Find Us on Facebook
By: Hodges
These days, if you let your fingers do the walking; they’re probably hiking back and forth across a keypad instead of the Yellow Pages. No one knows this better than Nibby Priest, who recently equipped his agency’s Web site with two electronic tools from what’s termed “Web 2.0”—the second generation of the Internet.
Visit www.govaughn.com for Vaughn Insurance Agency in Henderson, Ky., and you’ll see a little box that says, “Find us on Facebook.” You’ll also see another box visitors can click to chat in real time with someone at the agency. Neither invitation is a frivolous experiment—they are evidence of a change occurring in the way people use the Internet. And it’s up to you to get on board.
Today, the Web is more than a place to advertise and find information; it is an interactive lifeline anyone can use to connect with people and organizations around the world. But why would anyone other than a teenager want to do this? Priest, vice president at Vaughn Insurance, explains:
“Marketing people have been telling us for years that it’s all about relationships, and that the more connections we have with people, the more likely they are to remain our clients. But we’re all too busy to attend every (physical) meeting of the Kiwanis Club or the chamber of commerce, so these online meeting places help us connect without leaving the room.”
Revolution at Your Fingertips
Priest should know. The 44-year-old producer is a member of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, three of the hottest electronic social networks out there. All these sites were invented in the last five years and now have a worldwide following. The interactive sites allow users to post snippets of information about themselves; contact others already on the site; or invite friends to join.
Priest got the idea to join Twitter from a local acquaintance last year, and after a positive experience also joined Facebook. He and two other agents at the firm use these forums to connect with prospects and clients, as well as friends and family. “You never know who somebody else knows,” he says.
Marketing and sales aren’t the only reasons Priest brought Web 2.0 to the Vaughn agency. To help clients cope during the ice storms that ravaged Kentucky in late January, Priest and fellow agents posted a blog (short for Web log) linked to the company’s Web site that listed service companies offering tree-cutting and debris removal. They also created a list of frequently asked questions to help clients file claims and get help with individual situations. Priest also wrote on Twitter that his agency was busy handling claims and writing checks. A local TV reporter saw his entry and called with questions. Priest was later interviewed on the local ABC online news affiliate.
Priest still isn’t sure how much his electronic interactions have helped his business. “Maybe they’ve saved us a few minutes on the phone,” he says. But he firmly believes it’s just a matter of time. “Social networks,” he advises, “are a whole new world.”
The Evolution of Carriers
Rick Morgan agrees. The president of Rick Morgan Consulting, an insurance technology consultancy, is also chairman of the Agents Council for Technology (ACT) committee on Web 2.0. And he too believes social media, another term for electronic networking, is the way of the future. As evidence, he points to Progressive insurance’s page on Facebook, which features videos of the firm’s popular “Flo” TV character, a picture list of items Progressive insures, information about the company’s Web site and a box you can click to download the Progressive traffic widget, a free application for computers or smart phones that provides traffic reports for many metropolitan areas. “It’s not just about Web sites or blogs anymore,” says Morgan. “Carriers and agency people are getting involved, and attitudes about ways to communicate are changing radically.” Last fall, some carriers and agencies began letting their employees update their Facebook pages during work. And why not? The more people who know people at your agency, or so the thinking goes, the more business you’re likely to write. “Social media and other Web 2.0capabilities are creating new opportunities,” says Morgan, by facilitating communication “inside your agency and extending collaboration beyond agency walls.”
Hiring for Free
Ed Higgins, president of Thousand Islands Agency in Clayton, N.Y. and along-time member of ACT, urges older agency principals to take Web 2.0 seriously if they want to attract younger customers. ACT’s committee on the topic was created after focus groups held with young agents revealed that social networks drive their use of computers. “They go to Facebook to check out new employees,” says Higgins. The point: if most young adults use their computers and smart phones to communicate with friends, look for jobs, research products and buy or sell them, shouldn’t insurance agencies be part of the trend?
One of Higgins’s first mind-boggling experiences with social media occurred when he was looking to hire two new employees. He spent roughly $700 advertising in print media, but also posted an ad on Craigslist for free. Craigslist is an online classifieds site that allows anyone to post ads for jobs, rental apartments, services and items for sale. “We found both of our last two employees on Craigslist,” says Higgins; “One we hired answered our ad in16 minutes.”
Richard Butwin, president of Butwin Insurance Group in Great Neck, N.Y., has hired 12 of his current employees from Craigslist. “We’ve used it exclusively for several years” to hire service employees, he says. “(We) just hired a bookkeeper several weeks ago.”
Butwin is also on Facebook, but at this point considers it merely an enjoyable personal pursuit. “I got on it because so many people told me to,” he says. For now, he’s having a blast reconnecting with old friends from college and high school, and believes he’ll probably get a few pieces of business from it. “I don’t think it’s a viable business investment yet—but I’m already there,” he says.
The Privacy Conundrum
Bit Higgins and But win are taking it slowly with social media. “If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it carefully,” says Higgins. By joining a forum and then spending time watching it, he says agents can see how it works and who the players are before diving in. Higgins recently joined Facebook and without doing more than putting up his posting, was located by 10 acquaintances in a single day. “As a business person, you have to accept that (online) social networking is not unlike the first iteration of the Web when it was dial-up,” he says. “I remember thinking, ‘There’s no chance this will ever catch on.’ And now I order everything online.”
