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Geeky, Nerdy and Social Media

The Prudential Way to a Longer Life

Prudential is one of the last big financial services com-

panies to embrace social media. The official Face-

book page opened less than four months ago and its

Twitter handle is barely a month old. The delay, ac-

cording to Keith Gormley, director of social media

management, was in large part due to managing the

internal ownership issues and the naturally slowing

effect of compliance and legal concerns. It has taken

over 18 months to reach the rollout stage, requiring in

its wake, creation of a 140-page manual to cover eve-

ry conceivable eventuality and situation.

Social media for Prudential forms part of a broader

marketing vision — a comprehensive content market-

ing strategy — to associate the company with discus-

sion around increasing longevity and the implicit need

to plan accordingly. The objective is to educate, and

Prudential works with behavioral scientists, social psy-

chologists and others to create content to better un-

derstand and address why some people plan and oth-

ers do not. Gormley sees the approach as closer to

Public Radio International’s “This American Life” or

Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point than to product

literature.

(Continued on page 2)

What Does the Customer Want to Talk

About?

American Collectors takes to the Road

People join social networks to share cool videos, fun topics,

news, life events and even bad jokes; they do not come to

discuss insurance. Some insurers have made legitimate

attempts to join the party by making people laugh, as with

Allstate’s Mayhem, or host topics of community interest, as

is the case with USAA. For the majority of insurers, howev-

er, the value is less clear. Sure, insurers must now be pre-

sent on social networks, but to what gain?

For many insurers, one objective is to provide existing cus-

tomers with another communication channel and hopefully

encourage them to pass news or at least acknowledge

some existing relationship to people in their own networks.

Social is todays word of mouth and it works faster and is

more efficient.

Sharing is the holy grail because information comes from a

person they know and probably trust rather than from an

insurance company, which they probably do not trust. But

getting people to share is hard. Sharing happens because

someone comes across something really interesting will be

welcomed by friends and family. No one wants to know as

the dreaded over-sharer.


The Customer Respect Group P.O. Box 266

Ipswich, MA 01938 978.412.4047

www.customerrespect.com

Social Media News for Insurers

Contents Volume 3 Number 3 | May 2013

Prudential Story ………………………….. American Collectors Hit the Road…………

Facebook League Tables and Notes ...… The Boston Marathon Reaction ………….. LinkedIn table and Notes………………….. Twitter Table and Notes…...………………. Social Customer Service………………….. Social Media for FinServices Conference.. Around the Horn………………………...…..

1,2,3 1,4,5 6,7,8 9 10 11 12 13 14


Prudential

posted on the Facebook page. According to Gormley,

”People are more comfortable sharing stories on Facebook.

These are very personal stories. On Facebook, they are

sharing them with people. On the microsite, they are shar-

ing them with a brand. Without any contest incentive, it is

just doesn’t feel as natural.”

The range of content is extensive, from the factoids to a

branded documentary series (“The Brain Is to Blame”) host-

ed by social psychologist, Adam Alter, examining how peo-

ple see themselves in the future. Also available are a range

of interactive activities that are designed to be both fun and

informative and use gamification to engage.

Recently added is a blog-style section called “Roundtable”,

with contributions from independent experts and thought

leaders from institutions such as Yale, Harvard and Carne-

gie Mellon. These leaders contribute without payment, hap-

py to see their academic interests promoted.

Products and services are never mentioned, and Gormley

says, “The objective is to look at the issues from the per-

spective of how people see them, rather than from our com-

pany product viewpoint — or even to help them with day to

day issues such as understanding their 401(k) statements.”


Selling the concept internally was surprisingly easy,

according to Gormley: These are exactly the issues that

come up regularly in internal discussions. It might even

be seen as the “nerdy or geeky side of the business”

and Gormley recalls a typical reaction as, “Hey! You are

speaking our language but you made it so people out-

side our group understand it.”

The Content Menu

The key ingredient is content, and lots of it, and all the

time. Content in many formats, as well as deliverables

that can reach many different types of people. Gone are

the days of pushing the same content through broad-

cast media. It was critical to create content that was

appealing, interesting and informative. The overriding

objective is to encourage sharing.

Content needed to be modular, with every piece able to

stand alone. In many cases the content was made to be

“snackable” and appealing, with an instantly clear. Ex-

amples include factoids such as: “The first person to

live to 150 is alive today” and “You have a better

chance of living to 100 than having blue eyes.”

Prudential has created an interactive microsite, but

learned an important lesson early on. The microsite

asks for stories about the “oldest” person someone has

known. They found, however, that more stories were

(Continued from page 1)

“Hey! You are speaking our

language but you made it so

people outside our group

understand it.”

Typical internal campaign reaction provided to Keith

Gormley,

Director of social media management, Prudential

Click on image to watch the first episode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nSpd44SPiw


The Role of Social

The campaign could have run without social media — and

would have done so in the past — but social media offers

tremendous new opportunities to expand reach as well

provide valuable ongoing insight and feedback from com-

ments and activity data.

Distribution through social media depends on having an

initial audience and, as a late entry, Prudential’s Facebook

fan base was relatively small. Much of the initial promotion

used sponsored posts, which Gormley now feels was an

advantage. “This allowed us to reach exactly the people

most likely to be interested in the conversation. We did not

reach large numbers of unqualified individuals, as can

happen once you have a large fan base. We think that, as

a consequence, we were able to limit the volume of nega-

tive responses.”

In addition, the content was promoted through other online

channels, such as paid-for questions on the online edition

of “Jeopardy” and innovative banner ads on The New York

Times website. The banner ad allowed viewers to see the

paper’s front page on their own birth date and compelling

enough to be extensively shared —resulting in an addi-

tional 2,000 Twitter followers.

