September 2012AETINSAETINSMINDSHAREMINDSHARE

In our previous article, ‘Business Capitalisation Using Social Media’ published on July 2012 | Vol 1 | issue 4 we discussed about social networking site - Facebook,how to engage your customers, partners, agents, brokers using Facebook. In this series, we will cover about micro blogs (Twitter), why and how we can utilise Twitter to the benefit of an insurance organisation.

Overview

Twitter users are 3 times more likely to follow brands than Facebook users. Combined with their above average income and education, Twitter users’ propensity to interact with brands make them a huge potential source for Mass Influencers.

Why Twitter?

“Power of Twitter to Insurance Busin

ess

”.

33% 32% 30% 19%OF ACTIVE TWITTER USERS

SHARE OPINIONS ABOUT

PRODUCTS/ COMPANIES

OF ACTIVE TWITTER USERS

MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS

ABOUT PRODUCTS/ COMPANIES

OF ACTIVE TWITTER USERS

ASK FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

ABOUT PRODUCTS/COMPANIES

OF ACTIVE TWITTER USERS

SEEK CUSTOMER SUPPORT

FROM COMPANIES VIA TWITTER

HOW MANY TWITTER USERS ENGAGE BRANDS

LOVE !T DO !T FTW

AVOID @ALL CO$TS!

#INDECI$IVE

#RESOURCEFUL

FTW!?

<3 RT@CUSTOMER

H@TE !T

WH@T G!VE$?

43%35%21%01%

ARE SHARING NEWS/INFOABOUT THE BRAND

ARE ACTIVELY “USING”THE BRAND

ARE VOICING THEIR OPINIONABOUT THE BRAND

ARE CONVERSING DIRECTLYWITH THE BRAND

WHY TWITTER USERS ENGAGE BRANDS

33%24%

TWITTER VS. EMAIL AND FACEBOOKLikelihood of recommending a brand Likelihood of purchasing from a brand

OF TWITTER FOLLOWERS

OF EMAIL SUBCRIBERS

21% OF FACEBOOK “LIKERS”

37%27%

OF TWITTER FOLLOWERS

OF EMAIL SUBCRIBERS

17% OF FACEBOOK “LIKERS”

SOURCES1. Baer, Jay. “ 7 Surprising Statistics About Twitter in America.” Social Media Today. 29 April 2010. http:// socialmediatoday.com/ index.php?q=SMC/1935032. Twitter usage in America: 2010. Edison Research. 29 April 2010. http://www.edisonreseach.com/twitter_usage_2010.php3. Hanelly, Andrew. “101 Sicial Media Stats to Make Your Spirits Bright and You Head Spin.” Social Media Explorer. 15 December 2010. http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-statistics/4. “One- Third of Twitter Users Talk Brands.” eMarketer. 14 Jun 2010. http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=10077505. “Are Twitter Followers Better than Facebook Fans?” eMarketer. 16 September 2010. http://www. emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=10

By : Swaminathan

“Power of Twitter to Insurance Business”. September 2012By : Swaminathan Krishnamurthy

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Twitter is a very effective word-of-mouth publicity that an organisation can leverage on. It is more likely to induce advocacy and purchases.• 37 percent of Twitter users are more likely to purchase from a brand after becoming a follower.• 33 percent of Twitter users are more likely to recommend a brand after becoming a follower.(refer www.emarketer.com ) With the above, it reinforces why you can’t ignore the power of Twitter and what it can do to your business.

How Twitter continues to attract Insurers

Twitter has been adopted into many roles for insurers as they look to understand and harnest the technology. Recently, most companies engaging in social media strategy do see Twitter playing an important role. So what are they using Twitter for?

Typically these accounts push out news, often manned by and PR groups and directing links back to corporate websites. PR groups typically do not follow many people and have a low level of conversation. It can be news related to the company such as product launch, new branch opening, or occasion greetings such as Happy New Year, Fathers Day, etc...

Twitter has a role in reaching out to customers. Its popular-ity has begun to soar in the insurance industry where it is most prominent in the auto insurance segment. As the use of Twitter matures, we are seeing more specific Twitter identities being added by companies for this role. @Ask_progressive, @GEICO_Service and @esurancecares are three examples even though the primary Twitter identi-ties still field a lot of service related questions. There are high levels of individual conversations and few tweets sent to the entire follower base. The twitter identity @Progressive, which has been used for customer service sent 80% of the messages to individuals.

