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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Social Networks and Insurance - Part 3

By Mike Wise, VP IdeaStar Insurance Technologies

Part Three:

Private Networks –

Please comment on any of this.

Embedded – customizable, plug-and-play utilities

Some possible sources of SN software to plug into your site...
http://www.smallworldlabs.com/blog/calling-all-competitors
http://www.alstrasoft.com/efriends.htm
http://www.onesite.com/
http://www.kickapps.com/

Lots of others...some open-source

Starting conversations, seeding conversations - What are some do's and don't's?

Moderating – should the good, the bad, and the ugly all remain on the site? Will users see through it if only the positive comments are left in view?

Didn't SN's used to be called Forums?

Not everything goes nuts right away. The activity ebbs and flows – that’s OK, right?

Some comments are out in left field, some aren’t. Some Social Networks rate content and the subject matter experts so that different SME’s are more highly valued than others. Interesting concept that makes sense.

Common Objections I've heard:

What about negative comments if we did something bad/wrong? We don't want people slamming us on our own site?!!?! Any thoughts?

What about compliance - user-generated content on company-sponsored pages? Are Disclaimers enough to keep the lawyers at bay?

What about "Profile Burnout" – will people be constantly creating profiles in order to play in the game? If it’s important, yes! I've heard there is an increasing volume on the need for standards within Social Networks so that people can maintain one profile and link-in the data into the various networks they join.

Btw, LinkedIn - I just read: more than 20 million registered users. (source: Wikipedia)

A book recommendation from Bill Tyson, Ampac. Scroll down the search results to see others.

Unrelated:

I sat on a panel discussion here in Cleveland last week. All about the evolution of Web content. See more here...(PPT slides coming soon to the Web Association site)

http://www.webassociation.org/eventDetails.cfm/eventid/27

Please comment on any of this.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Social Networks and Insurance - Part 2

By Mike Wise, VP IdeaStar Insurance Technologies

We are in the middle of a conversation on Social Networks and insurance marketing. Again, I could be all crossed up, but from an affinity marketing point of view, Social Networks seem to show promise as insurance direct mail response rates decline and keyword inflation enters stage-left on the search engine marketing scene.

Last week - Part One: General Ideas
Now - Part Two: Public Networks

Someone asked me yesterday, "What's a social network, anyway?" My answer... Have you ever been to an industry conference? Sure. There's people you want to meet there, right? Do some business, make some contacts, get some ideas, share stories. That's a social network... on the professional side. But how do you keep the relationship going in between the face-to-face events? Phone calls, now emails, newsletters, etc. Well, now we have online social networks - same thing, just a different medium, a little easier to keep people in your network connected to you.

Just to kind of lay the foundation, here are what seem to be the most visible social networks. (Btw, if anyone has a contact at anyone of these companies, I'm looking for a speaker for PIMA MarkeTTech next November. Need to lock them in by the end of May.)

MySpace – got to be a member to be in the game, to search, to post
Facebook – started out as a college network (so create a group for your classmates while you're in college), then expanded to high school, now opening up to adults. But definitely more of a personal space. But isn't insurance often... personal???
Linkedin – brilliant! These guys have web-enabled the old concept of Six Degrees of Separation, aka the game of Makin' Bacon. Want to get connected to someone? Isn't it better to get a referral from a friend of a friend? Absolutely.

Here's a link to my Profile in Linkedin. Linkedin provided this widget. Cool. If you're not on, do. The sooner you get started, the better. Seriously.

Some general common-sense stuff:

Content or comments must add value, be transparent and real,
Must be persistence relative to the natural flow of a lifestyle. Pick a network and stick with it for the long haul. Like anything in life, you get out of it what you put into it.
Need to be extremely careful not to see everyone as a prospect, not to be selling 24/7, use guerrilla selling tactics, invading friends' personal spaces with your work.
Since Linkedin is more of a professional network, it definitely seems suitable for professional and trade insurance approaches, but remember...
Hard sell is dead. Got to PULL them along. Takes longer to fill the pipeline of business, but if you do it right, it should open the door to referrals, and as we all know, one referral is better than 10 cold calls.
SN's are a perfect place to be educational, provide tips and tools, links to the best sources of information, the best deals, products with the richest benefits, companies that are the easiest to do business, even how to handle claim events. What better source of information than the actual policy holders who already went through the process. Powerful stuff..

That's it for now. Next week: Private Networks. Careful now, especially with independent agents.