Day to Day Logistics

The initial approach on Facebook has expanded to Twit-

ter, LinkedIn and YouTube. A full-time team of five manag-

es day-to-day activity, updating an advisory group that

numbers about 30.

Just two people are authorized to tweet on the company’s

behalf. (This does not extend to mobile phones, to reduce

the risk of a mislaid phone.)

(Continued from page 2) What Does Success Look Like?

Most key metrics revolve around engagement. At this

early stage, what content is shared, what gains com-

ments and, to a lesser extent, what is “liked.” Variables

include format, topic, delivery process, length, visual

appeal and wording, and all are correlated to demo-

graphic mix.

Prudential does not sell direct to consumers; client in-

teractions are done through financial representatives,

and Prudential regard themselves more as B2B. The

ultimate goal is to educate the consumer enough that

they feel the need to seek out an professional adviser.

To this end, the call to action is never more than a click

away, either product information or to find an advisor.

Pru and the Agent

Prudential has compliance and legal concerns at the

forefront, but are working on pilot projects while testing

software for record keeping and content distribution.

With the current campaign geared more toward content

and brand marketing, it is not necessarily appropriate to

roll it out to the field as is. The expected platform of

choice for agents is more LinkedIn, a platform agants

are more comfortable with and with most professional

prospects and customers already there. Changes to

LinkedIn to allow presentations, videos and other con-

tent to be centrally managed and locally distributed

adds to that appeal.

“Snackable” content is a vital part of the mix

http://www.bringyourchallenges.com/

http://mashable.com/2013/04/02/new-york-times-prudential-ad/


Some insurers have an easier job than others, but execu-

tion is still critical. American Collectors Insurance of Cherry

Hill, New Jersey, insures collectibles and collector vehi-

cles. To generalize just for a minute, car collectors love

cars and talking about cars. But they probably still do not

like insurance.

The call center is constantly inundated with customers de-

scribing engine rebuilds, body work and original parts; but

most of all—cool road trips.

So American Collectors produced and launched a series of

webisodes, “American Detours”, about road trips with two

presenters on scenic highways driving classic cars: Taking

a 1963-1/2 Ford Galaxie for a spin down the Creole Nature

Trail in Louisiana, for example. The shows are not just

about cars. They are about the journeys and take in visits

to the sorts of places collectors stop, such as Hollier’s Ca-

jun Kitchen in Sulphur, Louisiana.

Laura Packard, vice president of sales and marketing for

American Collectors, says, “We hear great stories from our

policyholders all over the country about road trips and

what fun things can happen on vacations in classic cars.

The idea behind the shows is to pair a great classic car

with a great driving road.”

Click on the image to watch Episode 1

(Continued from page 1)

What is the Objective?

According to Packard, while brand awareness is part of

the plan, the key objective was to reach out to customers

and provide them with something other than insurance.

As Packard says, “We hope they will find the series enter-

taining and interesting, not just for themselves but for their

friends many of whom also enjoy classic cars and road

trips.”

Aside from a brief introduction and the fact that the pre-

senters are wearing “American Detour” branded clothing,

there is no mention of company or insurance. The goal

was to create entertainment and not infomercials, and to

gain some sharing within the tight community of classic

car owners.

Content

The shows are relatively long for social media, lasting up

to 15 minutes — way beyond the classic 2-to-3-minute

attention span benchmark. Packard is comfortable with

the length, saying, “This is entertainment, it must be long

enough to tell a story. It should not be viewed as a com-

mercial.” In an early episode, a brief appearance by the

company CEO was cut because it might be seen as too

marketing. Early evidence indicates that people will

watch—they find it interesting.

How did you choose locations?

Packard says the company chose the first location, Bran-

dywine Valley, Pennsylvania, because it is a beautiful but

also because of the relative proximity to headquarters, so

initial logistics could be ironed out. Subsequent locations

came from suggestions from the community on social me-

dia sites, which has become an extremely valuable

source of local information for the stops on the way.

Do independent agents fit into the picture?

Packard contends that the series is a conversation piece.

From their own experiences in the call center, personnel

are excited to bring the series to the attention of custom-

ers who call in, and agents have found the same. For

agents it is a reason to reach out to customers who own

classic cars. They are not selling anything just being help-

ful.


American Collectors—On the Road

http://americandetourstv.com/episode-1.php


How are you driving the audience?

Packard says, “Initially we limited distribution to policyhold-

ers, providing them with a sneak peak; we wanted them to

feel inspired and special.”

She goes on, “Since then we have found a number of dis-

tribution channels. Classic car magazines, websites and

even car clubs, of which there are thousands, are always

looking for good content based on any combination of clas-

sic cars and great roads. The shows work for content syn-

dication because there is no attempt to sell insurance.”

(Continued from page 4) “Just wanted you to know that I was fa-

vorably impressed….impressed enough

to forward it on to a couple dozen friends

and family, many of whom own and drive

collector vehicles, or wish they could, be-

cause I think they will enjoy it also.”

Email sent by a customer to American Collectors

What is the audience reaction?

Packard says, “We have had a lot of engagement, not

just on the shows, but also for location selection. Our

customers have been forthcoming in providing feedback

and even constructive criticism on how the shows should

develop. It is a completely natural conversation for them.

This is exactly what our customers love talking about.”

A recent email Packard received from a customer high-

lighted the value of the series:

“Just wanted you to know that I was favorably impressed

with your first ‘American Detours’ episode and the con-

cept for other episodes to follow. Impressed enough to

forward it on to a couple dozen friends and family, many

of whom own and drive collector vehicles, or wish they

could, because I think they will enjoy it also. I eagerly

await follow-on episodes. I think you may have a hit on

your hands.”

How did you pay for this?

Packard explains, “Social media is now a vital part of the

marketing mix and changes are made to the mix continu-

ously. We now find some of our print ads do not provide

good ROI and we wanted to be more effective.”

