You Want Help with Social Media!
October 3, 2009 by Peter van Aartrijk · Leave a Comment
Aartrijk Brand Camp—held in Chicago Sept. 28-30, 2009 and continuing on the virtual calendar of online conversation—was all about the risk and opportunity of social media in our Wonderful World of Insurance.
We had pre-surveyed attendees at Aartrijk Brand Camp. These were agents, brokers, carriers, association executives, media reps, and business partners such as technology firms.
In sum, you have genuine concerns and questions around the impact and application of social media. You are being cautious about stepping into fray.
Here are some top issues you are having with all the excitement behind Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, etc.:
Social media appears to be a time vampire. How do you manage the time you and your people spend with it?
How do you show a return on the effort? One survey respondent said: “While time spent on informing/communicating with fans helps build relationships, does that turn into referrals?” And sales?
We don’t know where or how to start with social media. We need a plan and a budget and somebody in charge—who is that going to be?
The internal battles are brutal. How do we get our management on board? And our legal beagles are putting the kybosh on us branding folks—the IT department isn’t helpful either. One of you said, “The current rule is to run all printed copy past the marketing and legal departments. Social [media] requires a more relaxed, conversational tone to be authentic and trustworthy…[But] it is viewed as more of a risk than an opportunity.”
We’re not sure when we should start! One of you said: “Maybe it’s better not to put a toe in the water until this new frontier matures.”
Who in insurance has gone before us? What are the best practices around building brand awareness with social media? “We need success stories.”
Who is this for? Is social media best for business-to-business? Business-to-consumer? Both? Neither?
Finally, do insurance and financial services play a role at all in social media? Do consumers care about us? We’re not worthy! We’re just not cool enough!
Ah, yes, great questions. Stay tuned for some solutions offered up by Brand Camp attendees.
– Peter van Aartrijk
Follow Aartrijk on Twitter: @Aartrijk. Follow Brand Camp conversation on Twitter using hashtag #ABC09.
“Can We Get to Business?!”
September 14, 2009 by Charles Wasilewski · 3 Comments
“Can we get to business?!”
That partly-excited, partly-frustrated-sounding question popped out at me from among several dozen when I was moderating a Webinar (“Social Media 101: Get Your Agency on Facebook and Twitter” presented by Insurance Journal) in early September.
The Webinar was presented by Nibby Priest of Vaughn Insurance Agency Co., who is among the most-active insurance producers I know in using social networking.
The question came while Nibby was showing how to get a personal Facebook page started. This is one of the most-popular things to do on the Internet. After all, Facebook has 200 million-plus members and is among the top 5 most-visited Web sites in the world.
When I read the question, I sensed that the agent asking the question was impatient with all the “personal” Facebook material, and wanted to get to the important stuff: how to use Facebook to market and sell.
I’ve felt the same frustration in the past — until I realized that the personal nature of Facebook is what makes it popular and captivating for millions. Facebook isn’t like advertising or direct mail or an e-mail newsletter or a Yellow Pages ad. It’s not really a marketing tool or tactic to be pulled out of the marketing plan and executed.
It’s something very different: It’s a technological way to carry out social relationships online.
Facebook is popular because it allows people to:
– connect person-to-person
– choose people, brands, organizations, causes, and advertisers they want to connect with online … and shun or ignore those they don’t
– easily search and find people from their past and present to build relationships going forward into the future
So, for me, a lesson of “Social Media 101: Get Your Agency on Facebook and Twitter” was a reminder that social networking is about talking with people, not merely sending out business messages via advertising or marketing. I’m as big a fan as anyone of advertising and marketing, but Facebook requires a different approach. It requires a commitment to joining a community, providing value, presenting information and perspective, and building relationships.
The great hope of social networking for marketers is that when members of the community are ready to buy, they will find you — even seek you out — because they know you and know what you know.
– Charles Wasilewski
New Wine in New Bottles
July 5, 2009 by Rick Morgan · 1 Comment
Photo Credit - Flickr heardsy
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. (Matthew 9:17)
The world of marketing, PR, branding and communication is being transformed. Consumers have rebelled against “push” marketing. They want to be heard when it comes to how you do business. Trusted relationships are more important than ever and control of your brand is in the hands of your customers.
Clearly “old” marketing and media strategy is failing. Social networking to the rescue, right? Not so fast. When it comes to social media it is not enough to engage the tools, build strategy and implement. Rather, success requires a change in culture and in the way in which business is done. Success with social media requires a culture that is customer centric, comfortable with transparency and understands that message and opinion lie primarily outside of their control. That is, success happens when the “new wine” of social media is put in the “new bottle” of a transformed company culture.
