August 20th, 2010 | 
Author: So many insurance folks are asking, “If I get into Social Media, what do I say? _____ insurance is so boring. Plus people don’t really want to have it – it’s like going in for a physical or check-up….” I don’t know about you, but to me that seems like a cop-out, an attempt to avoid having to learn something new, or just fear of the unknown. But it’s worse than that, depending on how senior the person is in the organization, because it creates a drag on the SocialTech effectiveness of the organization. But most of all, it’s untrue. Here’s a terrific example from this week.
Yesterday, New York Life hit the Social Media nail on the head with a combo Facebook fan page update/blog post. I’m tracking New York Life on my Facebook profile, not because I’m a customer, but because they got my attention somehow (I think through email), showed me a Facebook button, I clickedin on it, and hit the “Like” button. I’m more interested in their social strategies than their insurance products right now, but you never know, right? So now a few times a week I see what they are doing in my Facebook Newsfeed.
The Facebook feed said this, (in case you’re not on Facebook yet I’ll copy/paste)
As sad as I am to say it, summer is almost over and you know what that means… School is about to start and for some, college is vastly approaching, which brings us to the question: Are you ready to pay for it? Starting a college fund has been the solution for some families; however, what do you suggest? What have you done to save?
The link then said this,
Start a College Fund: 8 Strategies
Hmmm. Nice little segway from a reference to time-of-year to educational info without a sales pitch. There were a few “Likes”, a few “Comments” – some action. So I clicked through to see what the landing page looked like. (By the way, New York Life has 2,700 Facebook Fans – not a whole lot for a company of it’s size, but enough to start a viral marketing process. By this time next year, if they play their cards right, it could be 27,000… perhaps 270,000 in two years – FOR FREE and reaching fans who prefer Facebook for their news and information – AHA!.)
IMHO, the landing page is terrific.
What works well:
- Good branding, but not overwhelming. I clicked through from a branded Facebook link, so I expect to see a brand reinforcement image. The new tab also has the brand thumbnail. And the URL is newyorklife. So I’m comfortable in seconds.
- It’s got a Facebook Like button right away, so I know I’m going to be able to Like it and Share it with my friends – useful. By the way, I’m coming from Facebook, so if there WASN’T a Facebook Like, it would be counterintuitive.
- The orange “Get a Quote” buttons are good but not overwhelming. OK, I know the company is trying to sell insurance. But they are clearly trying to offer useful and timely advice along the way. So I don’t mind being given the opportunity to take action if the article underscores a gap I have in my financial situation. In fact, that’s why I clicked-through, right? Let me check out these 8 Tips and see how my situation stacks up…
- They also have a phone icon on the left if you want to speak to someone right now. Absolutely. Channel of Choice.
- Love the Mom kissing the baby on the right. Links to another page dealing with parents and that particular life event. Good. (Boy, what a great chance for a viral video right there about new parents and babies and life insurance.)
- Most of all, the content is good. OK, it’s a little long, but that because of the compliance text. And it’s 8 Tips, so that’s a lot of info. But you need a lot of info on this particular subject, right? Surely this content was scrubbed by NYLife compliance – but it’s still good, not too heavy with industry lingo, uses a lot of keywords, good stuff.
What do you like about it? Thoughts on my Comments? Please Comment below.
Issues: Mostly minor things. The list is longer, but the issues don’t outweigh the good.
- I think they forgot to turn off the italicized font, perhaps right after the ‘compliance’ text in item #1, so right after the “Keep in mind…” paragraph.
- Not SmartPhone-friendly – same exact Web page…. should use a browser-sniffer and optimize the page for the tech environment.
- Not Search Engine Optimized – could do a lot more with title tags, alt tags, tag cloud, and page source.
- Links to resources do not open in a new Tab or Window – critically important and such a common mistake. So if I click on a link, that doesn’t mean I’m done with the original page, I just want to follow that trail for a sec. But if I’m done with that trail or get distracted, I might close that tab or window . Then I’ve lost the original page I was reading – and the brand has lost the sales op. Make sense?