Conclusion

Much discussion around social media focuses on lead

generation. But for most companies, client retention and

recommendations are more critical. Branded entertain-

ment can reach existing customers with an added bene-

fit that it might be shared. As an industry, we talk about

monetizing customer lists, but social media can provide

some of the value by getting customers to promote on

our behalf, albeit more subtly. Our job is to feed the

beast.

Another email, this time sent by a customer of American

Collectors to his friends, indicates how this might work:

“Hi Friends,

This is not about insurance. But I have just received this

message from American Collectors car insurance, which

insures my four collector vehicles. I was impressed by

this, their first attempt at combining a side trip with a col-

lector vehicle, which they’re dubbing ‘American Detours.’

While I have not yet had a claim with this company, the

terms and price are quite favorable. I’m passing it along

to you only as something that may interest you.”


Facebook Engagement Table Sample of accounts ordered by Normalized Interactions

A complete set of Facebook data can be found by clicking this link

Greater Than 100,000 fans Fan

s

Ch

an

ge

TI

Int/

Po

st

Sh

are

/TI

NI

NP

TA

NW

I

State Farm Insurance 314,737 8% 60,149 1583 6% 19.1% 8% 28%

Thrivent Financial 195,874 4% 33,373 1284 47% 17.0% 9% 51%

Liberty Mutual Insurance 543,055 11% 86,377 2879 6% 15.9% 5% 22%

Allstate Motorcycle 166,148 0% 25,594 1280 32% 15.4% 13% 39%

Mayhem (Allstate) 1,560,448 1% 227,650 10840 11% 14.6% 3% 23%

USAA 525,146 1% 71,006 1145 8% 13.5% 3% 22%

AFLAC Duck 367,786 1% 49,449 1831 11% 13.4% 2% 27%

Metlife 501,935 1% 55,216 665 20% 11.0% 2% 20%

New York Life 400,358 3% 38,197 579 6% 9.5% 3% 13%

State Farm Latino 216,104 1% 18,303 295 8% 8.5% 1% 14%

Allstate 253,248 7% 19,577 632 14% 7.7% 4% 14%

Esurance 206,757 27% 14,387 335 16% 7.0% 5% 14%

American Family 175,017 1% 7,825 191 42% 4.5% 2% 13%

Flo, The Progressive Girl 5,191,651 1% 179,460 4173 5% 3.5% 1% 5%

Soy La Mala Suerte 172,832 0% 4,189 524 2% 2.4% 1% 4%

The Hartford 110,339 0% 1,414 67 24% 1.3% 0% 3%

Gerber Life 545,585 5% 4,280 204 1% 0.8% 2% 1%

The Gecko (GEICO) 300,650 0% 2,085 209 13% 0.7% 0% 1%

State Farm Nation 1,462,024 0% 8,829 180 19% 0.6% 0% 2%

Farmers Insurance 2,297,793 -1% 4,682 127 35% 0.2% 0% 1%

Between 1,000 and 100,000 fans

Wild Kingdom TV 14,785 8% 8,561 199 12% 57.9% 27% 104%

Safeco 10,714 19% 4,940 215 28% 46.1% 13% 113%

Horace Mann 23,850 0% 9,173 328 29% 38.5% 17% 103%

Primerica 32,784 3% 10,196 510 22% 31.1% 6% 62%

AFLAC 21,584 2% 4,674 195 25% 21.7% 6% 46%

Transamerica 82,090 29% 15,420 532 8% 18.8% 9% 28%

California Casualty 78,659 0% 12,213 763 51% 15.5% 11% 49%

SunLife Financial Canada 10,297 9% 1,541 64 24% 15.0% 5% 31%

InGear for Truckers - Acuity 16,572 3% 2,349 261 35% 14.2% 3% 40%

Erie Insurance 12,514 2% 1,598 89 49% 12.8% 3% 39%

Northwestern Mutual 41,390 0% 4,116 70 29% 9.9% 3% 22%

Foresters 10,819 0% 941 17 5% 8.7% 2% 14%

Chubb Collector Car 21,348 0% 1,797 60 13% 8.4% 1% 14%

Brighter Life (Sun Life) 17,463 2% 1,345 48 24% 7.7% 3% 16%

Nationwide Insurance 43,143 1% 3,245 108 43% 7.5% 2% 22%

New Jersey Manufacturers 14,180 2% 1,052 53 8% 7.4% 2% 12%

Ameriprise 34,758 13% 2,380 198 7% 6.8% 4% 16%

PrudentialBYC 53,899 13% 3,662 333 8% 6.8% 7% 11%

ManuLife 35,040 5% 1,782 54 22% 5.1% 2% 10%

Travelers Insurance 13,142 2% 622 156 67% 4.7% 2% 18%

http://www.someforinsurance.com/SocialEyes_Facebook_Engagement_Data_May2013.xlsx


Facebook Table Keys

(For table on this and previous page)

Change—change in April 2013 TI—Shares+Comments+Likes NI—Normalized Interactions– TI divided by fan count NPTA—Normalized ”People Talking About” - Aver-age daily PTA divided by fan count NWI— As NI but ‘shares’ and ‘comments’ scored at five times that of a ‘like’ NI (3Ms) - Normalized Interactions for 3 months Shares/TI—% of interactions that are shares Int/Post—Average number of interactions per post

Facebook Snippets AMERICAN FAMILY is asking fans to “Pledge to Plant” a

row of fruits and vegetables and donate the produce to a

local food pantry. For every pledge, AMERICAN FAMILY will

donate $1 to Feeding America. For taking the pledge, en-

trants are entered into a drawing for one of five $100 Home

Depot gift cards.

