tech Decisions, Claims Magazine, and Florida Underwriter. As principal
owner of St. Nick Media Services, Jennifer works with vendors and
insurance companies alike to tailor marketing, PR, advertising and sales
messages/efforts specifically for constituent groups important to the
insurance industry. She has recently published expert articles in
Insurance & Technology, Tech Decisions, Best’s Review, National
Underwriter, Insurance Networking News, AT&T’s Networking Exchange,
IASA’s Interpreter and the Journal of Insurance Operations. She is a
member of the Insurance Marketing Communications Association
(IMCA), the Insurance Accounting & Systems Association (IASA) and is
editor of IASA’s Interpreter.

5. June 7
June 7 June 7
June 7
Agenda (continued)
 What is social  Where do I start?
media?  How do I
 Why is social manage and
media maintain it?
important to the  Can I measure
insurance it?
industry?  What are the
Wh t th
 Do I need it? dangers?
 How can I use
it?

6. What is it?
What is it?
Social media is…
…user‐generated
content distributed
through social
through social
interactions
facilitated on an
almost real‐time
basis by the Internet
or other forms of
electronic
distribution.

7. What else is it?
What else is it?
 It’s a vehicle for electronic
advertising
 It’s a market research tool
 It’s a customer feedback mechanism
 It’s a networking platform
 It’s a thought leadership forum
 It’s a way to stay in touch with
remote offices or workers
remote offices or workers
 It’s a relationship builder
It can also be…
…a great waste of
time, money and resources!

8. Some statistics to consider…
Some statistics to consider
 More than 77% of all employees today have a Facebook account.
 More than 61% of employees access their account during work
hours.
A recent study by researchers at the University of Melbourne –
Australia indicates that workers who took the occasional “mental
break” at work by engaging in cyber‐socialization actually increased
productivity by approximately 9%. Do you believe it?
Whether you believe this or not, do not give employees
carte blanche with social media.
carte blanche with social media

9. Why should you monitor social
media use by employees?
 Potentially increase productivity
 Protect your company’s network from
dangerous downloads
 Reduce cyber‐slacking or time wasted
by employees online during work hours
 Prevent data leakage
 Ensure downloads are free of viruses
and other malware

10. Do I need it?
Do I need it?
 The short answer is…YES!
 Sheer numbers tell us that social media is not a fad, it’s here to stay.
 LinkedIn has over 60 million members in over 200 countries, plus
executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.
 In March 2010 alone, Twitter recorded 1,500% growth in the number
of registered users, and over 70,000 registered apps have been
created for the micro‐blogging platform to date.
Keep in mind…
K i i d
 It’s the way the next generation of consumers prefers to
communicate.
 Your competition is using it…
 Your prospects and current customers are using it…

11. “Social media is like teen sex
Social media is like teen sex.
Everyone wants to do it.
Nobody knows how.
b k h
When it’s finally done,
there is surprise it’s not
bette
better.”
‐Avinash Kaushik,
‐Avinash Kaushik
Analytics Evangelist – Google

12. OK, OK…social media is obviously the greatest thing since
OK OK social media is obviously the greatest thing since
sliced bread…but how can I use it?
 Brand recognition
 Tech support
 User group/forum
User group/forum
 Customer feedback mechanism
 Thought leadership
 Reinforce messaging
 Network with peers

13. Different strokes for different folks…
Different strokes for different folks
 Agents
 Community involvement
 Lead generation
 Carriers
 More effective underwriting
More effective underwriting
 Pre‐employment screening
 Fraud detection
 V d /S i P id
Vendors/Service Providers
 News portal
 User groups/forums
 Advertising/marketing channel

14. Where do I start?
Where do I start?
Set a policy in place.
Set a policy in place.
Resources:
1. Agents Council on Technology or ACT
(www.iiaba.net/act)
2. Insurance Marketplace Standards Association or IMSA
2 I M k l S d d A i i IMSA
(www.imsaethics.org)
3. (Insert shameless self promotion here.) St. Nick Media
(Insert shameless self promotion here.) St. Nick Media
Services