- Not enough linking to external resources on keywords like Section 529 – great resource on wikipedia for that.
- “Share this Article” on the right should just be a ShareThis button next to the Facebook Like at the top (similar to what I have below)
- The Comment box should already be open at the bottom. You want to encourage Comments. Remember that someone who engages with your content is far more likely to Share and return to the page – and THAT’S the Holy Grail.
- The “Consult an Agent” form is too heavy-handed on the page. Perhaps they could have been satisfied with the repeat of the orange box from the top, Btw, that’s a nice little widget (which should also open up in a new tab, right?) with a decent viral marketing and data collection Thank You page (could do a LOT more with that page).
That’s is for now – my hour’s up. GTG. Hope this was helpful. Please Comment and Share. Would be eternally grateful for the viral help.
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Awesome SocialTech Strategy by State Farm. Also a form of Crowdsourcing – internal. Brilliant. I’m going to use the app.
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Picture from my recent family camping trip to the Adirondacks. See all the pics here. Olympic stuff, cliff jumping, YT cooking, scenic shots. Epic trip.
Posted in Enterprise Social Technology, Insurance-Technologies, PIMA, Socially Facilitated Selling, blog | 
Tags: Blog Consulting, group life insurance, Insurance, Insurance Blogs, New York Life, PIMA, Sales, Social Media Marketing, Social Tech Workshops, Social Technology, Socially Facilitated Selling, SocialTech
Insurance is a great place for social media in actuality. Yes, the products may lack some color but this is the exact reason social media is an ideal marketing medium. Here are three key reasons:
1. Insurance is a no touch, no feel product set, hence, word-of-mouth sales is a crucial marketing strategy to invoke and there is no place better than social media formats for word-of-mouth.
2. The cost to bring a "personality" to insurance to make it likeable is huge, i.e., Geico's Gecko, Progressive's Flo and an ongoing stream of other personality driven brands cost insurance marketers a bundle.
3. it works. In the UK, the rage is http://www.comparethemarket.com which has solid metrics backing the social media strategy (see mashable.com, http://mashable.com/2009/04/05/compare-the-meerka... )
So, while social media formats for insurance may seem risky, those that plan, test and execute in this medium may uncover a wealth of opportunity.
Scott
Mike,
I think their general strategy does hit the nail on the head, but those text blocks of legalese are murder. You're in the business and interested, so you read through. I'd love to see what their bounce rate is on that landing page. I'll bet it's very high. The average person will see all that text and say, "nah-ah!" I'd suggest they ease people into the detailed language. I know they're required by law to include certain language, but they don't have to place it up top. They need a headline that really communicates the benefit, then copy that leads the visitor by the hand, entertaining and gently persuading at the same time. Lots of subheads, bulleted lists, graphics, etc. to keep things interesting… maybe even multimedia.They can afford a video with good production values… that might help w/ the required legal language info too.
If I worked for New York Life I would be giving you a heartfelt thanks. Nice review Mike. As someone who shares a passion and vocation for social media in the insurance world, I agree that New York Life got it right. Especially in a world where so many folks get it wrong or just don't get it at all.
You may interested to see what we did with Facebook. My division of Aon is in the affinity business. One of our groups is the RN community. We created a campaign that promoted our brand by asking nurses to nominate an "outstanding nurse". Our followers went from a few dozen to almost four thousand. The campaign was a huge success and earned us a Best of PIMA award for 2010. http://www.facebook.com/nsocares?ref=ts
Hi Mike:
As always, a great question and great insight. I want you to know, I now steal your ideas and recycle them for Advisen. We are replicating your feedback to NYL by looking at our site with a neutral eye. Please keep up the real nuts-and-bolts blogging! Thanks…
David
Hi Mike
Great post and some cool analysis there. As an addition to your comments, here are few things they could implement straight away:
WEBSITE:
1) Social media being mainstream "now", I'd expect the social media icons/buttons to be VERY prominent and visible and that too above the scroll (they've got it in the footer)
2) They can make the website a bit more interactive, by streaming their Facebook page content or their Twitter tweets.