There must be quite an overlap between ESURANCE cus-

tomers and “trekkies”. ESURANCE are giving away 15,000

pairs of tickets for the new Star Trek movie. Entrants can

try every day until they are successful or bored. The cam-

paign has dominated interactions on the ESURANCE Face-

book page and was responsible for 88% of all interactions

for the month and a staggering 98% of the shares - word of

mouth on warp drive. Shares for the month jumped from an

average of 100 to 4,600. In the interest of full disclosure

and as part of our comprehensive testing, I did win two tick-

ets. The ESURANCE page also gained 14,000 fans .

Some posts on Facebook just work – GERBER LIFE asked,

“If my child could star in a cartoon it would be

__________”. And fill-in the blank. This generated 800 in-

teractions, far more than any other post in the month. By

a slight majority, the winner - Tommy from Rugrats. But

then again, Gerber might just have recruited very active

fans – a post saying that their phone system was not

working got 319 likes – not sure how to take that one.

AMERICAN MODERN INSURANCE kick-started their Face-

book page by launching a “like-gated” promotion for fans

to upload a picture of them with a hooked fish. Winners

are selected by popular vote. Activity remains slow.

Between 1,000 and 10,000 fans Fan

s

Ch

an

ge

TI

Int/

Po

st

Sh

are

/TI

NI

NP

TA

NW

I

John Hancock 4,983 11% 10,845 329 32% 217.6% 121% 528%

Auto-Owners Insurance 3,919 6% 3,597 88 15% 91.8% 43% 167%

Woodmen of the World 1,351 3% 1,020 15 40% 75.5% 5% 207%

Farmer Charlie 1,854 7% 918 20 39% 49.5% 22% 134%

American Collectors Insurance 3,405 3% 1,682 30 13% 49.4% 8% 83%

Liberty National Life Insurance 4,600 1% 2,053 82 3% 44.6% 9% 67%

Great American Insurance Grp 2,142 7% 949 24 45% 44.3% 17% 131%

Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance 1,608 6% 585 27 9% 36.4% 9% 57%

Shelter 2,728 2% 929 42 64% 34.1% 10% 123%

Farm Bureau Financial Services 5,920 9% 1,690 121 43% 28.5% 8% 84%

Modern Woodmen of America 5,078 3% 1,279 41 4% 25.2% 6% 36%

UNUM 1,547 3% 369 18 52% 23.9% 10% 76%

State Auto 1,624 1% 328 12 7% 20.2% 6% 28%

Chubb 2,911 1% 455 7 10% 15.6% 3% 26%

Mercury Insurance 1,287 4% 173 12 31% 13.4% 5% 31%

Sun Life Financial U.S. 1,972 2% 262 6 26% 13.3% 4% 27%

American Income Life Insurance 3,736 1% 465 5 5% 12.4% 4% 23%

Westfield Insurance 1,139 3% 136 10 3% 11.9% 4% 15%

PEMCO 2,442 3% 268 27 27% 11.0% 4% 29%

http://feedingamerica.org/


GLOBE LIFE has two Facebook pages – the ‘official’ page

focused on policyholders (1,253 fans) while a separate page

(3,243 fans) is geared toward non-policyholders.

What is the best way to attract new fans by interacting with

your existing fans? In a limited test correlating daily interac-

tion rates on MAYHEM’S Facebook page (1.5 million fans)

with daily fan additions, there was a 55% correlation be-

tween ‘likes’ and new fans but a 69% correlation between

shares and new fans. For comments, there was just an 18%

correlation so sharing wins – but we knew that.

LINCOLN FINANCIAL has $10,000 to give to one of five chari-

table organizations and asking Facebook fans to make the

decision. LINCOLN started with just 3,500 fans but by ‘like-

gating’ the campaign jumped to 8,000. The voting app is not

perfect even carrying a note stating, “We have experienced

issues with the Facebook app. For a better experience,

please use your mobile browser or a laptop/desktop.” Up to

this point, the LINCOLN page continues to have very limited

engagement.

METLIFE promoted #SocialBlackout for Mother’s Day. Fans

were encouraged to go silent for the day to show respect

and change their profile pictures to a SocialBlackout badge

supplied by METLIFE (which of course featured Snoopy). No

news on how many people joined the blackout ‘event’ but

619 indicated they would attend and they in turn invited

4,600 friends.

MODERN WOODMEN is looking for members that are loud and

proud and giving them 600 branded T-shirts. Participants

must promise to share a photo of them wearing the T-shirt

with something they are proud of in their community. One

fan each month receives a $50 MODERN WOODMEN BANK

Visa® gift card based on the picture’s “likes”. Potential vot-

ers (your family and community) must of course like the

company’s Facebook page before they can vote.

FLO, always keen to boost engagement numbers, has start-

ed to ask for ‘shares’ more recently when a ‘like’ used to be

good enough. Flo is clearly looking for a greater commit-

ment. You do need to know your audience though - the

most shared post (2,400 shares) was “Share this if you think

a slab of butter and some salt and pepper would make this

the best unicorn ever!” but “Share this if you can identify 3

or more constellations in the background of this video”

gained just two shares.

THRIVENT on a topic with more gravitas asked fans to “share” a

post marked World Malaria Day and for every SHARE,

THRIVENT would give $1 (up to $10,000) to support Lutheran

efforts focused on fighting this disease. Fans came up with that

in less than 5 days.

TRANSAMERICA ran a “Its real now” contest last month for the

moment of realization of having a first child and it was very suc-

cessful, - and if it’s not broke don’t fix it. This month, small busi-

ness owners can talk about their own babies – their businesses,

to win $4,500. A video, photo or text can be submitted to de-

scribe that moment when they realized they were in total charge

- winners are based upon votes.

STATE FARM has just completed their ever-popular Neighbor-

hood Assist campaign where they provide a $25K grant to 40

community projects. Communities get very active sharing news

about the scheme to their supporters to encourage voting. One

campaign post gained over 45,000 interactions.