15. If you “legalize” it…you can regulate it!
If “l li ” i l i!

16. Where do I start?
Where do I start?
 Take time to gather competitive intelligence
 Listen Lurk Learn
Listen. Lurk. Learn.
 Examine available options
 Determine your comfort level
 “B f
“Before jumping into the deep end of the pool, always dip a toe
j i i h d d f h l l di
in to test the water. If we’re talking about having children, that
means get a dog. If we’re talking about involvement in social
media, that means get a blog.
media that means get a blog ”
 Define your purpose and goals
 Why do you want to participate in social media?
 Are there hard dollar targets tied to your goals?

17. Where do I start? (continued)
Where do I start? (continued)
 Identify internal resources
 Employees/SMEs
 Partners
 Industry Analysts
 Collaboratively set strategy
Collaboratively set strategy
 Involve the right internal groups or individuals
 Decide what vehicles will you use
 D id hi h t l ill b
Decide which tools will be most effective in helping you achieve
t ff ti i h l i hi
your goals

18. How do I manage/maintain it?
How do I manage/maintain it?
 Reinforce/Reuse Content & Messaging
 Make it consistent
 Take an outside in approach
 Deconstruct long complicated
messages
 Repurpose content
 Implement an integrated plan
 Tie new social media efforts back to
Tie new social media efforts back to
existing tools
 Pick a single starting place and own it
 B ild
Build a content calendar
t t l d
 Recruit contributors

19. How do I manage/maintain it?
How do I manage/maintain it?

20. How do I manage/maintain it?
How do I manage/maintain it?

21. Can I measure it?
Can I measure it?
 Common measurements  Oft‐overlooked measurements
 # of followers  Upsell opportunities
 # of friends  Click‐throughs to website or
 # of fans link
 Positive feedback provided
Positive feedback provided  Referrals
 Customer interactions  Conversions
 Activity/engagement level
 Brand mentions
Brand mentions
 Virality (retweets, sharing
content, etc.)

22. What do I do with the
information I
gather?
 Analyze your
measurements
 Test new strategies
Test new strategies
and ideas against
benchmarks
 Set new goals on a
Set new goals on a
regular basis
 Keep adding to your
mix

23. What is the downside? – The Dangers of Social Media
What is the downside? The Dangers of Social Media
 The biggest danger is inaction or lack of participation.
 Social media can also result in
Social media can also result in…
 Legal implications/liability
 Regulatory concerns/privacy
 UUnwanted friends/followers
d f i d /f ll
 Negative comments/feedback

24. What is the downside?
What is the downside?

25. Questions?
Jennifer Overhulse‐King
Principal Owner
St. Nick Media Services
St Nick Media Services
15695 Glencoe‐Verona Road
Verona, KY 41092
Phone: 859‐803‐6597
Email: jen@stnickmedia.com
www.twitter.com/stnickmedia
www.facebook.com/stnickmedia
www.linkedin.com/in/stnickmedia
And now, our next speaker, Craig Lowenthal of Glatfelter Insurance.

26. Craig Lowenthal, Social Media Strategist – Glatfelter Insurance Group
Craig Lowenthal has been a technology professional for 25 years, and
focused in the insurance industry for more than 21 years. Prior to joining
Glatfelter Insurance Group, Lowenthal was the CIO for NYMAGIC, INC. in
New York City. Before joining NYMAGIC, he was the Managing Principal
and Chief Information Officer for the startup, Integro Insurance Brokers.
Prior to joining Integro, Lowenthal was with Hartford Financial Products,
a unit of The Hartford, where he was Vice President and Chief
Information Officer. During his tenure there, he led the effort to
reestablish Hartford Financial Products business after the offices at 7
World Trade Center were lost on September 11, 2001. Before joining The
Hartford, he held a senior leadership position with Reliance National
Insurance Company, where he was Managing Vice President and Chief
Technology Officer for eleven years. He earned his BS in Accounting from
the State University of New York at Albany and is a CPA licensed in New
York. He is an active member in the Insurance Accounting & Systems
Association (IASA).