Rick Morgan
Brand Camp Won’t Be Yet Another Meeting
June 22, 2009 by Peter van Aartrijk · 1 Comment
Regarding Aartrijk Brand Camp (in Chicago, Sept. 28-30), some of you have asked, “Why is Aartrijk putting on such an event? What do you hope to accomplish?”
Excellent questions. I attend many industry conferences so I’m sensitive about offering another one.
I can assure you that Brand Camp won’t be yet another meeting.
This event is the only one designed to put in context the impact of social media/social networking on marketing and branding in insurance and financial services. So if you are responsible for formulating and articulating your brand in our industry—agency, broker, carrier, trade association, services provider—then you should come to Brand Camp.
At most conferences, speakers present in a one-way format. Like social networking itself, Brand Camp will be much more engaging, where attendees truly will get involved. We hope to imagine—even create—some new ways our industry can communicate with customers and prospects. This engagement is a more fun way to learn anyway.
You will return home with a solid plan to introduce or enhance your brand in this new social networking world. Brand Camp will be educational, engaging, entertaining and rewarding for the group as well as for individual participants.
Go on, jump into the fray! Check out the Brand Camp Web page.
– Peter van Aartrijk
Are You Saying This?
June 8, 2009 by Rick Morgan · 1 Comment
It’s a fad
I don’t have time for this
It’s not appropriate for business
Show me the ROI
I don’t want my staff wasting company time on this
I am concerned about the E&O exposure
Objections or perhaps more accurately excuses to avoid having to deal with the social networking? Yes, but we have heard it all before.
Earlier today, I was just talking to a friend about the history associated with the use of technology in the insurance agency business. I reminded him that back in the early ’80s when the push was on for agents go become “automated” there was huge resistance. He then recalled how when e-mail was first introduced many agency owners adamantly objected to their staff using it and the objections were even stronger about “surfing ” the web at work.
Yes, there needs to be a corporate strategy. Yes, there needs to be a policy. Yes, there needs to be management and monitoring. Yes, there shoud be best practices guidelines. Yes, Yes, Yes. But lets get past the excuses and begin to reap the rewards that come with smart implementation social networking. The hoola hoop was a fad. The societal and business trends being fueled by the social web are not.
– Rick Morgan
Photo Credit: Flickr DarynBarryWhy Social Networking? “Credibility and Awareness”
May 27, 2009 by Peter van Aartrijk · Leave a Comment
Peter van Aartrijk
I attended a Chamber of Commerce “lunch and learn” in here in Springfield, Virginia recently. The topic was “Social Networking.” They expected 40 to register, which is about what they normally get for these affairs. Surprise! More than 110 showed up—most of whom were Baby Boomers seemingly uncomfortable not knowing what they didn’t know.
A panel included a trade association exec, a bike shop owner, and a local PR guy. One exasperated audience member asked, “How do we live in a world where we don’t do meetings like this anymore? It’s all online—no more face-to-face.” The answer was—and I agree—that people who are most social online also are the most social in person. Nothing has changed there—that’s been going on since we walked the Earth.
In fact, I’m reminded of our parents’ (or was it our grandparents’?) saying that “TV will ruin your eyesight and you’ll never go out anymore.”
The bike shop owner said she walks a fine line when selling her stuff in the social space. She called it “quiet marketing.” The online biker community is huge around the country, and here in Virginia is no exception. She resists the temptation to leverage that community and turn it into a one-way sales barrage. “I don’t say in my posts, ‘We’re having a sale this week’ and remind people every day,” she said. “I post up something to do with biking and at the very end I’ll say something like, ‘…and we just hung up our sale banners here at the bike shop.’
The Chamber event was filled with lawyers, CPAs, local retail shops, consultants—all sorts of folks. “How does this make me money?” one guy asked. The panel’s answer: “Credibility and awareness.” You may not see a direct return, but over time you will build your brand and drive referrals. Let your customers talk about you—it’s more powerful than you talking about you.
I recommended to the Chamber staff leader that she book more of these events, as members clearly need help.
What does online social networking mean for insurance folks? Well, let me take a page from the bike-shop owner and be as understated as I can be: “We at Aartrijk intend to explore these exciting issues ourselves for our friends and clients in the insurance world at Aartrijk Brand Camp Sept. 28-30 2009 in Chicago (www.Aartrijk.com/brandcamp).
You see? In-person events are alive and well…although they’re changing for the better. Come and find out!
- Peter van Aartrijk