Most Shared

Sh

are

s/T

I (3

M)

Fan

s

NI(

3M

s)

NW

I(3M

)

Shelter 60% 2728 31% 108%

Travelers Insurance 58% 13142 8% 27%

Farm Bureau FinSer 52% 1547 24% 75%

Erie Insurance 48% 12514 10% 31%

Auto-Owners Ins 47% 2142 63% 192%

Modern Woodmen 47% 5920 23% 70%

Nationwide Ins 42% 43143 9% 24%

Mercury Insurance 42% 2442 19% 55%

Safeco 42% 10714 45% 130%

Alfa Insurance 40% 3798 11% 31%

American Family 40% 175017 4% 11%

Bankers Life and Cas 38% 5563 12% 32%

Grinnell Mutual 37% 1351 32% 85%

Thrivent Financial 37% 195874 14% 36%

Allstate Motorcycle 36% 166148 26% 69%

SunLife Fin Canada 34% 10297 10% 25%

Horace Mann 32% 23850 30% 84%

Northwestern Mutual 32% 41390 11% 25%

John Hancock 30% 4983 84% 199%

California Casualty 30% 78659 25% 57%

Most shared data looks at the percentage of ‘shares’ against all interac-

tions. High share numbers typically indicate strong agent engagement.


Insurers with captive agents are aggressively rolling out

social capabilities to agents. Hearsay Social is becoming

an industry favorite and now boasts NORTHWESTERN MU-

TUAL, SUN LIFE, STATE FARM, ALLSTATE, THRIVENT FINAN-

CIAL, FARMERS, METLIFE and AXA among others as cus-

tomers.

For useful audio and video clips on the subject of agents

and social media visit the links below, Some are vendor

sponsored clips but the overall message remains helpful;

Northwestern Managing Director

Thrivent and Financial Representatives

Independent Agency View of the Future

Selling Life insurance through Social Media – How to?

Facebook announced 20 winners of its second annual

Facebook Studio awards to brands they feel are doing

the best work on the platform. On this year’s list is ALL-

STATE’S Mayhem, with a special mention for the timeline

with activities listed dating back to the ‘dawn of time’.

Fan

s

Mo

nth

Ch

an

ge

(Ap

r)

NI

(Ap

r)

Fan

Gth

(3M

s)

Transamerica 82090 29% 19% 40%

Esurance 206757 27% 7% 61%

Elephant Auto 5370 27% 1% 35%

Safeco 10714 19% 46% 76%

Ameriprise 34758 13% 7% 27%

PrudentialBYC 53899 13% 7% 157%

Liberty Mutual 543055 11% 16% 41%

SunLife Canada 10297 9% 15% 25%

Modern Woodmen 5920 9% 29% 11%

Mutual of Omaha 20217 9% 3% 27%

State Farm Insurance 314737 8% 19% 14%

Wild Kingdom TV 14785 8% 58% 252%

Progressive 64035 8% 2% 11%

Allstate 253248 7% 8% 28%

Gerber Life 545585 5% 1% 19%

ProgressiveMotorcycle 7694 5% 8% 10%

my aha moment 7029 5% 3% 4%

Fastest Growing Facebook Pages in April

The Boston Marathon—Industry Reaction

The Boston Marathon bombing and the way social me-

dia contributed real-time information demonstrated how

integral and infuriating the medium has become. Not

everything was good and within Boston, the most trusted

source of information became the Boston Police twitter

feed as rumors and false news spread. The Boston PD

Twitter handle gained over 300,000 followers.

It showed how social media is part of the way people

communicate in disasters but how should insurers act?

Like most brands are still coming to grips with what to do

in the event of incidents such the Boston Marathon

bombing or the West, Texas explosion. The sheer vol-

umes of postings can now catch brands out with seem-

ingly inappropriate messages sent inadvertently. After

the Boston bombing, many insurers stopped posting es-

pecially on Facebook.

Most insurers such posted heart-felt wishes but just as

text, avoiding the use of any accompanying imagery.

AMERICAN FAMILY did us an image but only to direct peo-

ple to the Red Cross drive for blood donors. FARMERS

took a similar approach for the Texas explosion by team-

ing up with, and promoting Operation BBQ Relief , an

organization that helps people affected by natural disas-

ters.

PROGRESSIVE’S smiling Flo stopped posting for the day

as did MetLife. ALLSTATE’S Mayhem went further by go-

ing silent for a week. Insurers based around Boston

such as LIBERTY MUTUAL, JOHN HANCOCK, and MASS

MUTUAL, after their initial condolence post, all went quiet

for 3 days. HANCOCK, the marathon sponsor, posted

their sympathy message literally minutes after the attack

from a mobile phone and updated their profile picture to

a somber image of Boston at dark with no building lights.

An executive at Sun Life who ran the marathon in Bos-

ton wrote a very personal blog post about his experi-

ence.

USAA posted a message “Our thoughts are with those

affected by the tragedy at the Boston Marathon” which

created a vibrant debate on their Facebook page as to

why the words “and prayers” were omitted. Disasters are

very emotive and for many insurers become the most

engaged posts of the month so it is important to handle

these situations carefully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OblF3s5H5g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xnjY9H9pwFo#!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofdiw36LCTg

http://www.wearesocialheroes.com/selling-life-insurance-through-social-media-how-to/?utm_content=buffer16893&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=Buffer

http://www.facebook.com/OperationBBQRelief?directed_target_id=0


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Principal Financial 22% 14738 8% 2% 37%

