The following three key concepts are foundational lessons that have emerged in the past couple years – that must be recognized and incorporated into any successful social networking initiative:

1.     It’s not about the technology. Success with social networking isn’t just about the latest technology. Technology is transitory. It is the means to an end: Connecting with people. Social networking represents a permanent cultural transformation and a market disruption.

Many of the old ways of doing business are no longer effective. For example, traditional Yellow Page advertising is no longer effective in reaching most consumers.

The way consumers search, research, find, evaluate, choose and connect with their service providers has changed. How an organization appreciates this change, learns to adapt, and engages the new connected consumer—at the time and in the place where he/she wants to connect—will determine the firm’s future viability.

2.     It’s more than a marketing tactic. Launching a Facebook Page does not equate to social networking success. Effective social networking is more than a marketing tactic. Rather, success requires that social networking be an integrated part of a comprehensive business strategy. A good social networking implementation will involve and impact all business units within the agency. There are many social tools (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, and Pinterest) that can be used by an agency to build and strengthen their brand. Yet, like any successful agency initiative it must be well managed, monitored, measured and evaluated.

3.     It’s not magic. Stop waiting for the pixie dust. Social networking requires sweat equity. Social networking does not magically transform or solve an agency’s marketing or communication problems.

Successful agents have learned that using social networking is an effective way to grow a community of online relationships and, perhaps, advocates. Rather than use the tools to amplify a sales message, these producers use social networking to build and strengthen relationships, connect and build trust. Relationships, whether online or off, take time.

Comment and let us know the most important lesson you have learned.

What a great term—Digital Darwinism—to describe the fear many agencies and carriers feel as they struggle at make sense of the many challenges they face in today’s rapidly evolving environment.

Mobile, cloud, and social technologies are evolving faster than ever. These technologies are also transforming our society and giving rise to a new empowered and connected consumer. The reference to Darwin suggests that failure to adapt eventually will lead to the demise of the business of insurance, as we know it.

I believe that the challenge facing our industry is not just about making sure agents have blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and are using Pinterest to curate relevant business information. Yes, it is important to learn how to effectively use new technology.

But it is critical to pay close attention to the evolution of consumer behavior and ultimately understand how to engage with the new connected consumer.

The technologies that are fueling all the disruption can, when effectively used, provide a window into the psyche of the consumer and provide the means to connect and engage. But real success will require an organization to change its work and evolve its brand. That is, become a social business. For example, engaging in social technologies must become more than a marketing department project. Today, consumers are demanding that their business partners be transparent, accessible, open, socially responsible, and honest. They want to feel that they know their favorite brands on a personal or personalized level. These traits become woven into the fabric of the agency—and every employee plays a part.

Keeping up and adapting to new technology and the changing demands of customers and prospects has always been a challenge. What is different today is that advancements in technology and changes in consumer behavior are happening “scary” fast.

Future success isn’t just about the latest technology. Rather, it’s about cultural transformation and market disruption. How an organization recognizes and adapts to new opportunities will determine its future viability. How are you learning to adapt?

– traditional children’s song

Those who don’t get to Grandmother’s house by horse and sleigh (or airplane, bus, car, or train) are now traveling there via Facebook. They’re going to all kinds of places on the social networking site.

Facebook.com was the most-visited web site on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2009, and on New Year’s Day 2010, according to data reported by Experian Hitwise. “Facebook” was also the most-searched word in 2010, according to the firm’s most recent statistics.

What does this mean for insurance brands? If the people are there, shouldn’t the insurance brands be there too? Maybe brand decision-makers can use:

– Ads and content to the theme of “Safe travels and secure home brought to you by [carrier name / agency name].”

– Facebook postings of blog content about holiday safety tips, an evergreen (pun intended) topic for TrustedChoice.com and others.

– Reminders about claims service numbers and tips in case of a home mishap or car accident around the holidays.

Researching this blog post, I came to learn that this song, which I’ve always associated with Christmas visits, is actually a Thanksgiving song by Lydia Maria Child published in 1844 written originally as a poem. The poem, titled “A Boy’s Thanksgiving Day,” is based on her childhood memories and mentions visiting her “Grandfather’s” house. I always recalled the lyric as “Grandmother’s house,” not “Grandfather’s.” The author was a novelist, journalist and teacher who wrote extensively about the need to eliminate slavery, according to Wikipedia.

Question: What good social networking content do you use (or see insurance brands using) around the holiday season?