27. Most of the following content is based
on the research and findings from
g
The Customer Respect Group
21 Market Street
Ipswich, MA 01938
www.customerrespect.com

28. Social Media
Can t
Can’t ignore it
OR
it’s the biggest load of hype since…

29. Reasons to ignore social media

30. Reasons to ignore social media
g
How many of you have said this?

31. Social media is full of noise and confusion

32. …but the numbers are compelling
g
 Facebook has in excess of 400 million active users on global basis.
 Twitter now has 75 million user accounts.
 LinkedIn has
Li k dI h over 60 million members, an i
illi b increase of around 1 members per month.
f d 1m b th
 Facebook claims 200 million users log on every 24 hours
 The average Facebook user has 130 friends.
 70% of bloggers are organically talking about brands.
 38% of bloggers post brand or product reviews.
 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) are shared each week on
Facebook.
 The average number of tweets per hour are 1.3m.
 More than 700,000 local businesses have active pages on Facebook.
 Purpose-built business Facebook pages have created more than 5.3bn fans.
 More than 250 Facebook applications have over a million combined users each month.

33. ..who are these people?
Have you been influenced by
customer review of a product, a
movie, or a restaurant?

34. Who is using social media?
Facebook Statistics
 You
 Your family
Y f il
 Your friends
 Your employees
But
B t are th i t
they interested in
t di  Your target prospects
Y
insurance?  Your customers

35. ..but are they interested in insurance,
surely this is about sharing pictures?
Company Fans
USAA 77,734
Allstate Insurance 17,797
AAA 15,439
State Farm Insurance 14,409
American Family Mutual Insurance 10,185
Progressive Insurance 9,459
Nationwide Insurance 5,156
Progressive Motorcycle 2,981
Liberty Mutual Insurance 2,582
Low in comparison (but growing fast)
Verizon Wireless - 866,000 * Coca Cola - 5.7 million * Starbucks - 7.4 million

36. Isn’t social media a minefield?
 We’ll get sued
 We’ll lose control of
We ll
the brand
 Employees will waste
time
 People will say bad
things about the brand
 Employees will give
away corporate
y p
secrets

37. The coordinated attack

38. Customers will say bad things about the brand

39. Losing control of the brand

40. Even if you understand social media,
you need a complete strategy

41. Even if you understand social media, you need a complete
strategy,
strategy again it’s not about technology

42. Even the best can get it wrong
Is it
I i worse to forget to register a key brand on
f i k b d
Twitter or leave a prototype iPhone in a bar?

43. Social media is a minefield – none of these pages are ‘official’

44. Social media is a minefield
Allen Nelson, general counsel, chief administrative officer and executive
vice president at Crawford & Co. (a $1.1 billion claims administrator in
Atlanta, Ga )
Atlanta Ga.), started taking a look at social media because he was
concerned that the company could be the subject of disparaging comments
on the Internet. Once he began looking around, Nelson was surprised to
find multiple Facebook p g with the company name on them, set up
p pages p y , p
by employees who were using them to communicate.
Jon Bidwell, chief innovation officer of Chubb. "Businesses are tapping that
, pp g
power to enhance their brand awareness and deepen their engagement
with customers and other constituents. This continuous dialogue also
creates substantial risks, which companies are wrestling with throughout
their organizations, from HR to IT to legal and marketing."