To provide customer service

To deliver news and announcement

As a driver to other forms of content

Some insurers have build and established blogs, microsites, financial guides and task-focused calculators as ‘Tweet’ destinations. Online calculators and quote tools are promoted by tweets and few tweet to promote their new facebook sites and blog content.

THE WHO, WHY, AND HOW OF

A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS

TWITTER AROUND THE WORLD

THE CORPORATE TWEET

THE PERSON MOST LIKELY TO USE TWITTER IS...

LOST IN THE CHATTER

HOW WE USE IT

HOW OFTEN WE CHECK IT

FEMALE, HISPANIC, 20-SOMETHING, WHO ATTENDEDCOLLEGE, LIVES IN A CITY, AND MAKES<30K OR 50-75K

Since Twitter launched in 2006, It’s enjoyed tremendous growth around the world. Both private Internet users and public corporations have embraced the microblogging site to share news, photo, links, and more, Here, we explore who tweets, why they do, what they share, and how often they do it.

8%

Percentage of U.S. Internetusers who use Twitter

New accounts created every day*

+460k 20.6 million

U.S adults accessing Twitterat least once a month

Tweets sent per day*

177182+

million%

Increase in mobile Twitterusers in the past year

* As of March 11, 2011

GENDER RACE AGE EDUCATION LEVEL GEOGRAPHY INCOME

10%

FEM

ALE

18%

HIS

PANI

C

14%

AGE

18-

29

7% A

GE 3

0-49

6% A

GE 5

0-64

4% A

GE 6

5+

9% C

OLLE

GE+

9% S

OME

COLL

EGE

11%

URB

AN

8% S

UBUR

BAN

5% R

URAL

10%

MAK

ES<

$30K

6% M

AKES

$75

+

5% H

IGH

SCHO

OL D

IPLO

MA

10%

MAK

ES$5

0K-7

4,99

9

10%

MAK

ES$3

0K-4

9,99

9

13%

BLA

CK

7% M

ALE

(NON

-HIS

PANI

C)

5% W

HITE

(NON

-HIS

PANI

C)

Percent Of Internet Users In Each Group Who Use Twitter

STATE

Keep in touchwith friends

TWITTER ELITEPOP 20K

ONLY ABOUT 0.05% OF TOTAL TWITTER POPULATION(20,000 ELITE USERS) ATTRACTALMOST 50% OF THEATTENTION ON THE SERVICE.THESE ELITE USERSREPRESENT MEDIA,CELEBRITIES, ANDORGANIZATIONS.

MEDIA OUTLETS ARE BY FARTHE MOST ACTIVE USERSON TWITTER, BUT IS ANYONELISTENING? ONLY ABOUT15% OF TWEETS RECEIVEDBY ORDINARY USERS ARERECEIVED DIRECTLYFROM THE MEDIA.

OF THE MILLIONS OF TWEETSCREATED EVERY DAY, 71%PRODUCE NO REACTION-REPLIES OR RETWEETS.OF ALL TWEETS THAT DO GETA RESPONCE, 85% ONLY GETA SINGLE REPLY.

TWEET!tweet...

About 1/4 of all Twitter usersare extremely active, checkingin on tweets from others severaltimes a day.

POST PERSONALUPDATES

POST WORKUPDATES

SHARE LINKS TONEWS STORIES

POST GENERAL LIFEOBSERVATIONS

TWEET LOCATION

24%

72% 62% 55% 54%

24%28%

12% 5% 12%CHECK TWEETSSEVERALTIMES A DAY

ONCE A DAY 3-5 DAYSPER WEEK

1-2 DAYSPER WEEK

7% 20% 21%EVERY FEWWEEKS

LESS OFTEN NEVER

People use Twitterin a variety of ways- to post updates,locations, photos,and more. OMG! TO DO... www

SHARE PHOTOS40%52%53%

SEND DIRECTMESSAGES

RETWEETOTHERS

WWW

@...SHARE VIDEOS

@amyretweeted by...

