Insurers have “no choice” but to tap into social media: Accenture

The issue is not if, but how, insurers should leap into the world of social media, a new report from Accenture has concluded.

“Insurers, of course, really have no choice about participating in social media,” the consulting firm noted in its study, Insurers and Social Media: Vast Potential, Significant Challenges. “With people engaged in social media all around them, the real question is how to participate.”

It found the financial services industry as a whole has not generated significant social media “engagement,” although 28 insurers listed in the Fortune 500 have established Facebook pages and 20 have Twitter accounts. “Insurers are only now beginning to explore the real potential of integrated social media campaigns,” according to Accenture.

The consulting firm illustrated three distinct stages for social media awareness amongst insurers:

• Listen: conduct social media monitoring and analysis.

• Engage: initiate marketing campaigns and customer interaction.

• Optimize: link social media to customer relationship management (CRM) and building a “single view” of the customer.

Accenture observed that insurers succeeding in social media will “build engagement and generate customer interest at much higher levels than many other industries. . . . “However, many insurers will need to re-examine their current IT infrastructure — particularly legacy policy administration systems — to make sure that the capabilities are in place to support (social media) initiatives at scale.”