UNUM 17% 8976 8% 3% 41%

State Farm Insurance 17% 67150 7% 4% 26%

Mutual of Omaha 17% 8723 8% 2% 48%

Esurance 16% 4160 12% 3% 72%

Modern Woodmen 15% 1975 8% 3% 42%

Horace Mann 15% 2254 7% 2% 38%

American National 15% 2086 7% 3% 36%

Acuity 14% 1667 10% 2% 64%

Chubb 14% 17414 10% 3% 68%

New Jersey Manufacturers 13% 939 6% 2% 36%

USAA 13% 28595 9% 3% 61%

American Income Life 13% 3256 8% 6% 29%

Great American 13% 4857 8% 2% 57%

Travelers 12% 45322 8% 2% 57%

Western & Southern Life 12% 3585 4% 1% 26%

AXA-Equitable 12% 6888 6% 0% 57%

Encompass 12% 1454 9% 3% 67%

MetLife 11% 62061 7% 2% 58%

Liberty Mutual 11% 60398 7% 2% 52%

Bankers Life 11% 5679 6% 3% 37%

GEICO 11% 11958 5% 3% 29%

Northwestern Mutual 11% 45456 6% 1% 53%

Farmers Insurance 11% 33342 5% 2% 34%

Allianz Life of NA 11% 7191 9% 5% 68%

The Hartford 11% 26185 6% 1% 51%

AEGON Americas 11% 9872 6% -1% 64%

Aviva USA 11% 1311 7% 2% 60%

Lincoln Financial 11% 10585 7% 3% 57%

AllState 11% 52684 5% 2% 43%

The Hanover 11% 6909 7% 2% 60%

Nationwide 10% 34225 6% 3% 48%

Primerica 10% 22930 5% 3% 19%

21st century insurance 10% 2181 5% 1% 49%

Progressive 10% 18535 6% 3% 43%

Safeco 10% 7743 7% 1% 66%

Genworth 10% 10523 6% 1% 49%

Aon 10% 31166 7% 2% 65%

Erie Insurance 10% 4672 6% 2% 52%

Amica 10% 2572 6% 2% 49%

New York Life 10% 35509 6% 2% 50%

The Co-operators 10% 4275 6% 2% 51%

Auto-Owners 10% 3171 7% 2% 63%

Woodmen of the World 10% 1217 4% 1% 34%

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is becoming increas-

ingly important for insurers es-

pecially those in B2B. With

new features introduced by the

platform to allows images,

presentations and videos to be

added to profiles, some insur-

ers are keen to use this as a

way to centrally maintain con-

tent made available through

agent personal pages.

THE HARTFORD is running a

promotion for small business

recruitment professionals with

subscriptions to LinkedIn’s Tal-

ent Pro for recruiters and em-

ployers as the prize. Entrants

are strongly encouraged to

follow THE HARTFORD on

LinkedIn but the conditions

clearly (albeit in small letters)

say this is not a requirement.

Small businesses tend to com-

bine recruitment with other ad-

min functions such as workers

comp and liability insurance.

LinkedIn is testing Facebook-

style promoted content ad-

verts, which companies can

target an audience with white

papers and webinars inserted

into the Newsfeed. By targeting

users by role, interest and lo-

cation, LinkedIn should be able

to play a stronger role in lead

generation. ISHARES, part of

Blackstone, have been testing

promoted content and report a

CTR of 0.15% against their

normal CTR of 0.08%.


Tweets and Hashtag Marketing AMERICAN FAMILY is working with business train-

ing company to offer webinars for small busi-

nesses to help get to grips with new features in

LinkedIn, described in the promotion as "Game

Changers" for online Social Networking. The

webinar, promoted through Twitter used an in-

creasing popular hashtag for that space -

#smallbiz. Also promoting activity on the same

hashtag are HISCOX, THE HARTFORD, NEW YORK

LIFE, AMEX, SBA and INTUIT.

Adult siblings can play a major role in the lives

of people with disabilities. To create awareness,

MASS MUTUAL is running a campaign promoted

with the hashtag #siblingsmatter. When the

hashtag is used 10,000 times on Twitter, Face-

book or Instragram to share a story, MASS MU-

TUAL will donate $25,000 to Easter Seals. On

Twitter over 1400 tweets used the hashtag in a

short period gaining 300,000 impressions.

NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL are conducting a se-

ries of consumer facing webcasts. The format is

a pre-recorded 3-camera video interview fol-

lowed by live telephone based Q&A session.

The webcast links to Twitter and Facebook for

questions submission using hashtags.

PRUDENTIAL BYC and METLIFE are both rela-

tively newcomers to Twitter and both have been

heavily promoting to build up their presence.

American Family also promoted recently to

boost followers and are now suffering from the

expected post-promotion attrition rate.

Using a combined IBM and Integritie solution,

SECURITY FIRST INSURANCE can turn social me-

dia into actionable communications during ma-

jor disasters. The system analyzes incoming

messages sent by email and social media, es-

pecially Twitter, using text mining, text analytics

and natural language processing to detect

words that convey distress or identify significant

property damage. SECURITY FIRST is using the

system to prioritize messages and route them to

personnel to promptly resolve critical issues.

A complete set of Twitter data can be found by clicking this link

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New York Life 67500 222 238 2% 34%

