How Agencies Are Leveraging Social Networking

Technology Trailblazers Build Relationships, Business Receipts

There’s no better time for insurance agents and brokers to delve into social networking technologies than now, according to those who study marketing and technology trends. More than four in five U.S. online adults use social networking tools — Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and blogs — at least once a month, and half participate in social networks, according to Forrester Research.

Additionally, consider that Gartner research shows mobile consumers spent $4.2 billion in 2009 at mobile applications stores, and that figure is expected to jump to $30 billion by 2013, said George Redenbaugh, assistant treasurer and senior director of risk management for eBay. With such statistics, there’s no reason for insurance companies not to understand what social networking means to their businesses, said Redenbaugh, who is responsible for enterprise risk management, risk insurance programs, treasury systems and international cash management for the online auction site, and recently spoke at a Golden Gate Chapter of the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Society meeting.

Some innovative agents are already reaping the benefits of social networking. Jason Kennedy of Preferred Personal Insurance Agency in Frisco, Texas, for instance, said he wrote about 20 policies last year that he probably wouldn’t have had he not tapped into the latest tech tools. Amy Bryan of Bryan Insurance Agency LLC in New Windsor, N.Y., has found new customers, as well as talked to people who were interested in getting into the industry through the social networking site Facebook.

Agents who are afraid that they’re too far behind the eight ball, don’t have enough time to get educated, or just not hip enough with today’s technologies should not let that stop them from dabbling in the new media.

“While young people continue to march toward almost universal adoption of social applications, the most rapid growth occurred among consumers 35 and older,” Forrester Research said. “This means the time to build social marketing applications is now. Interactive marketers should influence social network chatter, master social communication, and develop social assets — even if their customers are older.”

Rick Dinger, president of Crescenta Valley Insurance in Glendale, Calif., said at age 43, he feels like he’s “behind the curve,” although he started marketing himself and his agency on Facebook and YouTube two years ago. But he said even his in-laws who are in their mid-60s have Facebook pages. And like other agency innovators Insurance Journal spoke with, Dinger found that just 10 minutes a day can pay off with promising results.

“Social networking is a good way to stay in front of people; it’s a self-branding type of thing,” Dinger said. If you constantly update and grow your online community, you can generate business and get immediate gratification, he said.

New York: Bryan Insurance Agency LLC

New Windsor, N.Y.-based Bryan Insurance Agency handles of mix of approximately 65 percent personal lines, and 35 percent commercial lines business in New York’s Hudson Valley Region. As owner, Amy Bryan has worked with regional, smaller regional and larger companies, and has found success with social networking tools because they are an extension of why she got into the insurance business and started the agency; she likes the interaction in dealing with customers and helping people.

Within the agency, Bryan has explored such social media as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and a blog. She also is looking into incorporating other tools, such as video, to use within the agency. She has approximately 400 friends on her personal Facebook page, and about 225 fans on her Facebook Fan page.

“What sparked my interest is I think that’s a way people are communicating nowadays,” Bryan said. “And so if that’s how people are communicating, then it’s important as an agency that we’re on there as well, communicating with them. … This business is all about networking and building up relationships, and I think that using these types of tools, it’s not different than building a relationship, you’re just doing it online versus face-to-face.”

She noted that in the past two years that she’s embraced the technology, she’s learned a lot, even if she spends just 10 to 15 minutes a day updating her pages. For instance, she started out using social media as sales opportunity and hoping to see an immediate return. Now, instead of trying to tell people what services her company offers, she tries to make her social networking sites resources.

“Now we’re more informational to people, so that when they think of insurance, if they need anything, they know that we’re always here, but they can also use us as a resource as well,” Bryan said.

She added that she also has tried to make the information more personal, rather than using a canned, already written piece of information. This helps to make the interaction more personal, even though it is taking place via computers. “It’s no different than sitting down and having a cup of coffee with someone,” she said.

