AMWeb, The Netherlands: Cognizant’s Country Manager for Benelux Outlines Seven Ways to Social Media Success for Insurance Companies

“Social media is no longer just #trending; it has become mainstream. It is the way all generations now communicate, are entertained, stay informed, and decide what to buy,” writes Manoj Mehta. Rob Geerts, Senior Director of Banking and Financial Services at Cognizant, contributed to the article.  Excerpts:

“How can insurance and retirement brokers use this evolving, mainstream way to reach new, tech-savvy audiences, especially the millennial generation of future policy-holders, in a way that is interesting, compelling and, above all, without embarrassing themselves? The insurance industry can adopt new techniques and, by doing so, encourage both its own workforce as well as existing and prospective customers to participate and become engaged.

Here are seven specific ways insurance agents and forward-thinking carriers can do just that:

- Monitor social media activity. Start small: Understanding online behaviour of your target audience before engaging them is a starting point. Once empowered with these insights, agents can craft coverage options on lifestyle and status updates before engaging a prospect or customer. Focus on their pain points and life events or situations they can identify with.

 - Maintain a differentiated blog. Blogging establishes deep and lasting roots online. It lets you tell your story more intimately than short-form social networks, and blogs index better on search results. More than anything, your blog should be a personal forum for helpful and practical information and give prospects a sense of who you are and how you do business.

 - Augment your message with Twitter. If social networking is a valuable tool for driving traffic to your blog, then Twitter is its motorway. Simply put, a mix of tweets and posts helps producers connect more deeply with customers and prospects.

 - Network with influencers. To make the most of social media, you also want to find and connect with popular influencers. Remember: don’t just broadcast your views on social media. Befriend others, learn from them, and recognize their comments as much as you hope others will accept and remember yours.

 - Promote your blog across channels. If no one knows about the helpful posts you are writing, your content cannot do its job. To avoid this, share links to your specific blog posts wherever they may be relevant, whether Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, Instagram, e-mail, word of mouth, or industry forums.

 - Do not overlook photos and video. Content that is paired with original photos and videos enjoys broader reach that content without. As such, consider personalized, face-to-face videos and photos on social media, particularly Instagram and Vine.

 - Consider a social CRM program. These can help you keep a handle on all your social media efforts.

View social media participation as a requisite tool to reach customers in the mobile information era. Thriving industries already know this. Now it is the turn of discretionary insurance to do the same.”

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