Through most people use Twitter to keep in touch with their friend, other reasons for using theservice differ slightly among men and woman. Posting status updates is the second most popularreason women use Twitter, while more men use it to find the latest news.

WHY WE USE TWITTER

34% MALE48% FEMALE

28% MALE29% FEMALE

31% MALE21% FEMALE

23% MALE22% FEMALE

10% MALE8% FEMALE

3% MALE6% FEMALE

POST STATUSUPDATES3 seconds ago

OTHERFIND NEWSSTAY UP-TO-DATE

MEMOWORKRELATED FOR RESEARCH

NL Netherland

JP Japan

BR Brazil

ID Indonesia

26.8%

26.6%

23.7%

22.0%

AR Argentina

TR Turkey

PH Philippines

SG Singapore

18.0%

16.6%

16.1%

16.0%CA Canada

18.0%

VE Venezuela

21.0%

ComScore recently ranked the top 10countries around the world with thegreatest peenetration of Twitter usersamong online users.

Businesses large and small are getting in on Twitter, too. A recent report looked at the top 100 of the 2010Fortune Global 500 Companies to find out how many of the world’s largest corporations are tweeting.

OFFERDEALS

OFFERCUSTOMERSERVICE

Sale!Join Us

Hello!

Latest!

10%RELEASE

28%40%

JOB INFORMATION

88%POSTCOMPANYNEWS/UPDATED

72%

FG100 companies average 5.8 Twitter accountsper company. They use those accounts to post

a variety of tweets.

OF U.S.COMPANIES

83%OF EUROPEANCOMPANIES

67%OF ASIA-PACIFICCOMPANIES

77% of the top 100 companieshave a Twitter account

#AETINSmindshare

Sources : PEW Internet & American Life Project, eMarketer, Yahoo!, Mashable, Sysomos, Burson-Marsteller, comScore

Some insurers are creating or enhancing brand images, often going a long way to ‘stay in character’.Companies are also putting more efforts to monitor Twitter mentions around the clock. If someone had a negative experience with your brand, chances are they may tweet about it. By immediately engaging disruntled customers in a dialogue and publicly resolving their issues, companies can turn around a potentially damaging discourse to a positive public perception.

Natural disasters affect people and families in many ways. Insurers offer help to their customers by providing links to claims groups specifically set up to handle the event.

Provide claims information

Twitter is a great way to monitor what your competitors are doing. Perhaps they are preparing to launch a new product, customer loyalty program or opening a new branch, and this competitive intelligence can give you an edge in strategic planning.

Gain Competitive Intelligence

To develop a brand image

Scheduling tweets with a platform such as HootSuite or Tweetdeck can be a great way to spread out your business’ social sharing throughout the day. However, it’s important to pay attention to any responses your scheduled tweets may elicit — the follow-up conversation is just as important as the initial tweet, if not more.

“The key to attracting a following on Twitter is to engage with users”. “Hootsuite is a free platform that allows companies to schedule tweets for all accounts in one place. That means that you won’t have to spend all day planning the next 140 characters to publish. However, check back hourly to see who has tweeted back at you. Twitter users have a short attention span, so it’s important to respond as quickly as possible.”

1: Don’t Schedule & Split

Get familiar with platforms that let you build streams around phrases or hashtags relevant to your company. That way, you’ve always got your ear to the social ground.“Hashtags are an excellent way to track conversation about a specific topic”. With Hootsuite, companies can create streams that track a specific hashtag, giving the account manager an easy way to find content and engage with other tweeters. For example, if your company plans to introduce new product in the market then you might want to follow a stream dedicated to the #ProductName hashtag.

2. Sit in the Stream

It’s the mark of a successful social company to have plenty of custom-ers tweeting at you or about you using your Twitter handle, but you can’t rely on all users to do that. If you’re only listening for tweets mentioning @yourCompany, for example, you’ll miss out on a tweet such as, “I need good health insurance provider any suggestion”Recommended solution is to ‘enhance’ listening techniques.Topsy.com is a little-known website that lets users do real-time searches in the social web, daily searches for your company’s name and narrow the search results to just tweets to see who is talking about your company but not @-mentioning you. Or you can save searches for some key terms and common permutations of your company name.

