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How To Utilize Social Media in Health Insurance

by on Aug 24, 2010 (0) Comments

So you work at a health insurance company or in a related business, and you have decided to take the plunge into social media, despite the significant obstacles. So how do you create a program that is engaging, yet complies with regulations?

Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer gives some relevant tips that are useful for any health insurance company beginning involvement in social media.

1. Develop a plan, then get commitment from the top levels of you company. You need a CEO and board behind the idea and your proposed implementation of the idea before you dabble. If not, you may have the rug pulled out before you even get started. The top level involvement will also help assure compliance with regulation requirements.

2. Be proactive about compliance. Don’t try to skirt regulation requirements simply because you’re using social media. Work closely with your compliance officers to explain social media interaction, then work out solutions that integrate best practices for compliance as well as interacting in social media. This may mean you have a pool of approved Tweets from which you can pull, or that there is a delay of hours or days in responding to some questions, but that’s part of the equation.

3. Know your Media. It’s important to know your media tools and how they are used, and then educate your team, including top executives, on how those tools work. Let
them know that corporate blogs don’t need to be on the front page of the website, for example. Also, that there can be a review and approval process for any customer-
generated content, as long as that review process is clearly stated on the blog.

Some executives won’t understand a moderated environment or how moderation works – make sure you’re prepared to explain it.

4. Have a team approach. Making a single person in charge of all social media, moderating input and making comments can be exhausting for that individual, and may cause problems for you down the road, if they go in a direction that you didn’t like. The team approach is by far the best.

5. Shorten timelines for review. Social media does, by nature, demand a kind of immediacy. This will likely involve a streamlined process for communication review. Aim for 24 to 48 hours on most comments, but allow for a quicker interface if there is a situation that demands it.

If you take the appropriate precautions and plan ahead, there is every indication that the health insurance industry could benefit from utilizing social media opportunities with their customers.

Using Social Media in the Health Insurance Industry

by on Aug 07, 2010 (0) Comments

The health insurance industry has not been the first to jump onto the social media bandwagon. For a number of reasons, social media presents some problems for insurance companies, both in the marketing arena and the information arena.

For example, there are a plethora of privacy regulations governing what can and can’t be exposed about a specific patient. When you’re on social media, you’re about as public as you can be.

In a related challenge, there is also a government regulated, complex approval system for any communication from the insurance industry to the public. Each piece of communication, including social media messages, has to complete the approval process, which can take weeks. Not the typical turnaround time for a status update!

Also, if you are attempting to answer specific questions with a medical professional, you’re taking a qualified nurse or doctor away from their traditional duties, and with many medical facilities understaffed, it may just not seem important enough.

However, there are some good arguments to be made for including social media in a health insurance marketing and information plan.

  • Access — many people who are daunted by forms, lines and technical language are completely comfortable logging into Twitter or Facebook. South Carolina is looking at using social media to reach Medicaid and Medicare customers.
  • Also, many people will know exactly how to find a company on Facebook, but have trouble remembering your web address. They can get questions answered more quickly through social media.
  • Some Companies are Already There – with the popularity of social media, even an industry with obstacles like the health insurance industry’s will find some early adopters. They are out there, with blogs, Q & A columns, and customer service.
  • The Customers are using Social Media – Customers comparison shop, seek information, and communicate with others via social media. Health insurance companies seeking to be relevant may need to join in.
  • A “Friendlier” Feel. Health insurance companies have the image of being distant and inaccessible, not to mention unresponsive, in many cases. A presence in social media could soften that image.

Is sales a “numbers game” to you?

by on Jun 16, 2010 (0) Comments

Is sales a “numbers game” to you? If so, get ready to quadruple your work. Although working harder might be thought smart, hard work is not an effective substitute for working correctly.

When you partner with The Sales Standard you’re reaching to sales, marketing, and Internet experts who are ready to take your sales to a higher level. TSS can also manage the sales solutions they create , which helps ensure your success.

The Sales Standard is effective because its services evolve with your company and developments in the marketplace and with buyer trends. Based on a client’s sales operation, market position and goals, The Sales Standard create solutions that are 100% tailored to clients’ businesses.

TSS sales solutions have been developed over 20 years of real-world fieldwork – growing the sales of other companies. The sales Standard helps businesses balance effective on-line and off-line sales solutions in order to maximize results. This allows clients to enjoy greater benefit from our services. Through the service of The Sales Standard, you will learn how to sell consistently.

What’s Up With Location Based Social Networking?

by on Jun 10, 2010 (0) Comments

Location based social networking is facilitated by applications like Buzzd, Loopt, BrightKite and Foursquare, which allow mobile smart phone users to “check in” at either map coordinates or location – such as a business, restaurant, or event center.

Recently, Facebook and Twitter added location options. Twitter announced in April that they will allow users to attach metadata to tweets. This data could include location information.

Facebook is teaming up with McDonald’s in what some see as the future of location based social networking. When users check in at any nearby McDonalds, they’ll receive reward coupons for the restaurant.
With 100 million Facebook users who check or update their status from mobile phones every day, Facebook and McDonalds are both hoping the project takes off .

The first, smaller location based companies may be concerned about Facebook’s entrance into the market, given the size of the behemoth. Facebook is also planning to allow members to add their location to any status updates.

The early companies offer games, finding friends, and recommendations of places to visit. With the entrance of Facebook, there may be a quicker move toward targeted advertising and coupons from the businesses a person checks in, such as McDonalds.