USAA 44800 99 84 3% 15%

State Farm 33800 900 675 4% 13%

Allstate 32500 231 259 2% 7%

UHC 30100 16 17 0% 1%

State Farm Nation 28900 64 61 0% 2%

VPI 22400 140 162 1% 8%

American Family 22300 272 345 -2% 89%

Progressive - Its Flo 19600 35 37 1% 3%

AFLAC Duck 19300 46 47 3% 8%

Nationwide Insurance 18000 140 117 2% 9%

Progressive Insurance 17600 202 180 3% 10%

Farmers Ins 15500 279 318 4% 19%

The Hartford 15300 30 27 3% 9%

Travelers Insurance 15100 61 47 4% 16%

Chubb Insurance 14900 465 423 10% 26%

Primerica 12600 13 19 2% 11%

GEICO 12500 22 21 2% 13%

Progresser Messenger 12500 0 1 -2% -7%

MetLife 12100 117 93 12% 2663%

Liberty Mutual 11800 177 116 5% 21%

PetPlan 10400 397 342 4% 17%

Zurich North America 10000 167 104 6% 29%

AON 9567 91 37 6% 20%

GEICO Gecko 9298 10 11 1% 6%

Trupanion 9206 200 175 3% 16%

TIAA-CREF 8741 197 127 3% 8%

Prudential BYC 8623 34 17 101%

Transamerica 8330 26 33 -18% -28%

Desjardin Group (FR) 7977 196 142 3% 14%

ING Group News 7870 44 20 11% 26%

USAA Help 7513 493 480 3% 11%

Progressive Help 7361 73 70 3% 11%

Esurance 7155 137 102 2% 10%

Mass Mutual 7130 143 137 2% 3%

Thrivent Financial 6949 168 159 5% 114%

Cigna 6895 182 191 4% 19%

AIG 5822 13 19 7% 37%

SwissRe 5428 142 132 6% 32%

Safeco Insurance 5335 49 49 5% 23%

Northwestern Mutual 5050 145 92 4% 14%

Mutual of Omaha 4991 11 19 6% 50%

California Casualty 4899 97 153 -1% -3%

Safe Auto 4410 78 63 3% 16%

AXA Equitable 4243 4 11 1% 4%

The Principal 3816 194 182 4% 19%

Foremost Insurance 3771 52 42 5% 25%

http://www.someforinsurance.com/SocialEyes_TwitterDatabase_May2013.xlsx


Subscribe to

Individual, department and corporate li-

censes available. http://www.customerrespect.com/socialeyes

Email [email protected]

Call 978.412.4047

ment. Of the 300 tweets sent to all followers and

possibly ‘marketing’, 32 were RT’s of individuals talk-

ing about STATE FARM.

One of the best reasons to reach out on social media

is that it is often a platform for the frustrated - an ex-

isting customer at the point they are most likely to

look for alternatives. It is not only the existing provid-

er that are watching. The graphic example below

shows the journey of a frustrated customer complain-

ing about her current insurer (Liberty Mutual), ap-

proached by a competitor (Ameriprise) but on seeing

there are options, eventually going with other insur-

ers (GEICO and Progressive). All this happened in 2

days. Liberty Mutual did reach out to the customer

and offered a lower cost but at that point were in a

Listening is as Key as Talking Customer service demand on social networks is hard to ignore

even given low volumes. Recently, one of TRAVELERS’ cus-

tomers tweeted about frustration with the company’s IVR

phone system. His tweet was 10:13 at night. Travelers re-

sponded at 11:34 that same night, which delighted the cus-

tomer and in a subsequent tweet, gave “props” to TRAVELERS

for the fast response. When we asked the customer about the

experience, he said, “response to complaint makes large com-

pany feel more personal, and easier to forgive poor experi-

ence” – customer save?

The TRAVELERS experience raises the question of expecta-

tions, 11:34 pm is very impressive but most insurers do not

attempt to provide anywhere near 24/7 social service. ALL-

STATE and GEICO, USAA and ALLSTATE provide working

times on their Twitter page (assuming the customer goes

there) and even TRAVELERS is only officially on call Mon-Fri 8

to 5.

According to Unmetric, METLIFE responds to inquiries on Fa-

cebook within 7 and a half minutes. That’s intentional accord-

ing to Dave Hamlett, METLIFE’S director of global social media.

“We knew we’d need to be able to handle questions before we

launched, so we planned for it,” he says. “There’s nothing

more gratifying to me than someone coming to us in the social

space for help, with us getting back to them quickly for an an-

swer and then having them come back to thank us. I don’t

know if they just didn’t expect us to respond, but they’re al-

ways so grateful.”

Monitoring for customer service can be frustrating, as it must

be for NATIONWIDE INSURANCE, where over 30% of their reach

out tweets ended up needing help from the UK bank of the

same name.

STATE FARM is one of the most active insurers reaching out on

social to customers and over the past five months tweeted

3200 times, of which 2,900 (91%) were to an individual, pre-

sumably for support. About 17% (498) of those individual

tweets included the word ‘sorry’, which would indicate an initial

‘reach out’ as in “I am sorry to hear this…”. This would imply

about 100 new cases a month. Most ‘reach out’ tweets (382)

attempted to gather more information by directing the custom-

er to send more information to a dedicated email address

([email protected]). Of the individual tweets, 161 includ-

ed ‘Thank you’, presumably for closing a case or a compli-

http://www.customerrespect.com/socialeyes

mailto:[email protected]?subject=SocialEyes%20

mailto:[email protected]


LIMRA—Social Media for Financial

Services Conference LIMRA is getting ready for its 4th annual “Social Media

for Financial Services” conference. Preparation for the

conference provides a useful insight as to what members

are seeking help with. We spoke with Christian Ambrosio

(Director of Online Marketing and Social Media) and Ste-

phen Selby (AVP Social Media ) to get their view.

According to Selby, “One of the constant questions we

get is about what is happening specifically within the in-

dustry. Members really need to see what others are do-

ing, in part to keep up with the competition but as much

to create momentum and spark interest internally.”

To address this, LIMRA is introducing industry awards so

conversations can revolve around real projects and initia-

tives that are live today. With actual projects, discussion

about objectives and measurement can be held in a more

practical way. Click here for more information on the

awards.

Selby says, “We are now mature enough with this tech-

nology. In the past conferences, we covered ‘what is so-

cial’, then the ‘how’; now we are into discussing practical

implementations and measuring results.”

