American National Launches Social Business Program with Hearsay Social

By Frank Griffin
TMCnet Contributing Writer

Social media has had a great impact on society as a whole, and while most people associate the phenomenon with how the young generation communicates with each other, businesses can no longer ignore the impact of implementing the technology for improving brand strategy.

American National Insurance Company, founded in 1905, has announced the launch of a social business program in association with Hearsay Social, provider of enterprise-ready solutions to build business through social sales and marketing.

With this collaboration, American National is looking to achieve social media compliance and strategize how the brand can be improved in local markets by engaging clients on Facebook, Twitter, Google (News - Alert) +, and LinkedIn.

Like any other business, the company is looking to drive customers to its more than 1,300 agents around the country to provide the products and services it offers. Using the Hearsay software as a service (SaaS (News - Alert)) platform, insurance agents will be able to leverage social media to more effectively interact with their customers, without having to be an expert on the technology.

Hearsay delivers a comprehensive platform in which the issues businesses want to address are delivered to their employees, so they can concentrate on their core competencies, instead of having to dedicate large amounts of time learning how social media works within their particular industry. Hearsay is optimized for agents and advisors with easy-to-use capabilities such as social signal alerts, scheduling, and libraries of ready-to-publish content to enhance their connection to their customers and grow their business.

The Hearsay platform provides pre-approved social content and campaigns with just the right amount of interaction with customers.

Agents were trained in person and through webinars on product usage and how they can engage with existing and potential clients. After a successful pilot program was launched with 20 agents, the remaining agents, even those that were hesitant, saw the value of integrating social media as part of their overall strategy to improve their interaction with customers.

Social media is just another source of information, not a cure all. Using this information effectively requires being aware of a wide range of issues, including privacy, and just like consumers who add their phone number to the no-call-registry to avoid telemarketers, they can just as easily block a particular business if their engagement practices are offensive. Finding the right balance, as with all things in life, is key.