For users, the value becomes not only the fun of a game, but an opportunity to get personalized deals. For advertisers, the opportunity to reach a specific niche helps them target their advertising dollars.

Should you jump on board location based networking? Many people predict that this feature will grow, particularly as more and more people begin using smart phones. Privacy and safety will be a primary concern for Facebook, as it has been for the smaller players in the business. However, more people being involved means the more concern about privacy and the more attention companies will pay to the issue.

So as a business, its worth watching location based social networking and its worth considering having a presence in the trend.

Hating on Apple? Take a number.

by on May 19, 2010 (0) Comments

While there are a variety of reasons folks hate Apple, many of the most often repeated reasons boil down to two general problems: 1) Hypocrisy and 2) Draconian, closed methods.

Let’s take a little gander at these two general categories and see why Apple is so well described by these titles.

Apple’s hypocrisy takes a variety of forms, but one of the easiest to see is the advertising. Apple’s ad campaigns, ever since the first, “throw the computer at big brother,” ground breaking ad have been about the “little guy” versus the “big guy” and about the smart, cool apple user versus the dull, witless and completely uncool user of any other products.

There was the “Think Different” campaign and the “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” campaign, along with the “Switch” campaign, all of which imply that Mac users are somehow inherently wiser, more innovative and just generally have better judgment than those who use PCs. This is ridiculous, smug and arrogant. Clearly, the type of computer you use has nothing to do with how intelligent or innovative you are.

Apple advertises trouble free, crash free computers even though they also have crashes, and they also have notoriously high fail rates on certain pieces of equipment. Somehow, those problems keep getting byes from technology gurus and the public.

Apple consistently exaggerates speeds and device performance ability, with seemingly no consequences, while at the same time they aggressively call out any one else who does the same kind of exaggerating.

And another of the Apple hypocrisies leads directly into my next point. Apple professes to be innovative, individual and unique while at the same time aggressively crushing innovation and individuality while operating on notoriously closed architecture.

That closed architecture is the root of the claims of draconian techniques. Apple keeps it’s developers at arm’s length, keeps a tight leash on developers both by denying applications to it’s app store and by giving developers only limited access, and carefully managing its image in the outside world.

They act as a bully – see stories about them suing college kids for leaking info to the press and having the apartment of Gizmodo’s Jason Chenn searched by police and having his equipment seized after he bought an iphone prototype which was inadvertently left in a bar.

All these techniques leave a bitter taste in the mouth of many, especially those who would like to see the promise of Apple’s professed aura be reflected in the reality.

Jobs vs. Flash? Ego vs. the Market

by on May 04, 2010 (0) Comments

Steve Jobs recently penned a missive “explaining” Apple’s reasons for failing to integrate Adobe’s Flash technology (a
standard for games and entertainment online) into its iPhone, iPod and iPad devices.

His argument? Flash “falls short” of what it could be and what is needed on a mobile device.

What would Jobs have said if everyone jumped Apple’s ship when their iPod batteries “fell short” of operating for more than a year? Rather than fix the known problem, they continued to sell iPods with faulty batteries.

They followed the same strategy with faulty power supplies that burned out after a year or two and power cords that ripped and failed. Did Apple quickly fix the problems, apologize for the inconvenience, correct the problem?

Of course not — that’s not Apple’s MO. Customers who stuck it out can buy replace

From a company that engages in that kind of “customer service,” complaints that Flash “falls short” of what it could be ring hypocritical.

Adding to that hypocrisy, Jobs complains that Flash is a “proprietary” and “closed” system. Really, Apple? So you can’t take your own medicine, is that the problem? Apple continues to create a closed, stifling environment for developers and yet criticizes Adobe for the same thing?

While I’m not a fan of Adobe’s encouragement of a probe into Apple’s monopolistic tactics in mobile technology, I am in favor of Apple becoming a team player in the mobile marketplace. Until then, I’m sticking with my open and ever-improving Android phone.

Apple’s Aggressive Patent Stand Inhibits Innovation

by on Apr 21, 2010 (0) Comments

We’ve already noted how Apple – once the edgy, cool company for the outsider who was just slightly smarter than the average – is now the industry behemoth with the lion’s share of the market.

But while Apple likes to promote itself as a freedom-loving, innovation above all company, that moniker applies only to the users of its products (and now, it only applies to small pockets of those users).

Apple itself is a company that is closed, exclusive, and protective – all values that don’t blend with the ethos it tries to project, and doesn’t fit well with innovation and development.

Take the recent lawsuit that Apple filed against HTC. They have accused the Taiwanese company of infringing on their patents. They’ve used a careful strategy, filed in two courts, and have addressed tick tack little issues, like sliding a button to unlock a phone.

But what is Apple really after? Well, Apple has found that they like zero competition – it drives profits immensely. So now that the Google Android platform has proven to be a formidable opponent to the iPhone, Apple has decided that instead of fighting the Android on features, price and user interface, they will fight the platform in court.

Rather than going after Google directly, they are starting with the smaller companies that use the Android OS, chipping away at the base. Experts like patent attorneys and intellectual property consultants see Apple filing multiple suits over several years, starting with those that don’t have the money and power to fight back.

Instead of using patents to increase and forward innovation, Apple uses patents as weapons in a war to limit innovation through competition and try to whittle the electronic world down into a one-screen theater, where Apple is all that can play.