SO it was well over a year ago when I first began to throw stones from my glass house, calling you all sorts of names, accusing you of being a NIMBY (“Not In My Backyard”) for not wanting to attract “that type of business” to your agency. Well, some of you have come over to the dark side and have seen the light of how the correct use of social media will benefit your agency, however, there are still many of you who still refuse to believe that programs such as Facebook, Twitter, and even quoting via your own agency website will help to impact your bottom line in a very positive fashion. Although I certainly agree that offering a live quote through your agency website is not for everyone (call me if you would like to chat about that), I do firmly believe (and can prove) that offering the ability to allow prospects to input data and request an auto or homeowners quote through your agency website or Facebook fan page is an absolute way to increase revenue and retention to your agency. Either way, this article is not for the non-believers, but for those who do believe and are looking to improve the effectiveness of what they are already implementing within their firm. For example, last month PIA of New York held their annual Hudson Valley Regional Awareness Program and Convention at The Doubletree Hotel in Tarrytown, NY, and one of the continuing education courses was a workshop on “Social Media and the Main Street Agent”. Through a “celebrity panel” (as I like to call it) that consisted of Linda Rey of The Rey Insurance Agency in Sleepy Hollow, NY; Joseph Majsak, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer of General Star Management Company; and myself (Michael Loguercio, Regional Sales Manager of EZLynx), PIA of New York Past President Donna Chipperino of Jimcor Agencies moderated a two hour interactive discussion between the panelists and the audience on not only the “whys” of setting up social media within your agency, but also on the “how to enhance it once you have it” and what you can expect if you do it correctly. Interestingly enough, the majority of agents who attended the seminar were already actively involved in some sort of social media, whether it was personally or through their agency. I sat on a panel for a similar continuing education course a little over a year ago, and when we asked the question of how many people are involved in some sort of social media, the results by a show of hands was quite different…less than half of the participants said they were. How times have changed!

Areas discussed in detail by the panel and the audience was: how do insurance agents / agencies; MGA’s, carriers, vendors, associations all social media. Who in your office should monitor social media and how. What have you done in your office to make sure employees do not abuse social media for personal use? Do you mention social media in your HR Manual? What is your social media marketing plan? How do you define / monitor the success of your plan? What do you see as the biggest obstacles when an insurance professional is looking at social media as a marketing tool? Why are people afraid of social media? What are the difficulties you have encountered with your social media plan? How can companies and MGA’s successfully market to agents on Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? How can agents successfully market utilizing tools like Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter? For someone new to all this who is not involved in social media at all, what should be their first step? What are the E&O exposures for agents, MGA’s, carriers and other insurance industry professionals when they are involved with social media (personally, professionally or both)? These are questions that a few years ago we never even had an inkling as to what they were even about!

If any of these questions are intriguing to you and if you would like to learn more, please give me a call or shoot me an email and I will be happy to discuss this with you. By now we should all have some sort of social media plan within our business, whether we philosophically conform to it or not, and make certain that our employees and clients are all well aware of what we are or are not offering to as far as not only the use of them by employees, as tools to increase business, or make ourselves aware of the insurance products available to protect against the unlawful use of these programs by our clients and employees. As this sort of change in philosophy to accept and embrace social media is being reflected not only in this thing of ours but in many other businesses as well, professional organizations are responding to assist people in learning new ways to successfully implement this sort of culture within their business. Industry groups are all offering their professional advice, as the utilization of social media type tools are becoming more prevalent. Recently, The Independent Insurance Agents Association and ACT (The Agents Council for Technology) released a whitepaper on “How does your agency extend its reach on Facebook beyond current fans?” This article explains step by step how you can use the” Tagging”, “Questioning” and “Contests tools” to create new potential business and individual prospects on Facebook. Written by Kevin Ament, Marketing Communications Manager at Progressive Insurance and reprinted by permission from Jeff Yates, Executive Director of ACT, the following are three tools for maximizing your Facebook reach: When working with agents in a recent Progressive social media workshop, several participants asked how they could get their Facebook posts to new audiences. Fortunately, Facebook offers a few easy tools for expanding your reach beyond current fans, enabling you to tap into their networks of hundreds, even thousands of prospects.

Here’s how:

Tool One: Tagging

What is it?

Tagging creates a connection between your agency’s Facebook page and the Facebook page of another local business you reference in your status update. There are two benefits of tagging rather than simply typing the business’s name in your status update. First, when you tag, not only does your status update appear in your News Feed and on your wall, but it also posts directly to the wall of your subject’s Facebook page, making it visible to anyone who visits your subject’s Facebook page. Secondly, the tag creates a link between your page and theirs; your fans can click the tag within your update to visit your subject’s page, and your subject’s fans can click the wall post to visit your page for more information.

How do you do it?

Before you can tag, you must use your agency page to “like” the subject’s business page. Once you’ve liked their page, you can now tag them in a status update. When referring to your subject, type the “@” symbol and their Facebook page name. You’ll see a drop-down menu of potential subjects you can tag. Once you post your update, it will appear on your wall and theirs, and the subject will receive a notification.

