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A view from Allison Andrews, Business Development Manager – Commercial Electronic Trading, Ageas Insurance Limited.
"I am no social media addict. You won’t catch me Tweeting what I had for breakfast, but I do use Facebook on a pretty regular basis. Meanwhile at my company, we have travelled an interesting road in the past eighteen months that has really demonstrated the value of social media in our corner of the world.
It wasn’t too long ago that social media was just something the kids did. The likes of Twitter and Facebook would never have been used to deliver business messages, or to target key audiences. However that’s all changed and corporate entities are happily embracing social media as part of the marketing mix.
Within the insurance sector there have been some notable consumer focused campaigns. Love him or hate him, Compare the Market mascot Aleksandr Orlov, has more than 59,000 followers on Twitter.
But generally, it’s fair to say the industry has so far consisted of followers rather than leaders. This isn’t surprising perhaps when you consider that 73% of SMEs in a MindLeaders survey said they were unsure if financial investment in the social network would bring sufficient benefits.
Social media certainly takes as much time as you can give it. The benefits will only mirror the time and effort that is put into it. So, when we first started, we took a long hard look at each platform and evaluated the audience and benefits versus the available resource.
For us, Twitter seemed a good place to start. We kicked off early in 2012 and now have more than 900 followers. Our target audience is the broking community so for us, this is about quality, not quantity, and we’re pretty chuffed to have got to this point so quickly.
We established exactly how we wanted to be perceived by our target audience and the messages we wanted our followers to see. Built into our strategy was the knowledge that our audience might also include policyholders and the media.
A good way to get started on any social media platform is to establish who you want to see your messages, and research whether they are actually on the platform you’re planning to use.
Following key people on Twitter and joining relevant groups on Facebook and LinkedIn shows what key industry issues are being discussed and how they are being conveyed online.
Once your audience is sorted, make sure your profile is not lost in the big social media world, a key factor for those who do not have a consumer following. Twitter and LinkedIn are particularly effective for sending out messages about business updates, new products and business thoughts on industry issues.
It’s important to keep these messages consistent but mix it up.
Make sure they are interesting and use the right tone of voice. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes, a re-tweet or a ‘like’ will work wonders for a social media presence and help build an online community, create brand loyalty, and open up the opportunities to seek customer views.
Of course, social media does have its risks. Customer messages and the occasional ‘rant’ are online for all to see so it is crucial to develop a strategy to deal with such issues. Remember that all social media activity can be traced, and 80% of internet users are on at least one social network. News travels fast in the social sphere.
Finally, we must not overlook the advantages of social media when it comes to communication of major incidents. The immediacy and vast audience on social media channels make it far easier and efficient to send out messages and manage potential issues and crises.
I said earlier that I am no social media addict, but on reflection it’s becoming a regular part of my life. What I do know is there is much to gain from entering the social sphere and as long as you stay focused on audience, message, strategy and consistency, you shouldn’t go far wrong."
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