Set aside the power of what information technology can do, and it’s hard not to think about safety issues. In order to set up a Facebook profile you’re required to submit your e-mail, birth date and location. The forum also asks for a picture, your gender, political affiliation, religion and marital status, but these aren’t required to set up an account.
On Twitter, members are also asked for a photo, but one isn’t required. Members are asked to tell something about themselves, but are not required to divulge any more information than their names. Even so, not all are comfortable “posting” themselves online for everyone to see. But as Higgins observes, information technology has already made huge inroads into the privacy. Consider Google Maps, for example. Go to www.google.com, click on “maps,” and enter an address. Not only will a map appear with the address pinpointed; in many cases, a photograph of the building at the address will also pop up. Click on the photograph, and it will enlarge and include a tool that provides a virtual tour of the entire block. “We had a prospect we were looking for, and we went to Google Maps to find his address,” says Higgins. “We found a picture of his street and even his car on the street, and we could read the license plate number.”
Calculating the Possibilities
Nonetheless, Higgins remains open minded. “I think (social media) will be a significant part of our agency’s growth and a way to build customer loyalty,” he says. “The more links you have out there, the more positive it can be.”
Dave Schuppler also views the virtual glass as half-full rather than half-empty. “I expect there will be problems, but we’ll solve them,” says the president of David Schuppler & Associates in Wauwatosa, Wisc. “But it’s like anything else on the Internet—you’re out there, and there maybe some people who want to comment on what you do, and you have to be careful what you put in. (But) the Internet is a very open kind of communication—and it’s very relevant today.”
So far Schuppler has a personal presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and is planning a corporate presence on Facebook. He and his employees are also preparing a blog that will link to the agency’s Web site, www.dsa-insbonds.com, on bonding for small businesses. Schuppler is excited at the prospects. “As retail agents, we’re the paramecia on the insurance ladder, he says, jokingly. (The tools of Web 2.0) allow us the opportunity to expand our realm as small-business experts.” Schuppler’s not kidding: he started the loan guarantee programs for the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Outside the blog for small businesses, Schuppler is looking to use social media to set up a stream of communication with the agency’s three locations, its customers, employees and their families, and the surrounding community. He’s also thinking about how the agency might use Twitter to extend customer service. “Maybe a customer has a simple auto accident,” he muses. “If we can’t reach you by phone, maybe we can find you on Twitter and tell you where to get your car examined.”
Web 2.0 is still in its early stages, but any technology that attracts hundreds of millions of subscribers around the world—most of them in the last four to five years—can no longer be ignored. So take a peek—and ask not what the Internet can do for you or to you, but what it can do for your agency.
Hodges (hodgeswrites@aol.com) is IA senior writer.
Grasping Web 2.0
Not everyone can wrap their head around the concept of Web 2.0, or its potential for business use. To describe the phenomenon in terms that maybe more familiar, here are some quotations made by those who are already well-acquainted with the next online generation.
• “It’s like attending an electronic cocktail party.”—Steve Prentice, CEO, Bristall Morgan, Inc. (www.bristall.com), an IT consultancy based in Toronto and Manhattan.
• “Web 2.0 technologies are the enablers to a set of social and cultural trends that are transforming our world…It is a culture where, by drawing strength from each other, individuals collectively gain control, influence and power.”—Rick Morgan, agency IT consultant (rick@Aartrijk.com) and chairman of ACT’s Social Media Subgroup.
• “Web 2.0 is about connectivity and engagement, (and) the cornerstone we’re putting together as an agency revolves around those two things.”—Dave Schuppler, president, Schuppler & Associates (www.dsa-ins-bonds.com), Wauwatosa, Wisc.
—S.H.
Tools of Web 2.0
To learn more about some of the most popular networks that are part of the Internet’s second generation, read the blurbs below and then visit these sites. You’ll find some easier to use and understand than others, but as you browse, ask yourself: How could our agency benefit by using this network?
• Facebook (www.facebook.com): A free online social media network created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 while he was at Harvard University. Named for the paper booklets that colleges distribute with names and photos of students, Facebook spread to other universities and now has 150 million subscribers worldwide.
• LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com): A network of 33 million professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. Launched by five partners in 2003, the network exists to “find, be introduced to and collaborate with qualified professionals you need to work with to accomplish your goals.”
• Twitter (www.twitter.com): A privately-funded social media service with offices in San Francisco. Started in March 2006, Twitter has grown into a real time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices. Members post news about themselves by answering, in 140 characters or less, the question: “What are you doing?” Other members respond by offering relevant information that may be useful. According to a source, Twitter had 744,000members as of January 2008.
• Craigslist (www.craigslist.com): A free, online classified advertising space that connects buyers and sellers, whether the item being “sold” is an antique dresser or a position at an insurance firm. The site is categorized by metropolitan area and further divided by suburbs. Ads are automatically deleted after seven days, at which time you may repost.
—S.H
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