State Auto Digital Agent

Pinterest is a social media site for sharing images you find around the web. It describes itself as “a tool for collecting and organizing things you love.” People (80% are women) spend an average of 16 minutes each time they visit Pinterest, posting pictures they’ve found of things they like, from classroom, home décor and wedding ideas, to recipes, work out routines and inspirational quotes. What does Pinterest mean for businesses? Retail is finding a sweet spot on the site, which now accounts for more than 25% of social shopping sessions ( source ). Web referrals to a retailer from an image “pinned” on the site spend 70% more money than visitors referred from other, non-social websites ( source ). Pinterest for Insurance Agents Pictures of insurance policies are not likely to show up in the list of most popular Pins at http://pinterest.com/popular/ . But – insurance agencies are made up of people, with unique talents, interests and community activities. Pinterest could b...

At a meeting of independent insurance agents, a group of about 100 agents was asked if their agency has a social media policy. Only two hands were raised. Given the concerns agents often voice about social media – from reputation to employee behavior – an internal policy is a great place to begin your planning for social media. A social media policy helps you take a responsible, thoughtful look at the areas you can address to prepare your agency team for work and life in today’s digital world. 4 Reasons to Create a Social Media Policy 1. Put the moose on the table. Address the elephant in the room. However you want to phrase it, your agency leaders need to openly discuss their fears about social media. Your concerns are valid. Social media does come with risks, but you can’t stop it from impacting your agency by ignoring it. Get it all out on the table in a meeting where concerns are listed and grouped into categories. 2. Decide up front how you’ll handle risks. Th...

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network, meaning it is focused on professionals. To some, this means it is only for job-seekers – that having an active profile on LinkedIn means you are looking for a new job. In reality, LinkedIn has grown to be an active social network for people to make connections, discuss business problems, share knowledge and stay in touch. It’s classic networking, happening every day, accessible at any time. 6 reasons to get active on LinkedIn: You need a professional and credible online profile. If someone Googles your name, what shows up? Hopefully a professional profile that looks polished, modern and familiar to people looking for information about you. LinkedIn provides this with the public profile option. It is very likely to appear high in search results for your name, if not at the very top. Your business cards don’t update themselves. LinkedIn is the modern day Rolodex, with some improvements on the old system. If you man...