45. So what can/should you do?
Just 19 percent of insurance companies have an
official Facebook page
Over 60 percent have some Facebook presence

46. So what can/should you do - Defense
 Build an Inter-departmental team
• Compliance, marketing, customer service, web-
development, sales, public relations, corporate
affairs
• Senior level appointment to lead the team
 Create social media guidelines and policy
• Cover all compliance considerations
• Internal and external (agent) training
( g ) g
 Listen and learn
• Don’t jump in to respond too quickly
 Take stock of existing assets and sites

47. The Offense – strategy first
gy
• What are you trying to achieve?
• Build brand awareness and familiarity
• Brand reputation
• Enhanced trust
• Create and manage customer engagement – it
is a dialogue
• Use greater personalization and develop a
customer recommendation and referral
process
• Create a goal
• Understand progress measurement
• Do not focus on the technology (but
keep an eye on Facebook)

48. The Offense – distribution
 The distribution model
• Carrier web strategies have
suffered for years trying to fit into
existing agent and agency
models
• Agencies and agents have a big
g g g
role to play in social media but it
needs to be complimentary
• Both carrier and agents will:
• have a dialogue with customers
• recruit fans and followers
• Own Facebook and other social
media pages

49. The Offense - tactics
 Image, brand and content
s a egy
strategy
• Must accept the role of content
creator
 Fan and follower recruitment
• Who do you want to recruit
• How many do you want to recruit
• Extend reach beyond traditional
marketing
 Engagement and dialog
E t d di l
• For what purpose
• Grow customer recommendations
and referrals

50. Website Examples

55. Social Media Examples

56. Progressive – engaging customers
g g g g
 Reach out to customers on
Twitter
 Quick switch to more robust
channels – telephone, email
 TwitService is available in travel,
telecommunications, high tech,
and other industries
 Progressive has a conversation
index (one to one messages) in
the 70%-80% range
70% 80% range.
 Provides an alternative channel
for mobile users in natural
disasters
 Effective use of Twitter
Background

57. Liberty Mutual – Brand Extension
 Be “where the customer
already is”
 Blogs containing extensive
content
 Create a dialog and be
associated with a subject area
– Responsibility
 Provide interactive extension to
commercials
 Attracts high numbers of mid–
mid
age female consumers

58. GEICO – enhancing a brand image
 A range of video content
• Company commercials
p y
• Informative education content
• Customer service
• Careers
• Viral video – Warren Buffett plays Axl
Rose
 New content developed
specifically for online viral growth
 GEICO channel has 3 million
views of video content

59. Nationwide - extending reach
 Interesting content can reach a
much wider audience
 Social media makes it really easy
to spread information
 Nationwide
• 2,000
2 000 Twitter followers
• In a recent 3-day period the iPhone
tweet reached at least 25,000 people
through “Re-Tweeting”
 Some will become followers other
followers,
will re-tweet another level
• One tweet we followed recently
reached at least 1 million followers
through redirection

60. Target demographic groups

61. Chubb – Crowdsourcing

62. Fan recruitment
 Attract with content
 Use dialog to engage
 Widen your reach through
redirections
 Narrow your focus to the friends
of fans
ff
 Fans are opt-in, self-
maintaining, loyal and visible
recommenders of your
products

63. Referrals and recommendations
The all powerful LIKE button
Tells a Facebook user which
of THEIR friends LIKES (and
recommends) a brand
It is from someone YOU
trust
If a person selects to ‘LIKE’
LIKE
a product or brand, all of
their friends get a message
to say that
YOUR friends
that like this
company

64. Recommendations – the next stage
g
• Now extended across
the web
• Personalization of the
y
web will intensify
• Social media will be
integral to every aspect
of the business
• Retail will create
customer expectations,
insurance will follow

65. Retail we get, but insurance?
• User reviews have been highly successful for retail
companies for while
• Proven to increase purchasing
• Can it work for insurance?

