The Medium and the Message

There’s a lot of great information in this issue of Insurance Journal about social media and mobile technology, and how agencies can use these tools to help them grow. We aim to keep up with the times, do we not?

There’s no question that smartphones and Facebook increasingly are must have tools for enterprising producers. In fact, some digital enthusiasts believe the smartphone — which most agents already have — to be the perfect communication tool. (See cover story “Mobile Producers” on N8.) After all, you can talk, you can email, you can text, you can access social media sites, take photos and videos, and, it goes everywhere.

The other side of that coin is — with the increasing use of go-everywhere, do-everything technology — making sure the medium doesn’t run away with the message.

While companies are readily and effectively using social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to spread the news about their products and services and to engage in direct conversations with existing and prospective customers, these venues are not without risk.

Tales of Twitter feeds and Facebook posts gone bad and coming back to haunt well-meaning companies appear in the news media almost daily.

Think KitchenAid and the first presidential debate, during which an employee tweeted an unauthorized and offensive message for which the company later had to apologize. The online backlash was severe, with many people stating that they would not be buying KitchenAid products in the future.

KitchenAid did the right thing and immediately deleted the offending tweet, fired the employee and apologized for the incident. One thing the company could not do, however, is sweep the incident under a “digital rug.” On the Internet, once out there, it’s out there.

The takeaway from all this is that companies need to ensure that policies are place to lessen the myriad risks that go along with the use of technology and social media, risks that can run from privacy and intellectual property issues to advertising and marketing boondoggles to employment-related concerns.

There’s that old saying — no risk, no reward — and insurance is all about risk, right?

Obviously it’s important for those in business today to keep up with technology, take advantage of what it has to offer and reap the rewards. For insurance professionals, it’s equally important to make sure to do what they advise their clients to do: manage the risk.