3) Part of social media is merging the online and offline methods, so a "free phone" number would be a nice to have, and again it should be visible above the scroll.
FACEBOOK PAGE:
1) Instead of the landing on the "Wall" tab, they can set up a "Welcome" page where there is a strong call to action:- To "like" the page and maybe offer some free "high value" report as an incentive. Something like this: http://www.facebook.com/GrabOne (of course, without being too 'salesy').
2) They "should" engage in the conversation, what I mean by this is, if fans are leaving comments, they should respond to those comments, thereby engaging in a meaningful conversation, answering their queries/concerns…this way, the fans become evangelists and the effect is viral.
3) They may wish to host EVENTS, say a webinar on "How to save 50% on your life insurance premium". This alone would have an immense viral effect.
My 2 cents anyways.
Cheers from down under!
Ash Patel
Social Media Author
Citizen of Planet Earth
Comments add so much richness to a conversation. Really appreciate the dialog – great insights.
Scott Hilchey – on target as always. I saw that Mashable article as well. Again, I don't buy the "We're too boring for Social" excuse. I think by the end of this year, a LOT more insurance folks will be opening up on Social. What do you think about blogs, Scott? A necessary component?
Bob Leonard – thanks for joining the thread. Solid insights. Especially agreed with the vid remark. Especially with kids and college, an enormous opportunity for a viral video. Yep, the legaleze is a killer; perhaps size 6 font with a magnifier mouse-over? No one is interested in the compliance text. Nice B2B data points on your blog. Are you finding your blog to be a good investment of time and energy? Any success storied to share?
John Pogas, thanks as always and good to see you are re-energized on your blog – http://johnpogas.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/the-wav.... Yep, the Aon Nurses Facebook site is a fantastic idea – nominate your favorite nurse. Love it. Kudos to you all for winning Best of PIMA. Can't wait to see the Case Study. Got a picture of the award submission here: http://mikewise07.smugmug.com/PIMA/PIMA2010MY/129...
David, you THIEF! Love to help Advisen save some steps and some time. Glad you're in PIMA – adding a lot of value. Rookie of the YEAR!
Ash, welcome to the blog as well. Glad to have veteran insights from a published author (and thx for the encouragement on my book, albeit slow-going). Absolutely right on the engagement Comment. Great suggestion – hope they see it. I need to take it to heart myself. I've found the whole online conversation in this media to be like a stairstep. The floor is reading and subscribing. Then Step One is generating content. Two is asking for and receiving Comments. And Step Three is Commenting on the Comments. Would you agree based on your experience?
Mike,
Re your question about blogs – I view them as the foundation of social media. You (a company or an individual) need to establish a personality and a voice (a brand), and a blog helps with that. It also provides content that can then be socialized via appropriate platforms (Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.). When I do the above (and I need to do it much more often) my website traffic triples or quadruples. The trick is having quality content – useful and relevant to the target audience.
Glad to share my views, Mike.
I like your Stair step analogy and yes, I agree about generating comment, asking/receiving comments and responding to the comments…and with social networking platforms like Facebook, it can grow viral rapidly.
Just to cite an example:
In Dec last year, I shared my goals for this year on my "wall" and 'asked' for my friends to share their goals as well. Result: 10 "likes" and 109 comments. Now, assuming an average of just 1000 friends/person, my wall post reaches about 100,000 people. Imagine this for company branding and also the fact that so many people must have got empowered and inspired by reading the goals of their friends. Such is the incredible power of Social Media. (BTW, here's the link to that wall post: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=199377&...
Mike, I'm excited about the Social Tech book we're collaborating on, and am looking forward to share these and many more ideas, strategies and tips to leverage the power of social media.
Just FYI: I thought this discussion would be valuable to New York Life, so for their benefit, I just posted it on my wall by 'tagging' their 'page': http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1794775581...
