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Insurance Providers Hesitant About Direct Involvement in Social Media: Report

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Insurance Providers Hesitant About Direct Involvement in Social Media: Report

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June 14, 2010
By Carolyn J Dawson
TMCnet Contributor

Insurance providers are hesitant to get directly involved in social media, according to new research. Instead, they prefer to ease in, bit by bit.
 
Mintel Comperemedia recently polled 214 independent life insurance producers. Out of them, around seventy percent use at least one social media site. But, only half of them are reported to use their accounts for business purposes.
 
"Insurance issuers tend to rely on e-mail and face-to-face interaction because they feel personal contact with clients is a necessity," said Daniel Hayes, VP of insurance services at Mintel Comperemedia. "As a result, social media doesn't rank as high on their list of priorities."

 
Of those surveyed, only 14 percent said they believe that social networks helped to generate leads via mouth publicity and the same amount say that social networks permits them to stay in contact with clients. Another narrow 11  percent thinks that social networks created more client opportunities for them. Hayes notes that these statistics could be an outcome of an experience gap, rather than a preference.
 
"Insurance companies that are actually using social media today are still experimenting," said Hayes. 'Knowledge and talent must be developed to manage social media as it evolves into a predominant source of client interaction. When more insurance companies cultivate a richer social network presence, complete with more attractive content, usage percentages should increase.'
 
Among the insurance producers who use social media for business, 91 percent of Facebook (News - Alert) subscribers are utilizing the site to communicate with their customers. But only 22 percent are linked to their carriers. Mintel Comperemedia proposes that this disparity is mainly due to lack of meaningful corporate profiles with useful information to attract carriers.
 
Mintel Comperemedia is the provider of cutthroat intelligence for businesses who intends to enhance their direct marketing strategy. The company tracks direct marketing such as mail, e-mail and print advertising. Its direct marketing is mainly aimed at consumers, small businesses and insurance agents. Mintel Comperemedia offers a unique viewpoint on everything. This ranges from banking trends to insurance trends to credit card statistics.

Carolyn John is a Contributor to TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please columnist page.

Edited by Marisa Torrieri

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