Another ongoing concern of LIMRA members is the un-

certainty around the social platforms with almost constant

changes and updates. According to Selby, “Financial ser-

vices companies are finding it hard to manage a social

media roadmap when platforms change. Changes can

really affect strategy, and platform vendors tend to work

with completely different timeframes than financial ser-

vices companies. A plan might take 12-18 months to im-

plement and needs to have built-in likely platform chang-

es.”

In an acknowledgement that social vendors now see fi-

nancial services as vital, as they look to monetize their

platforms, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter will

be attending the conference.

According to Ambrosio, the majority of members who

are now asking about social media are marketers, as

social media becomes critical for all campaigns. Hav-

ing said that, Ambrosio says that it is vital to cater to

the strong cross-functional interest of social media and

the agenda needs to be cognizant of the broad spec-

trum of attendees. Ambrosio says, “Social media un-

derstanding is now essential for compliance officers,

but we are also starting to see interest from customer

service, executive management and especially field

management and agents.”

To address the growing demand and interest in the

field, a separate day conference has been added be-

fore the main conference. “Growing Social – Social

Media for Adviser and Field Managers" is split into two

four hour sessions.

According to Ambrosio, “There is no doubt of the val-

ue of social media at field level, and many of our mem-

ber companies see that this is where true ROI will be

delivered. Advisers and managers have their own re-

quirements and we want to be conscious of that”

One goal for the conference is to be an incubator of

today’s latest social concepts encouraging active use

of ‘Tweet-Up’s, Hashtags and mobile access. Selby

says, “We talk about these concepts and how people

behave on social but many of us do not actually use

them in our own lives, this is an opportunity to try them

out.“

The conference runs from August 21-23 in Boston with

the Adviser/Manager day on the 20th August. To get

more information or to register, click here to visit the

conference website.

https://www.limra.com/Events/Conferences/2013/Social_Media_Conference/Awards/2013_Social_Media_for_Financial_Services_Awards.aspx?LangType=1033

https://www.limra.com/Events/Conferences/2013/Social_Media_Conference/Awards/2013_Social_Media_for_Financial_Services_Awards.aspx?LangType=1033

http://www.limra.com/Events/Conferences/2013/2013_Social_Media_Conference_for_Financial_Services.aspx




Around The Horn A study by the University of Michigan with data from a

large retailer of entertainment and information-related

media, found that revenue from members that joined the

company’s online community increased by an average of

19%. The conclusion was that this comes from closer ties

with other customers and more engagement with the

company. THRIVENT FINANCIAL, one of the first insurers to

offer an online community, has always contended that

customers than joined the online community have greater

assets under management and lower churn rates. SWISS

RE is the latest to enter the space with the Open Minds

forum positioned as a place to exchange views on future

risks. The forum is open to clients, employees, as well as

other organizations and individuals to comment on exist-

ing articles or even to submit their own.

Kasina in a study “Building a Competitive Social Media

Competency” looked at various asset managers and

listed VANGUARD, SUN LIFE, ISHARES, PUTNAM, and

FRANKLIN TEMPLETON as top five.

MUTUAL OF OMAHA has dusted off the “Aha Moment”

caravan after a break of a year and is now on the road

stopping in 20 cities looking for individual aha moments

to capture on video. A campaign Facebook page and

twitter handle help promote the campaign and videos are

posted on a campaign YouTube channel.

Social networks bring together people with a common

bond and now that bond might drive specific insurance

needs. UK broker “BROUGHT BY MANY” allows groups to

start and share with friends in order to create a pool.

Travel for People with Diabetes already has 580 mem-

bers and has insurance available. Travel Insurance for

Over 85 Year Old is a less vibrant group, in many ways

but Chihuahua Insurance is surprisingly strong.

Hearsay Social launched a new Social Sales solution.

Through machine learning and natural language pro-

cessing, Hearsay Social can now identify top stories from

a user’s network across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

and send alerts that will prompt action that could help

build and maintain relationships with prospects and cus-

tomers. Life events have also been a critical trigger for

agents and this solution is all about making agents more

responsive to what is happening with their customers.

The company also announced the Hearsay Social

Brand Solution, which allows corporate marketers at

the enterprise level access to similar social tools for

higher-level social campaigns.

ISHARES, the EFT arm of Blackrock asset managers

do not have a Pinterest account but the company

claim that every infographic the company has pro-

duced has ended up getting pinned onto the platform.

Insurers are not putting substantial effort into Google

Plus and possibly the reason is that the average visitor

to Google Plus spent 6 minutes 47 seconds in March

vs. 6 hours, 44 minutes on Facebook - this according

to figures from Nielsen. PROGRESSIVE remains the sole

insurer with any significant user base.

What kind of serious conversation do fans and follow-

ers really want on social media – if any? THRIVENT

asked their fans for the answer. Responses were

across the board from health insurance to how to win

the lottery but it is a useful and quite active dialogue.

One suggestion for improvement would be to respond

to the ideas, provide links to content and keep the dia-

logue moving.

AMERICAN FAMILY are continuing their love affair with

Pinterest, and are running a promotion with Better

Homes and Gardens where entrants pin the room in

their house they would most like a $5,000 makeover.

AMFAM have added a Room Makeover board, to

show off great designs and ideas of the “dream” rooms

and houses. According to Lisa Ott, the company’s Pin-

terest community manager, Pinterest is a girls’ dream,

full of endless home ideas.” There is certainly interest

as the company’s Pinterest page now has over 2,000

followers, 6,000 re-pins and hundreds of comments.

On quick examination, 98% of the followers are fe-

male.

AON added a Pinterest page dedicated to careers and

recruitment. On the page, you can visually search for

open opportunities, ‘meet’ the corporate recruiting

team, see the premises or even share your own per-

sonal AON experiences.

Technology shy Warren Buffett has entered the world

of Twitter. Just 2 tweets so far, opening with “Warren

is in the house” but 436,000 followers.

https://openminds.swissre.com/

https://twitter.com/WarrenBuffett

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