I’ve been thinking about whether social media sites deserve all the attention they get from insurance marketers. I don’t mean that social media isn’t important. I’m just wondering if there is a need for urgency in the insurance sector.

Many insurance companies have created, or are in the process of creating, a profile on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. More and more insurance direct mail and email pieces captured in Comperemedia have social media icons on them, and ask the recipient to friend and follow the company. I’ve noticed that one popular company’s Facebook fan base has grown by about 26 percent in a little over a month.

Yet, fan numbers on Facebook for insurance companies are small, and followers on Twitter and LinkedIn are even smaller. For example, one leading auto insurer has around 14,000 Facebook fans, less than 100 LinkedIn connections, and nearly 6,000 Twitter followers. Given its market share, this insurer is not going to see social media influencing sales performance.

The focus of most social media sites is entertainment and information, so it is not considered proper to post a sales pitch to your followers. Marketers generally recommend that companies using social media for business reasons develop a dialog in which they become an expert advisor.

While I agree with this, I’m left wondering: how is the effectiveness of social media efforts being linked to sales? The measures talked about—inbound links, site visitors, clicks, followers, SEO—don’t necessarily tie to a new policy sold.

Please add your thoughts to this post. I’d like to avoid the hype and discuss what companies are developing as best practices. Let us know if you think social media is important today to a comprehensive insurance marketing campaign, or when you think it will be: 5, 10 or more years into the future. And when social media becomes established in insurance marketing, how would you recommend measuring its impact?

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