Insurance firms are finally embracing social media as they’ve begun to provide their financial advisors with access to social media platforms and guidance on how to use them properly. As a result, the advisors surveyed for this year’s Insurance Advisors’ Report Card are much more enthusiastic about their firms’ efforts in this category.
This is evident in the overall average rating in the “firm’s focus on social media” category, which rose to 7.2 from 6.4 last year, with four of the seven firms surveyed in 2012 seeing their ratings increase by half a point or more. And although the overall rating is the second lowest among all the categories, these remarkable increases show that firms and their advisors are open to the business-building potential of this emerging technology.
Toronto, Ont.-based World Financial Group Insurance Agency of Canada Inc. (WFG), Mississauga-based IDC Worldsource Insurance Network Inc. (IDC WIN) and Waterloo, Ont.-based Sun Life Financial (Canada) Inc. are three firms, in particular, that are putting significant effort toward making the use of social media a normal part of advisors’ everyday business. Thus, it’s no surprise advisors recognized these efforts by giving their firms the three highest ratings in the category — all rising by half a point or more from 2012.
“The firm is really trying when it comes to social media,” says a WFG advisor in Alberta. “I’m seeing a lot of Facebook pages and Twitter posts on behalf of the company and individual advisors. As well, the firm is providing a lot of encouragement because they want us to be on it.”
WFG saw its rating in the social media category make an impressive leap, up to 8.8 from 7.0 last year. The managing general agency started allowing its advisors to setup profiles more than three years ago on three of the largest social media websites, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. In addition, WFG advisors can also access Pinterest, a social media website to which advisors can “pin” photos or images to their individual boards, which can then drive traffic back to advisors’ websites.
“We see social media as a communication tool, so a lot of our sales force uses social media to communicate with their teams and motivate them,” says Richard Williams, WFG’s president. “We have advisors who prospect [for] new clients through all of these channels and, in turn, we are also able to recruit new advisors to the firm.”
IDC WIN only began dipping its toes into social media last year, but it has already seen its rating rise substantially, to 7.8 from 7.0 in 2012. In large part, that’s because the firm recently hired a third-party social media consultant to help advisors — if they wish — develop their own websites.
As well, advisors are able to create a customized website that allows them to send out monthly blogs to clients with features on insurance and wealth management.
“This provides a tremendous opportunity for advisors to keep in touch with their clients and give them educational and informative ideas related to insurance or risk-management,” says Ron Madzia, president of IDC WIN.
In contrast, some firms seem to be taking a much more cautious approach. For instance, although Sun Life was one of the first insurance firms to launch a social media pilot project in 2010, things haven’t been moving as quickly as some advisors would like. Many advisors feel they are out of the loop and that the firm isn’t moving fast enough on social media.
The original pilot project consisted of 20 advisors who were allowed, under the direction of the firm, to set up accounts with Facebook and LinkedIn. But as time has gone on, the firm has only expanded the pilot project to include 60 advisors; as well, it has distributed a set of guidelines and principles for only those advisors to follow.
“The firm is stone aged when it comes to social media,” says a Sun Life advisor in British Columbia. “They just haven’t figured it out yet. They have acknowledged that it exists and introduced guidelines that are compliance-driven rather than business-driven, which is basically ‘don’t do it’.”
However, setting up guidelines is only part of the process of getting advisors to use social media successfully. For its part, IDC WIN is currently using the services of a third-party consultant to research which social media platforms are the most effective for advisors, and what is the best way to introduce them to these platforms.
“Just being on [a social media website] doesn’t mean you’re effective with it,” says Madzia. “Any advisor can sign up to LinkedIn or Twitter, but if you’re not using it properly, it’s of no value. We need to help advisors understand these [social media] tools better. To show advisors how to use them within their own business as well as how to use them as an marketing initiative with their clients.”
Lack of communication seems to be the main reason why many advisors aren’t already engaged with the popular world of social media. In fact, many advisors are unaware of what their firms’ policy is or even if the firm has a policy in place.
“We would like somebody to inform us of our options on social media,” says an advisor in Quebec with Winnipeg-based Great-West Life Assurance Co. “We know about it, but we don’t know how it works.
Adds an advisor in Alberta with Woodbridge, Ont.-based Hub Financial Inc.: ‘I’m not sure what their presence is but I don’t think its that great.”
Whether insurance advisors are on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, one thing is for sure: they realize that social media is here to stay and that they could be missing out on certain opportunities if they don’t get onboard.
“I haven’t gotten too involved because its not my thing, but that might change because I see people who are using it getting better numbers than me,” says a WFG advisor in Manitoba.
Adds a HUB advisor in Ontario: “I’m not knowledgeable, but I need to be. I would like to see social media seminars because it’s the communication of the future.”
To see the complete 2013 Insurance Advisors’ Report Card, click here.