Bye for now and let's finish our book soon :o)
Ash
Nice job Mike! As a late commentor on this discussion it is great to see all the others experts comments and good suggestions. While I don't have any specific comments on the NYL post, in general I believe that Social Media is an amazing thing! However, I also believe that it can be a time-wampire if not used properly. On the other hand, for professionals like you and other on this thread, it is the best thing since slice bread, provided you use it properly, of course. No questions, the train will not stop and the growth will be huge in the coming future…. This is my first time commenting on your site and look forward to coming back…..take care and keep it up!
Victor
Bob, right on point. A solid Blog is the cornerstone of a Social Media presence. Looking forward to talking to you more off-line about your value-prop.
Ash, outstanding Case-Study-type data-points. Have you done a Case Study – you should do one.
VICTOR CASTELLANOS!!! OMG! Out of NOWHERE! WOW! Welcome to the conversation. I've GOT to get you started on this. You will be a blogging rockstar! (Here's a classic picture of the photogenic Victor, btw. http://bit.ly/dduQJx) You are so right about Social being a time-vampire. Like anything else, you have to be careful about time management. But with new tools like Tweetdeck, you can update and listen to multiple Social Networks from a single interface. It then appears as if you are doing more than you really are. Yep, keep coming back and Commenting. I try to update on Thu or Fri. Make sure you drop a hyperlink back to your site or to Linkedin so readers can see more about you as well. Thanks for joining. Hope the MedSupp conference is coming together…
Great post Mike. I think it comes down to companies not having a documented plan for both short and long term. They also don't have anyone to manage the plan and the social media. I also see what you are saying about your tag cloud.
Mike, OK I'm back and thanks for the pic, you're photo gallery of the events, etc. is AWESOME! I'm all for trying new things more fun and exposure. So here and now I commit to becoming more active in the world of Social Media, with your help, right? I'll be sure to ck back in on a regular basis. Until then take care…
Mike, awesome and thorough analysis! We need more examples of the Do's and Dont's when it comes to social media. B2B Marketers are adopting social media, but they have lots of questions! I blogged about this very thing today – Top 10 Social Media Questions Businesses Have….
Nice post Mike. I think social is growing in insurance even though the compliance issue is holding many back. There are many great innovative examples. I think the key takeaway from NYL in this example is that bottom line, there needs to be a link/segue between social media and a 'call to action' however subtle. Insurance companies do not have conversations with customers, and it is unclear whether that is beneficial given the critical role of the agent. It is important to promote relevant discussions on subjects that encourages peer to peer conversations and triggers a potential need.
Terry, great take. But perhaps insurance companies SHOULD be having a dialog with customers. 85% of Social Media users expect to interact with their brands on Social Media. http://www.coneinc.com/content1182
Interesting that you mention Compliance. I'm working on a mini-project for an insurance company as we speak, in collaboration with Randa Zalman at Redstone (social media guru also familiar with insurance – http://www.redstonespark.com/TeamMember.aspx?dep=.... The project will deliver a very strong educational piece on Social Media and Social Technologies specifically for a compliance department, finishing with a Social Media Policy and Social Media Marketing Guidelines. Should be useful. Thoughts?
Mike, thanks ever so much for this great post — indeed, as John P. suggested, our "heartfelt thanks." I'm not as certain that we've really "nailed" it quite yet, but I'm sure we're doing some things right, and happy to see how transparent our strategy is to a keen observer.
But you and your commenters are also absolutely correct that we still have some issues: I won't debate them point-by-point — indeed, I would concede most of them! I could offer a few excuses, but they wouldn't be especially unique to New York Life or indeed many other enterprises. (Never enough time in the day, never enough resources to accomplish aeverything that we could and should be doing…) So, thanks again for pointing out what we're doing well, and you can count on it that we're going to be doing even better.
Great points Mike!
First I think its fantastic that you are following companies that you may not be doing business with, to help your readers and their company learn about social media.
Second these are are very valid points and great advise for the rest of us to optimize our own strategies.
Thanks!
I found this to be an interesting post. Social media marketing has become an increasing popular means of advertising for the insurance industry. Creating a company web site, starting a Facebook page or joining twitter isn’t the hard part. It’s attracting your audience. Just because you build it does not mean they will come. I think the NYL post was a successful one.
I am looking forward to your class in October at our Conference!