Example

You recently joined the Townsville Chamber of Commerce, and at your first monthly meeting, you meet several small business owners in your area. Searching on Facebook, you find business pages for both the Townsville Chamber of Commerce and fellow Chamber member Bill’s Bikes, a popular motorcycle dealership. Both pages have 500 fans. After using your agency page to “like” the pages for the Chamber and Bill’s Bikes, you type the following status update:

Great meeting today at the @Townsville Chamber of Commerce. Met Bill Miller from @Bill’s Bikes. Planning to stop by this weekend to see what’s on the showroom floor and drop off a few business cards for his customers.

By tagging their Facebook pages, 1,000 additional fans (primarily small business owners and motorcycle owners) have the opportunity to see your update. The Chamber and Bill’s Bikes benefit from your call-out, and fans of the Chamber and Bill’s Bikes can click the update to visit your page and learn more about commercial auto and motorcycle insurance from your agency.

Tool Two: Questioning

What is it?

Using the Question tool (rather than simply asking a question in a status update) enables your question to spread to the individual walls and News Feeds of anyone who answers. As your question moves through your fans’ social networks and beyond, many more users have the opportunity to answer your question and learn more about your agency.

How do you do it?

On your agency’s Facebook page, click the “Question” tab, then type the question you’d like to pose to your fans. Check “Add poll options” to create a list of potential answers, and check “Allow anyone to add options” to enable participants to add to your poll. Doing so creates more opportunity for engagement and can help circulate your agency name far beyond your original fan base as others add options to your list.

Example

Your agency participates in a number of charity events in your town, including several 5K walks. This year, three of the walks fall on the same Saturday, and your agency can attend only one. You’re having trouble choosing, so you ask your Facebook fans to vote on their favorite cause by posting the following Question: XYZ Agency will be sponsoring one of the 5K walks below. Help us decide which one by voting for your favorite.

[Option 1] Townsville Walk for Wishes

[Option 2] Walk for the Cure in downtown Townsville

[Option 3] Walk for Hunger supporting the Townsville Food Bank As your fans vote, the poll posts to their individual News Feeds, bringing your philanthropic message to their friends and family. The poll not only gives you a free way to promote your agency beyond your fan base, but aligns your agency with a popular cause or local business. If these events (or the groups organizing them) have Facebook pages, you can “tag” these pages in the list of options you post, building additional awareness for your agency.

Tool Three: Contests

What is it?

Using a third party vendor, Facebook allows you to host contests on your agency’s page. You can choose from several different types, including photo, video, sweepstakes, trivia and more. These contests can be used to build Facebook fans, generate customer engagement, and leverage your fans’ networks to generate prospects and build broader awareness of your agency.

How do you do it?

Select a third party vendor (Progressive uses Wildfire) that offers turnkey Facebook contests. There are a number of affordable options, some charging just $5 per campaign with an additional $1 a day while the contest is live. Create your contest online, using the vendor’s web interface. You’ll need to provide details on timing, official rules, the winner selection process, and information you want to collect from your participants. Once you’ve built your contest, you can publish it to your agency’s page and website, and you can promote it to your customers through email, Facebook, or any other medium, using the unique contest URL. As your fans participate in the contest, they can post their submission to their own Facebook pages and invite their friends to vote on an entry, building engagement and awareness. Vendors offer detailed measurement and data export functionality, so you can easily capture leads while monitoring traffic, submissions, engagement (comments and votes), and the effectiveness of your promotional communication.

Example

Say you want to promote a pet related coverage to pet lovers in your community. You hope to leverage your customers’ social networks to reach their friends and family, so you host a Pet Photo Contest on Facebook to spread the word. Customers can submit their pet pictures online in two categories—pet/owner look-alike and cutest pet—then vote on their favorites. After setting up the contest, you email the link to your customers, asking them to upload pictures of their pets and encourage their friends and family to vote for their submission. Customers invite their friends and family to vote on the contest site, which includes information about pet related coverage and contact information for your agency. The contest engages customers who are passionate about their pets, and as they ask their friends and family members to vote, helps build awareness of your agency and collect valuable leads you can target with future marketing. These three tools, when used strategically and creatively, extend your reach on Facebook, engage existing fans and build connections with other businesses in your community. Be sure to incorporate these tools into your Facebook strategy and learn how to use all the resources available to get the greatest return from your social media investment.

Note: See the “Websites & Social Media” page on the ACT website (www.iiaba.net/act )for additional articles and recorded webinars to assist your agency with your digital marketing strategies and implementation. As the fall insurance convention season winds down around town, one more conference that was again a huge success that I would be remiss if not mentioned in this column. The Independent Insurance Agents of Connecticut recently held their Mid-Year Convention at The Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville, CT, and again it was extremely well attended by both agents, carrier folks, and exhibitors (is it me or does it rain every year at this show?). Congratulations to the Executive Committee officers Tom Wilson of The Wilson Agency in Shelton, CT; Michael Gergler of Wilcox & Reynolds Insurance in Storrs, CT; Jim Suzio of Suzio Insurance in Meriden, CT; Kim McGillicuddy of Pierson & Smith in Norwalk, CT; Jay Byrnes of Byrnes Agency in Dayville, CT; Jared Carillo of Charles S. Carillo Agency in Windsor Locks, CT; Mary Pursell of Abbate Agency in New Haven, CT; and William Pierz of Sharf Darby Companies in Norwalk, CT for a job well done! Thank you also to people like Lysa Molnar and Marc Archambault from The Archambault Insurance Associates in Putnam, CT; Robert Thompson from The Thompson Agency in Collinsville, CT; Karen Diana from Peerless Insurance Company; Allyson Kataja from Hybrid Insurance Group in Windsor, CT; Bill Horton from Horton Insurance Services in Meriden, CT; Patricia Fahey of Tower Group Companies; and Jamie Soroka from The Byrnes Agency in Dayville, CT who came over to say hello!

