Social Media & Insurance?

Watching a solid social media hype video which has some interesting factoids, I started thinking about adoption in the insurance industry. My knee-jerk reaction was to say the insurance industry would be 10 years behind the times again, but insurance professionals are already using some social media tools.

Tons of Job Finding is done through LinkedIn, Twitter, online job boards, etc.

But Travelers is on Twitter for auto insurance news/promotion; The Hartford is also on Twitter including a recent Tweet about their new CEO's podcast (very web 2.0...)

FaceBook is used by some insurance companies for Groups (discussions/Q&A type of stuff). GEICO is pretty clever with a "Page" and some groups around their cavemen characters. GEICO also features FaceBook on its home page so that policyholders can recommend GEICO to others.

Obviously ACORD believes in video, as does AgencyPort. But most use of YouTube is for re-runs of tv ads like those by Hiscox.

Blogging works, even in large commercial where the D&O Diary is a good example of a niche that Kevin covers really well.

If traditional marketing agencies don't offer social media as a skill-set to insurance company clients, boutique providers of such services will inevitably crop up. As the video says, it's not a fad, it's here to stay.

I'm not going to be talking about D&O anymore, not for a lack of love for all things litigious, but instead because I have a new crush - I've fallen for insurance distribution technology. Who knew that agent portals or commercial auto upload was so hot? I've joined AgencyPort and am blogging about automating insurance transactions.

Lastly, it's my nephew's birthday today and he asked "Can I do dangerous stuff now that I'm 4?"