January 19, 2009 by Steve.

One of the most important jobs of an agency owner or manager is to look into the future and try to understand the trends that will influence the organization. As I tried to think about the major trends I expect to see over the next year, I realized that there is really only one: changes in how you communicate with your prospects and clients.

There are different labels being applied to these communication changes: Web 2.0, social media, blogs, and wikis, to name a few. The model most agencies currently use is based on a client purchasing relationship. With social media, you no longer just want prospects and clients who purchase products. You want to create long-term friends and fans. This change—from creating clients to creating fans—is hard to appreciate and understand.

But understand you must. This trend will affect every area of your agency’s operations. Here are just a few thoughts on areas that it might change.

Marketing: Marketing becomes less of a sales process and pitch and more of an open dialogue and conversation between you (the agent) and your potential prospect. Friends and fans of the agency will do more “marketing” for the agency among their peers than any marketing program could create.

For example, one agent sells boat insurance in 40 states. He has recently begun participating in a discussion forum for bass fisherman called BassBoat Central. He’s answering other users’ insurance questions, posting interesting information about insurance topics, and is becoming viewed as the boat insurance expert. He does not give a direct pitch to write their insurance. Yet his participation is creating “friends and fans” who will lead to increased business.

Client service: The trend of client self-service is well established and many agencies are already embracing this trend. An agency using social media tools will open up a conversation not just between agency and client but also between clients. An open forum where clients can post messages about how well you provide customer service would be one implementation of this concept. How scary is that!

New employees: Using these tools is second nature to the younger employees you will hire. They come out of college with these skills already in place. Yet, when they are hired by an agency, their access to these tools is blocked. In order to keep these new employees, the agency must undergo a mindset change as well as learn new management skills.

I am personally taking steps to learn and understand how this social media trend affects all of us. My first step is a new Web site for TAAR. The site has been completely redesigned and in the next few months, I will be introducing additional social networking tools that subscribers can use to easily communicate with me and other subscribers.

I’ve also established a presence for TAAR, as well as a personal presence, on many of the social networking platforms currently available. You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Tumblr, Flickr, LinkedIn, and my blog. I’m not sure yet which of these will ultimately be the best platform to use. But I am committed to experiment and learn.

A small, but rapidly increasing number of insurance professionals are also experimenting with social media. I think you should be among them. I am committed to helping you by sharing with you what I’m learning as I go through this process. Take a deep breath and dive in.

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January 15, 2009 by Steve.

Google has released a new service called Google Friend Connect that makes it possible for Web sites to easily add social networking features that don’t require visitors to join a new social network. Google Friend Connect lets any Web site operator easily add functionality to a site that lets visitors join the site, see other users of the site, and participate in social networking activities such as commenting on and rating content.

From a strict feature standpoint, there isn’t much in Google Friend Connect that seems all that new. There are many other services already available that offer these types of services. What does make this service stand out is its extreme openness and potential for near-unlimited extensibility. That’s because, rather than using proprietary technology, Google Friend Connect heavily leverages open technologies such as OpenID, OpenSocial, and OAuth.

To get the service up and running on your site, you simply need to enter the site information on the Google Friend Connect site, download two files that need to be uploaded to your site’s root directory, and choose the gadgets you want to add to the site. For the gadgets, Google Friend Connect generated code that I then needed to add to my Web site templates and pages.

Gadgets include a Members gadget that displays visitors who have joined the site. This makes it possible for visitors to sign in, join the site, and utilize other social networking gadgets. Other gadgets include a Wall gadget that lets visitors comment on and link to a site, a ratings gadget, and a couple of demonstration gadgets. There is also a code snippet provided to aid developers in creating their own custom gadgets.

For more information on Google Friend Connect go to www.google.com/friendconnect/.

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January 7, 2009 by Steve.

JumpVault is software that addresses concerns from a growing number of businesses whose employees regularly use BlackBerry, USB flash drives, and other mobile devices to transport and transfer data. JumpVault transforms an ordinary USB flash or mobile device, such as a BlackBerry, into a secure virtual container. JumpVault, created by QuickVault, Inc., is password protected and offers the option for meta data logging to track movement of mobile data files.

The company says JumpVault fully protects information on any mobile storage device with internal flash memory—no matter the file size or type. The product also functions as a backup unit for laptops and workstations often overlooked by enterprise business continuity and disaster recovery programs. That means contracts, proposals, business plans, personal documents, confidential documents, spreadsheets, and legal documents can be protected on mobile storage devices.

Sarbanes-Oxley, Payment Card Industry (PCI), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandate by law that record holders safeguard certain types of information. JumpVault’s data loss prevention features protect mobile data from unauthorized access or disclosure.

JumpVault software is fully contained on the USB-enabled mobile storage device and operates across a variety of computer operating systems including Windows, Vista, and Mac. JumpVault has a built-in 256-bit encryption and offers the option of scheduled transfer of data from PCs to corporate servers. Data stored on a BlackBerry, for example, cannot be accessed without authentication. For more information, visit JumpVault.com.

Posted in Cool Tools, General, Agency Management Systems | Print | 1 Comment »