Also at the PIA of NY Hudson Valley Conference seminar that presented on Social Media, it was nice to see people like Effie Tsoukalas of Excise Bond Company in Manhattan, NY; Dale Case of Sterling Insurance Company, in Cobleskill, NY; Kathy Jennings of The Jennings Group in Mamaroneck, NY; Nestor Nicolaides of Gold Coast Insurance Agency, in NY; and Marybeth Ross of Creative Risk Management in Nyack, NY. Thank you for attending and I hope that the seminar was helpful to you.

During the keynote luncheon, newly elected president, Richard Savino, CIC, CPIA, encouraged independent agents to embrace the millennial generation and its way of communicating in order to thrive in today’s business environment. “Independent agents simply must adapt and embrace the tools that will help us to succeed,” Rich said to his audience. “We must change our image and we have to stay up-to-date with our business models. We have to deliver 24/7 access; quote online; put ourselves into play and in favorable positions on search engines. We need to put away the paper files … and we need to communicate in a multigenerational way.” Mr. Savino noted that, while perpetuation has been an industry concern for more than 50 years, it remains important. He compared insurance’s independent agency distribution system to other industries and said it must adapt, or risk becoming outdated and replaced. He asserted that new, young professionals entering the industry are the vanguards of evolution, and enjoy greater possibilities than any other recent generation because of technological, logistical and underwriting and communication changes the industry will undergo.

“A recent survey found that younger consumers are much more interested in innovations such as mobile services; much more likely to shop around; and are the most promising market segments. And, more than three-quarters (76 percent) of millennials—those below 35 years of age— are interested in conducting business by using their mobile devices,” Mr. Savino said. “But, most importantly, young customers are the most willing to pay a premium to get products that meet their needs: Almost three-quarters of 18 to 24-year-olds said they were willing to pay more for it, compared to only a third of people over 55 years of age and 38 percent of 45- to 54-yearolds.” “This presents a huge opportunity for young people to enter and grow in our business,” he said. “… Young people entering our business now have opportunity we haven’t seen since the 1950s!”

Mr. Savino encouraged agents to recognize the skills and learning opportunities young professionals bring to their business and use the benefits PIA membership offers to help them do what they do best: “Independent agents’ strength has always been our unique knowledge of our customers and their needs. So, it’s only logical that we should embrace the tools that will help us do that,” he said. “We’ve always been the most effective distribution system for insurance because of this, and as the world gets smaller, our ability to act locally, using tools that are designed to help us target and focus these efforts, can only make us stronger. And I look forward to our success.”

Also during the luncheon, Hudson Valley RAP Chair Carl Abramson presented John Reiersen, CPCU, CFE, CIE, President of Kingstone Insurance Co. with the Executive of the Year award. Mr. Abramson called Mr. Reiersen “a true veteran of our industry,” noting his distinguished 25-year career at the New York State Insurance Department and 10 years as president and CEO of Kingstone Insurance Co., Kingstone, N.Y., “where he continues to enjoy a prominent and respected reputation throughout the industry and especially here in the Hudson Valley.” During his acceptance speech, Mr. Reiersen expressed his support for the repeal mandatory photo inspections that cause policyholders to lose physical damage coverage, a change supported by PIANY. He also thanked the agents in attendance for ranking Kingstone Insurance Co., No. 1 in overall performance during the 2010 PIANY Company Performance Survey. At the close of the luncheon, Yvonne Conte, motivational humorist, Humor Advantage Inc., presented “The positive power of humor.” Ms. Conte lead the audience in belly laughs and entertained them with humorous stories about her family. She also challenged everyone to get to know someone better because: “You can only help people when you know what matters to them.” According to Ms. Conte, once people know what matters to others, they have the ability to work better with each other. Ms. Conte also noted that changing negative perspectives into positive is how change happens, and that a positive attitude can benefit a person’s health, relationships and income: “If you work from a place of joy, you will have to turn business away,” said Conte. “If you are good and honest, people will want to do business with you.” Next time we meet we’ll talk about the upcoming Council of Insurance Brokers of Greater New York’s annual event, along with others than we may happen upon. One more note, congratulations to Michael Palfker of Member Brokerage in Queens, NY; and his lovely wife Jane on the birth of their son Samuel Corey Plafker!

Congratulations and God bless him! Until next time, from my family to yours, a very happy, healthy and safe Thanksgiving Day holiday! Ciao for now!