What do agents want from carriers? In the many discussions I have had with agents the answer is, “It depends” and more often than not they are not really sure. Frequent answers include content, leads, and co-funded social marketing programs. Generating good content for their own blogs and social posts is a common concern voiced by many agents. But what type of content do they want from carriers? What can carriers do to really help? For example, are “white labeled” carrier-created articles that agents personalize the best we can do?

Here is what I think. Currently, it is not uncommon to find both parties acting independently and without a clear sense of purpose. Carriers and agents would benefit from the creation and implementation of collaborative social strategy—and implementing such a strategy involves more then just creating content to be shared. One of the first steps would be to identify and agree on the business objectives of their collective social efforts. That is, do they want to increase dialogue and touch points with customers and prospects? Do they want to improve loyalty and reduce “churn?” Do they want to find new customers and write more new business? All of the above?

As I see it, the opportunity here is for agents and carriers to be working in support of each other to provide the consumer with interesting and valuable content—and promote the unique value of the independent agency system. In addition to building online personality and humanizing brands, effective collaboration would require agents and carriers to be watching, listening and monitoring each other. For example, carriers would leverage the local touch points of their agency force by commenting on, re-tweeting and/or sharing posts made by agents.

Clearly, I don’t have all the answers here. I’d like to know what you think and what your experience has been. If you are an agent, what carriers do you think have done a good job in support of your social networking efforts? If you are a carrier, how are you working to help your agents? What is working? What is not?

Today more than ever brand is being defined by consumers and what they think is more important or has more influence than your brand messaging. Interestingly enough, even if you are not engaged in social networking it is having an impact on your brand. In fact, not engaging in social networking may be doing great harm to your brand.

When you search for a business on Google are you more likely to click on and follow-up if the business has a website link? What impression are you leaving with potential customers if they can’t find you on Linkedin or if your profile is poorly done and incomplete? If Facebook and other social sites have replaced the yellow pages, what damage to your brand is taking place if you can’t be found? How do you think consumers feel about an inactive Twitter account or a Facebook page that has not been updated for several months?

Social networking is not a project. Rather, it is about being a social business and has a great deal to say about who you are and what you do.

Are you using the new tools of social networking to help position your brand in a positive way?

At Google Inc.’s Think Mobile event in New York, industry guru Mary Meeker said that the pace and force of mobile growth is unlike anything she has ever seen.” —

Mary Meeker, the leading trumpeter of the Internet in its early days and now a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, is now saying mobile is growing faster than the Web did.

She’s got her evidence …

• Shipments of smartphones and tablet computers outpaced desktop PCs and notebook PCs in the fourth quarter of 2010, globally.
• Mobile data traffic is forecast to grow by a factor of 26 over the next five years, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index.
• It took about 10 years for electronic commerce to reach five percent of all US retail sales activity. Meeker posits that mCommerce (mobile commerce) will reach the same level of penetration much faster.
• Desktop Internet units (mostly computers) topped one billion in 2000 after being introduced in the 1980s. Meeker forecasts mobile Internet devices will surpass 10 billion units in less than 10 years.
• Real-time features of social networking such as music sharing and location sharing are accelerating mobile device usage.

Insurance marketers, many of whom are still catching up with social networking (as well as older technology such as Web sites), now face another significant change. Business partners and consumers will be using new mobile technology devices (smartphones, tablet computers, book readers, car-based Web systems) to search, learn, interact and buy.

One insurance marketer catching the wave is Humana, which recently announced new services for a highly mobile consumer demographic where connecting has life-and-death implications: the U.S. military.

Meeker’s conclusion about So/Lo/Mo (social/local/mobile): “It’s going to be a fascinating decade.”

Questions for the insurance pros out there:

1. Are mobile devices insured on a homeowners policy?
2. When an exec loses his or her phone or tablet computer, how would you handle the business interruption claim and/or the identity theft risk?

E-mail added 500 million users in 2010.

An article in Econsultancy.com’s blog reported:

“According to Royal Pingdom, 107 trillion email messages were sent in total last year. That works out to 294bn per day. There were nearly 2bn email users and 3bn email accounts, and the ranks of the emailing grew by nearly 500m. In other words, last year, email grew a Facebook last year.”

Royal Pingdom, a monitoring company, recently posted numbers about e-mail, social media, Web sites, etc.

