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If you’ve been in any industry long enough, it’s common for a sense of “knowing everything” to stifle creativity and the quest for contemporary knowledge. The fact is, if you operate in the microcosm that is your insurance agency without venturing out to do research about trends in risk management, pending legislation and best insurance marketing practices, you’re stuck in a shrinking bubble.
One of my favorite resources for fresh perspective is InsuranceCampus.org billed as, “The Insurance Industry Person-To-Person Networking Center.” While still underutilized, the specialized Ning network created by Insurance Broadcasting CEO Walt Podgurski is essentially a Facebook-like community for insurance professionals, giving them a place to exchange ideas, post blog entries, network or even share multimedia materials.
Unlike a typical forum, InsuranceCampus.org encourages individuals to befriend industry contacts and discuss pertinent topics, facilitating the conversations with a variety of groups ranging from insurance media/advertising to the senior marketplace to workers compensation and enterprise risk management. There’s something for everyone.
With just under 2,400 current members, InsuranceCampus.org will grow as more insurance professionals become comfortable with social media and seek out like-minded individuals for inspiration, troubleshooting and success or failure stories. Social media encourages the broadcasting of messages, but it’s equally valuable as a learning tool. The social network itself acts as the ice-breaker so you can feel comfortable soliciting feedback or advice from a relative stranger.
Perhaps my favorite part of Insurance Campus; every Tuesday is “Make a Friend Tuesday,” where Walt shares some nugget of wisdom and encourages us to forge a relationship we didn’t have before. Not sure why I like the concept so much. Maybe because it reminds me of my son’s kindergarten “Friendly Fridays” or because Walt looks so stern in his picture, but really, who couldn’t benefit from more wisdom and friends?
With so much interesting insurance news out there, it’s hard to cover it all. Fortunately IMHQ has you partially covered. Below is a mix of useful and useless knowledge based on social web meanderings.
- One of my favorite headlines this week comes from National Underwriter’s Life and Health Insurance News: Employers: Workers Still Slugs. It’s basically a blame piece of insurance managers blaming health plan participants for living with poor health habits, thus causing coverage to be more expensive. They also found blame with companies hired to “persuade” plan participants to be healthier. My problem, if you need to be “persuaded” not to be fat or smoke cigarettes (etc.), than you don’t want to fix the problem in the first place and no company is likely to convince you otherwise. Great article title though.
- Walt Podgurski, the visionary behind the insurance industry’s most social forum (InsuranceCampus.org) reminds us of the importance of claiming your Google local listings. If you haven’t done so, set it up now. And while you’re at it, sign up for an account at InsuranceCampus.org, Tuesday is “Make-a-Friend Tuesday” after all.
- According to CNBC.com, Hummer H2/H3 owners are the most likely drivers to receive speeding tickets, a full 4.63 times more likely to get pulled over someone driving say, as opposed to someone with a 2000 Toyota Camry with three missing hubcaps. We all know tickets affect insurance rates so think twice before topping triple digits in your land tank.
- Scared of flying, maybe you should be more scared of stubborn, bucking burros. Statistics show that donkeys contribute to more deaths every year than plane crashes. Obviously it’s a factor of more people relying on donkeys as opposed to airplanes for transportation globally, but when considered , you definitely should think about watching your a$$. Special thanks to USICNA Insurance for sharing this and many other bizarre facts with their Facebook Fans in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Nevada and Texas.
- Struggling to fill your insurance blog with content that actually has an effect on lead generation? Follow Amherst, MA-based Encharter Insurance’s lead by finding a college kid to earn internship credit while blogging for free. It helps to be near an educational hub, but an insurance blogger doesn’t need to be an insurance expert, just get direction from one.