Bryan noted the Facebook Fan page, in particular, has helped her agency’s to interact with customers and keep them updated on things that are going on within the company. For instance, when it was snowy, the agency posted information on Facebook that was broadcast with Twitter about safe driving during the winter. The Fan page also has been useful in that it provides statistics on age range, countries, languages spoken and gender of “fans.” Such market research is helpful in that it tells Bryan who’s watching her company and cares what she has to say.

Knowing who’s “listening” online is important, Bryan said, because it helps to establish personal relationships. “A lot of people will take information from other places nowadays on the Internet,” she said. Consequently, social networking tools need to “fit the personality of your agency in order for people to believe in you and follow you. … You have customers for a reason: They like doing business with you. So you kind of have to take that and project that on the Internet.”

Texas: Preferred Personal Insurance Agency

Preferred Personal Insurance Agency is a personal lines agency that writes coverage through Travelers, Hartford, Safeco, and MetLife, among other carriers. While the company’s owners aren’t frequent users of new media, Frisco, Texas-based Preferred Personal Insurance agent, Jason Kennedy, said he’s taken it upon himself to use the tools.

Kennedy’s involvement with social networking tools began because he had so many friends on the network that they encouraged him to join in. He set up a personal Facebook page about a year and a half ago that includes information about what he does, such as describing that he’s a sales representative in the insurance business. He later developed a Fan page that is slightly more career-focused, and has helped him to write about 20 policies last year that he probably wouldn’t have found, if it wasn’t for the new media, he said.

“Facebook has been pretty good for me … because it put me into contact with some people that I went to high school with that I probably never would have spoken to had it not been for connecting with them on Facebook,” Kennedy said. “I’ve written [insurance for] several of them, just because people see I’m on there and they’ll say, ‘I trust this guy, so I’ll get a quote from him.'”

He noted that having an online presence helps to distinguish him from the competition. “It’s an extremely competitive market out there. Up here, everybody wants to write. Anyway I can get my name out there, I’m going to do it. … All my business is on referral and word of mouth.”

California: Crescenta Valley Insurance

Family owned Glendale, Calif.-based Crescenta Valley Insurance provides personal, commercial, life, health and group insurance, as well as retirement planning. With such a breadth of services, President Rick Dinger said using YouTube and Facebook has helped to grow the business.

Dinger said he began using the tools about two years ago when a younger friend of his at an industry board meeting started talking about the networking tools. “I had no clue what it was, so I said, ‘I have to see that,'” Dinger said. He started by signing up for a Facebook page, then started getting friend requests. The numbers started to add up —and that’s when he realized the technology could be used as a self-branding tool.

Gradually, Dinger built a business Fan page and began advertising with a per click charge. He said this helped to get his name and face in front of people strictly in the cities he wanted to appear, and he immediately saw an influx of business.

“Twenty-five dollars per day is a great way to stay in front of people,” noting he only pays when people click on the ad.

“With search engine optimization [on a Web site], I always felt like I was flushing money down the toilet because I couldn’t see or feel the results.” Dinger said he spent thousands on SEO to improve the presence of his Web site, and saw little change in business. Whereas with pay per click advertising on Facebook, he only spent a few hundred dollars and saw immediate results.

Additionally, because friends use Facebook by entering their e-mail accounts, Dinger found the networking tool helps to build a database of people he wants to do business with and send a newsletter to. He said he has more than 700 Facebook friends. Of those numbers, he said about 150 are clients, and another 400 are good potential clients.

“I don’t have figures per se [on how much Facebook has contributed to my business], but I know I’ve written accounts for people who I haven’t seen where they write and say, “Hey, I have a problem,” Dinger said.

He said a friend he played football with in high school recently contacted him via Facebook. The friend bought a business and needed insurance coverage. Because the friend didn’t know what agent handled insurance for the business previously, he gave the business to Dinger.

Meanwhile, Dinger has created a commercial that he broadcast via YouTube that has received 6,000 to 7,000 hits. “How much business does it drive my way? I don’t know, but it can’t hurt, trying to be in front of as many people as possible,” he said.

Topics Texas Agencies Tech