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Social media

Some 55 insurance professionals attended the morning education session: Social Media and the Insurance Industry: Friend or Foe? PIANY immediate past President Donna Chiapperino lead a panel that included: Linda Rey, AMIM, partner of Rey Insurance Agency in North Tarrytown, N.Y.; Michael Loguercio Jr., regional sales manager for Webcetera–EZLynx; and Joe Majsak, CPCU, ARM, senior vice president of General Star Management Co., and chief marketing officer.

Rey began the discussion about why insurance agents are using social media: "People want you to be a resource, but they want to know you're a person too," she said. Social media allows agents to engage and interact with their customers and prospects that hopefully will lead to people doing business with an agency.

Each member of the panel expressed enthusiasm for using social media in their everyday business and offered advice to independent agents on how they can incorporate these practices in their businesses. The panel also noted the ways consumers are doing business is changing and encouraged agents to embrace social media.

According to Majsak, 80 percent of younger people use social media every day. His advice on where to start: "Get a younger person on your team to tell you what social media is about."

For those just starting out in the social media arena, Loguercio told people to hire a professional to help them develop their social media plan, or for those who want to tackle it on their own, start by learning how to use it well.

When asked for advice on where to start to develop an agency's social media outreach, Majsak suggested agents consult with someone for help; find a mentor and talk to him or her about his or her own social-media experiences; and lean on your trade association for help.

Rey offered: "If you have a website, you know your message. Social media is no different—build your profile and what information you want to display." 

Chiapperino reminded those in attendance that PIA members have access to the Agency Marketing Tool Kit, which helps insurance professionals develop their own marketing campaigns and includes a section dedicated to social media, with ready-made Tweets and suggestions about what to post on Facebook. The tool kit can be found online.

Another important step an agency needs to consider is how to establish a system to develop content: "In real estate, it's ‘Location, location, location.' In social media, its: ‘Content, content, content,'" said Rey. An agency should develop content its employees can use to represent the agency's brand and build relationships, she noted.

When a member of the audience asked how the panelists allocate their time and resources when dealing with social media, Majsak replied: "Plan. Sit down and plan." He noted that it was important to figure out a strategy now when there are just three major social-networking sites (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn): "What happens when the next one comes along?" he asked.

When the topic of monitoring employees' use of social media was brought up, Rey noted that her agency has a section in its personnel manual outlining what is expected of its employees with regard to social media use in the office. Loguercio noted the importance of trusting your employees: "You need to give them the ability to access these tools because they can help promote and expand a business."

When discussing the benefits of using social media platforms in the insurance business the panelists noted their style and purpose.

"Social media is a place to build relationships," said Majsak. "Social networking is a place to have fun—where you meet people for the first time and they start to like you. People do business with the people they like."

Added Loguercio, "People may shop for insurance on the Internet, but they buy [policies] from people they like."

The panel reminded participants that monitoring their own social media sites to keep track of what others are saying about the agency on the Internet is important. Regarding reputation management, Rey suggested people set up Google Alerts, which is a free service from Google, to monitor when a word or group of words, such as an agency's name, is mentioned anywhere monitored by Google. An attendee agreed: "Even if you're not on social media people still can talk about you."

E&O in everyday events

During the afternoon education session, E&O Loss Prevention for Insurance Agents & Brokers, Ivan Cohen, CRM, CIC, AAI, CPIA, CRIS, provided instruction to help attendees walk away with a better understanding of how their day-to-day operations might expose them to an errors-and-omissions issue. He said most people think about E&O exposures once a situation has made it to court, but insurance professionals need to understand how they get there, before it happens to them.

As an example of a day-to-day operation that may lead to an E&O situation, Cohen asked participants to consider using a cell phone to conduct business. While most insurance professionals have a disclaimer on their business voicemail about what can and cannot be bound via voicemail, many do not include a similar disclaimer on their cell phones. Cohen asks: "What's the difference?" Additionally, Cohen said, it's also a good idea to avoid answering "What-if" questions. "Never interpret how a claim would be on a policy," said Cohen.