The bad news: An estimated 90 percent of e-mail messages are considered spam. That points to social networking sites’ big advantage over e-mail: The people who post spam-ish things get un-friended and otherwise shunned.

What place does e-mail still have in marketing communications and branding? It’s changing, I think, but not going away.

We invite you to follow Brand Camp updates on LinkedIn, Aartrijk’s Facebook page, Twitter (@Aartrijk) using hashtag #ABC2010, and Aartrijk’s blog.

Monday October 25, 2010

First up are the “Do It Now” sessions at 3:30 pm Central Daylight Time (CDT). Bring your problems, dreams, aspirations (large or small). Brand Campers, Counselors, and outside speakers will help you, on the spot. It’s a chance to create or fix key items for your brand. Then comes the welcome reception.

Tuesday, October 26

The first full day of Brand Camp (Tuesday, Oct. 26) kicks off with a cold-eyed look at the financial Value of Brand by Hales & Co., focusing on research on independent insurance agencies. Then the interactive part of Brand Camp kicks off in earnest (to continue for the rest of camp).

Then we launch full force into the tools, tactics, and topics relevant right now for insurance branding with a panel discussion Your Brand Transformed, featuring Aartrijk’s team of Brand Camp Counselors. We’ll poke and prod about what is happening in the marketplace of brands, using experience and observations from inside and outside the insurance industry.

Next up is Brand Audit: The Big ‘A-Ha Moment.’ This session presents what a brand audit entails and why it’s a plus for moving a brand forward. Counselors Aaron Moore and Andrea Campbell describe what a brand audit entails and how it helps move a brand forward. Counselors Aaron Moore and Andrea Campbell focus on the image assessment portion of the brand audit, show a case study and take questions.

The big event at Brand Camp is The Integrated Marketing Challenge. It’s experiential learning, especially for Brand Campers who are dealing with insurance branding issues everyday. Attendee teams compete à la The Apprentice in this hands-on exercise. The Integrated Marketing Challenge engages Campers as teams to develop a strategy to resolve a specific marketing problem or opportunity.

On Monday afternoon, Campers switch gears to look ahead for a panel discussion called What’s Next? This focuses on mobile applications, geolocation, video blogging and other new and emerging trends.

Let’s Get This Straight: Internal Brand Alignment looks at how brands work inside an organization. How do you achieve internal brand alignment with leaders, employees and other stakeholders (including the cynics)?

Brand Camp requires fun, good food and enjoyment. That tradition begun in 2009 continues with a day-ending Networking Event: Do the (Max’s Wine) Dive.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Day 2 of Brand Camp kicks off with a special session featuring agent branding. Social Networking: Now What? covers: Bringing in new business, B2B vs. B2C, strategies to make it work, blogging vis a vis Web site vis a vis Facebook/LinkedIn. Panelists are noted bloggers Chris Jordan, Atlanta Insurance Live, and Ryan Hanley, Albany Insurance Professional.

Brand Camp teams make their Interactive Marketing Challenge Presentations. While the winning team takes home a special prize, everyone takes home more knowledge and experience to make their brands more productive.

(After Brand, by invitation only, a luncheon event is open to Assurex Global attendees.)

Just showing up on social networking sites does not lead to social networking success. Rather, success comes from a commitment to delivering outstanding service, being a good communicator, implementing smart marketing initiatives, and being comfortable being transparent and authentic.

Note: What I’ve said above isn’t new for independent insurance agents and other insurance brands. Those points have long applied in our business. What is new is that you, as an insurance marketer, now have a whole new set of powerful tools to help you build relationships and grow your business.

The agencies below understand the difference between just using these tools and incorporating them in the the agency culture. They are making the transformation to become “social businesses.”

McClain Insurance Services
Atlanta Insurance Live
Parker Smith Feek

How are you transforming your business?

In this Podcast Doug Pullman, a member of the Parker, Smith & Feek marketing team, describes the planning and process this top 100 broker went through to prepare for their launch into the world of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and blogging. Doug discusses the very deliberate and measured approach the brokerage took, the importance of getting not only support but participation by senior management, and how success is tied to having a unified and comprehensive strategy.

Doug explains that the agency goal was to use social networking to help customers and prospects build a personal and emotional connection with the broker. They knew that they needed to be where 25% of their customer base was – the social Web. His advice to other agencies wanting to tap into the opportunity the social web offers: Take it slow, learn from others, and add your own voice.

The podcast was published Monday, August 9, 2010. Run time is 21 minutes 11 seconds.