Comments for Rick Morgan Consulting- Talking Head

Comment on Lend a Helping Hand To New Social Media Friends by Larry Neilson

Larry Neilson — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:06:43 +0000

Rick,

You are right on the money. It's all part of the paradigm shift of giving it away to get it back. At least as it applies to business. The adept we all become applying social media strategies to our business, the better of we will be as an industry.

Comment on My thoughts on: “Is Facebook for Business Overrated” by akassover

akassover — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:09:06 +0000

I think you hit it with your comment about "trust". Without trust, there is no sale. Having a known brand is a fast-track to establishing trust, but most of us don't have the budget to establish a widely recognized brand. Facebook (and other social media tools) help establish trust by showing social proof. When a customer sees that other people like them trust you, it makes it easier for them to trust you.

Comment on My thoughts on: “Is Facebook for Business Overrated” by rickjmiv

rickjmiv — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:49:37 +0000

Thanks Tim. Great point about knowing your target market. Yes, blogging is core. I also am a big fan of Twitter.

Comment on My thoughts on: “Is Facebook for Business Overrated” by Tim Barnes, CLU

Tim Barnes, CLU — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:42:30 +0000

I do have a FB business page but have not spent a great deal of time with it. As a general rule, the people in my target market don’t spend a lot of time on FB, although senior citizens are spending more time on it every day. I spend most of my marketing time with email and writing a blog. Retirees are more prone to open an email than to search FB and I get better SEO results from the blog.

Comment on Mobile: Trends in Insurance by rickjmiv

rickjmiv — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:32:36 +0000

Here is the link to the ACT site: http://www.iiaba.net/act

Comment on What are the key technology trends in insurance? by rickjmiv

rickjmiv — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:31:44 +0000

Thanks for all the input

Jeff Yates has posted the summary of the breakout discussions that took place at the recent ACT meeting inTampa – http://www.iiaba.net/act

The break outs were asked to address three major questions:

I. What are the top three consumer and technology trends that will impact us over the next three years?
II. How will these trends change how we will do our work?
III. What should our industry do to respond to the trends?

Comment on Mobile: Trends in Insurance by rickjmiv

rickjmiv — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:29:06 +0000

Jeff Yates has posted the summary of the breakout discussions that took place at the recent ACT meeting inTampa.

The break outs were asked to address three major questions:

Comment on Mobile: Trends in Insurance by PatAlexander

PatAlexander — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:40:22 +0000

Having your website function properly on a mobile device is good but not the optimum tool. What do people need in an emergency? Access to information that will help them with that emergency. I believe that agencies should have one or more apps that address the needs of their customers. What to do in an auto accident. How to pay my bill. Get an auto ID card on screen. Issue certificates of insurance for commercial accounts. We need to be catching up on fast forward.

Comment on Mobile: Trends in Insurance by Duke Williams

Duke Williams — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:12:29 +0000

You are on the right track in stating that mobile needs to be more than a link to claims help on your website.

I know you remember the early days of websites. And how brochureware sites really didn't offer much benefit to the agency or the insured.

The time line for the website to become more than a brochure or a direct sales pages was about 10 years.

1995 was the web browser with Netscape.

1999 was the big move to html websites

2005 was the point where most people had high speed connectivity. That enabled Web 2.0 and social.

The mobile environment has only been around since the Apple App Store opened in the summer of 2008. But smart phone technology is being adopted at 8 times the rate of internet adoption. The reason, of course, is that the building blocks – especially high speed connectivity – are already in place.

Most industry experts expect over 50% of American mobile phone users will have a smart phone by the end of this year. Since the percentage with smart phones grew from 26% in Dec 2010 to 34% in 2011, that estimate may be very low.

Mobile apps that leverage an agency's existing website while offering native app functions and security for customer service on the smart phone is going to be available much faster than anyone imagines.

Keep up the good work of making folks think about it.

Comment on Mobile: Trends in Insurance by Marty Agather

Marty Agather — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:06:26 +0000

Great post and good topic.

I like Aaron's comment on a mobile auto ID. When I think of what apps would be useful, it is those items items which consumers do frequently. Based on Progressive data from 2009 – early 2010 which Alvito Vas presented, most transactions at their website (70% if memory serves) were payment focused. However, as we have discussed, this is more difficult for an agency to support.

I also saw a recent blurb that comprehension negatively effected on small screens as compared to desktop monitors. So that is an issue as well. Finally, some applications such as getting a quote are probably not the best candidates for small screen mobile.

One thing to avoid is a 'me-too' app that doesn't serve the customers needs.