Hey, I'm in Omaha right now. I felt the earthquake in the midwest last night/this morning. It also sounded like thunder. Man, all I gotta' say is... Glad I know where I'm going when the you-know-what hits the fan.

Check out the shot of the week from last Sunday. My weekend gig - Cleveland City Stars pro soccer photog. Got lucky on this one....click to enlarge.

Columbus Crew backup keeper just missed the save...
Which made for a sweet goal picture!

Click here to see more....

Friday, April 11, 2008

Social Networks and Insurance

By Mike Wise, VP IdeaStar Insurance Technologies

Over the next couple weeks, let's consider Social Networks and insurance marketing. I could be way out in left field, but from an affinity marketing point of view, as I've said in the past, I think Social Networks show promise as insurance direct mail response rates decline. There's a lot to cover, so I'm going to break it up into a few parts.

Part One: General Ideas
Part Two: Public Networks
Part Three: Private Networks
Part Four: Viral Marketing and Referrals

Part One: I'm catching a similarity to Affinity Groups and Associations. The concept first caught my attention when I saw my son’s Facebook page. As a graduating senior from High School, he had joined a group for his high school class year - CVCA2007. He had then joined a group for his college class year – before he had even started!!! (By the way, this was at the promotion of the college orientation team.) So apparently while the school will continue to support the traditional Alumni Association, his class has an informal Alumni Association that might have even more relevance over time. Then there’s the phenomenon of Classmates.com…

Next... We all know the power of search engines like Google, but what about networking? However, keyword inflation is rampant, it's impossible to compete against mega-branding budgets, and rising in the natural listing for competitive keywords like health insurance is played out, literally. And yet Networking has been around forever and will always be around as long as we continue to do business the way we do. no doubt Affinity groups are a significant force in networking – trusted sources of information to help overcome ‘stranger danger’ (something that is programmed deep into our cultural make-up). I go to conferences every year to connect with peers, share ideas, find experts in areas I’m not, etc. Works great!

Now it seems that online networks are forming not to replace but to add value, to keep the conversation going between events, etc.. But we still want face time – reunions, gatherings, meetings, conferences, symposiums. And once we are embedded in the conversation, as insurance marketers, the point is to be at the right place with the right message at the right time. The concepts in play seem to be:

Pull versus Push
Engaging in the conversation
Real-time current contact with on-the-scene subject matter experts (SME’s)
Helping educate on more topics then just the main thing
Sponsorship of conversations and tools, new thoughts and approaches
Branding

Here's a novel idea perhaps: What about leveraging home office employees, creating informal advocates, generating and directing subsequent leads, perhaps sharing commissions and bonuses - call 'em TIPS, and staying in touch with new clients more locally. hmmmm.

Some pictures from vacation (click to enlarge): Click here to see more...

Pictures from a business trip this week: Click here to see more....

Life is good!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Service Oriented Architecture

By Mike Wise, VP IdeaStar Insurance Technologies

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a very cool thing. What is it? As with most innovations, it's a way of looking at an old concept in a new way. What first was known as a "Web Portal", now becoming known as a "Mash Up", is SOA personified. A 'service' is a way to get information into the hands of the user. So if you are using Google Maps and want to get a listing of hotels in the vicinity of your location, the 'service' would be the hotel-finder integrated with the mapping software. Those two things combined makes the resulting content relevant to you, the searcher.

The same concept applies to insurance architecture. The key is knowing the purpose of the Web page, as defined by the target audience. (So be careful not to try to serve too many audiences with the same content, right? Instead create multiple pages or sites.) Once you have a clear audience, then you can clearly define the 'services' that audience might appreciate. For example, an agent portal. What services do agents want? Easy contracting for new states, new products, new lines of business? News? Training and Certification? Business Status? Commissions for sure. Hierarchy production reports - absolutely. These are all services. So a site designed to serve agents should leverage SOA all over the place, as much as possible, linking to the policy admin legacy back-end, commission-tracking system, perhaps a Learning Management System. The same concepts apply to affinity marketing sites, direct-to-consumer sites, etc..

But here's the thing. Make one place the "source of truth" for agents or consumers. With i-frames and single-sign-on, the user should never have to 'leave' the portal/mash up/resource center. Browsing is tough enough without the distraction of jumping from site to site, even if the branding and look-and-feel are consistent. "Just bring the data into one place and let me do my thing." It's fairly simple to do, but it takes a rare combination of design and usability, technical know-how, and nimbility (speed-to-market, speed-to-change).

Geee, where can you find that rare mix ....

Some recent pic's from the crazy weather up here... Click the image to see a larger version.