3. Don’t rely on your handle

While the majority of your tweets will probably be about your business, it’s important to develop a personality beyond tweeting out discounts or new menu options. It’s all about building a human personality.The last thing a company wants to do is spam their followers with tweets. Twitter is about sharing ideas, information and occasionally inspirational quotes in order to build a community around what the business offers. Try to tweet at least five times per day and dedicate one or two of those tweets to sending users back to your company’s website. Identify most engaging time of your followers & schedule those posts during that time to get the feedbacks or retweets.

4. Don’t Be a Social Egomaniac

Determining the return on investment of social networking can be a real challenge, especially if you don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to complex analytics. However, there are lot of free tools available to make that task just a bit easier.The URL shortener Bitly enable users to create shortened links for any URL available online, Sign up for a free Bitly account and create custom Bitly links or ‘bitmarks’ that can be used whenever you send users back to your company’s website. To see how many people have clicked the link, simply paste the URL with a ‘+’ at the end into your Internet browser to see up-to-date metrics.

5. Stay on Track

Twitter, like any social media tool, is a bit tricky for businesses at first. On one hand, you suddenly have access to hundreds of millions of people and want to get the message about your brand out there. On the other hand, you don’t want to bore them off so that they’ll “unfollow” you. Take an 80/20 approach: promote 80% of the time, and mix in fun things 20% of the time. When you promote, make sure that your messages are fun, engaging and attention-grabbing too.

Brand

Identity

Tweeters, for some reason, seem very inclined to compli-ment brands on good service or products. Compliments are captured and ‘retweeted’ often with a ‘thank you’ message.

To acknowledge compliments

TQ

Use Twitter to learn what your desired target demographic prefers. For example, if you are a brand targeting a younger audience, just by listening to their conversation via Twitter, you can learn what their interests are, their lifestyle, etc...

Understanding Tool

Twitter offers you the unique ability to eavesdrop on conversations. Search for certain keywords that are related to your niche or industry, and then look up conversations that surround those keywords. If someone is on Twitter and asking a question about life insurance and you know the answer, get on that! Offer a short response and then link them to an article or blog entry that’s on your site. Without trying to go for a sale, provide them with your contact details as well so that they can ask you further questions if need be.

Address people’s concerns

The point of social media is to be a bit more “human” on the World Wide Web. When you open up your company’s Twitter account, resist the temptation for your Twitter account to be strictly all about you. Offer helpful and appropriate tips and suggestions on a wide range of things when followers mention them. Ask your followers how they’re doing and what their plans for the day, week, month or year are. Connect with them on a human level rather than a business-only level and you’re sure to win them over.

Talk to Followers about Their Interests

More and more industries are using social media to recruit potential employees / Agents / Brokers. You are potentially reaching hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people all at once. You’ll have the most options available when it comes to people to interview and fill the position, and that you’re most likely to find the best person for the job this way.Recruiting employees online is also significantly less expensive than doing it by the more traditional methods of employee recruitment.

Use Twitter as a HR Tool

Five can’t miss tips for upping your twitter game

Conclusion

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About Us

AETINS is an Insurance Software Solutions Specialist.

We offer a single end-to-end Insurance Solution that covers all lines of business: Individual Life, Group Life, Investment Linked and General. It spans across functions like illustration, quotation, new business, policy servicing, claims, agency management, commission and benefits, accounting and services. Our business is to help Insurance Companies to strategise and operate by leveraging on Information Technology, a key enabler to achieve transformational growth through Operational Excellence and Innovation.

AETINS has gained valuable business and technological expertise by building extensive knowledge and experiences that we capitalise on in delivering solutions to meet customers’ needs, expectations and budget.

Our mission is to “Innovate Insurance Companies to strategise and operate by leveraging on Information Technology”. Through our experience and expertise, AETINS has successfully completed many projects of different scales and complexity. AETINS recognises that specialisation and mastery in the Insurance and IT industry is imperative. Our aspiration is to enable business transformation for Insurance Companies across the globe.

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No.18, Jalan Persiaran Barat,46050 Petaling Jaya,

Selangor Darul Ehsan,Malaysia.

Website: http://www.aetins.com

Email: enquiry@aetins.comTel: (603) 7620 3043 / 7955 3043

Fax: (603) 7957 1187

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