66. Platform stats
 Growing support of native Leading Insurers by fan count
applications making Facebook an • USAA 77,734
ultimate destination • Allstate Insurance 17,797
 Greater levels of core business • AAA 15,439
functionality • State Farm Insurance 14,409
 Growing dialog fan to fan and fan to • Progressive Insurance 9,459
company (Interesting correlation to the brand reputation data)
 Industry fan base increasing 6% per
month Most Comprehensive Facebook Sites
 Increasingly sophisticated fan • American Family
recruitment
i • Liberty Mutual Insurance
 Facebook fan base runs on average • AAA
about 4 to 1 over Twitter follower • Allstate Insurance
count • USAA
 Facebook’s platform use has been
central to personalization and social
experience

67. Platform stats
 A driver to content on blogs, Leading Insurers by Follower count
YouTube, Facebook, website • USAA 9,311
 Growing importance on ‘re-tweets’ • State Farm Insurance 5,973
 Common topics includes NASCAR, • Allstate 4,789
golf, tennis and other events • Progressive Insurance 3,720
Most active tweeters (per month)
 Business topics include mobile
• State Farm 175
apps,
apps safety tips motorbike season
tips, season,
website updates • Progressive 149
• Liberty Mutual 62
 Has a role as alternative service
• Allstate 55
channel
• Esurance 51
 Industry id
I d t wide average t tweet activity
t ti it
Most engaged with customers (Conversation Index)
– 1 per day
• Progressive 77%
 Industry follower growth rate has • GEICO 58%
decreased since last summer, now • Esurance 48%
about 8-10% per month
• State Farm 41%
• Amica 40%

68. Other odds and ends…

69. Recruiting
g
Per a recent study conducted by the National Association for Business
Economics, Social media recruiting is on the radar screen of 31% of the
surveyed insurance companies. Most insurance companies using social
surveyed insurance companies Most insurance companies using social
media to help recruit are mainly using LinkedIn, followed by Facebook. But
most companies do not have a strategy for using either platform to recruit.
Riv Data Corporation – provides employers with the tools to monitor and
evaluate employee online behavior. Companies now have the ability to
review and evaluate information to assist in both hiring decisions and the
mitigation of existing employee risk.
mitigation of existing employee risk
They provide active monitoring of the online behavior of an employee or
potential hire by collecting, reviewing, and filtering user generated data
potential hire by collecting reviewing and filtering user‐generated data
found throughout the internet. This includes social networks, blogs,
message boards, and anywhere people share information online.

70. Embedded Twitter Functionality in
Unified Communications W b Cli t
U ifi d C i ti Web Client

71. 7 things to stop doing now on
g p g
Facebook
1. Using a weak password
g p
2. Leaving your full birth date in your profile
3. Overlooking useful privacy controls
4. Posting your child’s name in a caption
5.
5 Mentioning that you ll be away from home
you’ll
6. Letting search engines find you
7.
7 Permitting youngsters to use Facebook unsupervised
As published in June 2010 issue of Consumer Reports

72. What now?
 Accept that social media is important
to your business
• Appoint a senior leader and team
• Provide a budget
 Manage your d f
M defense
• Develop guidelines and policies
• Provide training
“Social media WILL be
Social
 Plan the offense integral to your business”
• Develop a content plan to attract the
right fans Look past the noise and
• Build a recommendation strategy junk, ignore your personal
j k i l
• Build, grow and evolve
feelings about Twitter and
get on with it
• Let it simmer, do not rush

73. Thank you for your time and attention. If you have questions specifically
regarding this portion of the presentation, please contact:
Craig Lowenthal
Social Media Strategist
Glatfelter Insurance Group
Email: clowenthal@glatfelters.com
Download The Customer Respect Group’s latest
“Insurance Social Media Digest” at
www.customerrespect.com/IASA2010.htm
And now, the Q&A portion of today’s presentation.

74.  Q&A with Today’s Speakers
 Jennifer Overhulse-King, Principal Owner – St. Nick Media Services
 Craig Lowenthal, Social Media Strategist – Glatfelter Insurance Group

75. Thank you for coming!
If you would like a copy of this presentation, please contact:
f ld l k f h l
Jennifer Overhulse‐King
g
St. Nick Media Services
jen@stnickmedia.com
859‐803‐6597