I recently read an article that claimed 40% of Twitter accounts are dormant and inactive. Being a curious type I thought how this might apply to UK based insurance brokers and their use of Twitter.
My quick-fire desktop assessment revealed that there are a considerable number of insurance broker Twitter accounts that are not being updated, seemingly forgotten about.
To some extent I guess this would be understandable if the businesses concerned had gone to the wall and were no longer trading. Disappointingly this wasn’t the case; nearly all of insurance broker businesses I found with inactive Twitter accounts (and there were many) were still ‘open for business.’
Not keeping a Twitter account up to date with fresh and relevant posts can have a negative impact on a company’s brand perception and lead somebody that comes across it, an existing/potential customer perhaps, to ask some very obvious questions:
Are they still trading?
Is this the way they do business?
Is that how they’ll treat me if I do business with them?
As consumers we aggregate all of our engagement with a brand, and use this intuitively to decide if we should do business with a company or not. Failure to create a good brand impression in just one area of a business can be detrimental and in this regard Twitter is no exception.
An insurance brokers Twitter account, like its website, is an important brand shop window for clients and prospects. If a broker no longer wishes to use Twitter as a communication/marketing tactic, they should give some thought to deleting the account. At least this way they won’t be giving visitors that stumble across their unused Twitter account the wrong impression.
Here are some other useful hints and tips for insurance brokers to consider:
- Develop a Social Media strategy that clearly articulates the case for using this form of communication. Good old fashioned SWOT analysis isn’t a bad place to start
- Be in it for the long-haul – Unless a business has a truly supercalifragilisticexpialidocious offering the likelihood is that it won’t get instant financial gratification from Twitter, the phone isn’t likely to ring off the hook. Twitter is a marketing tactic that can be powerful when integrated into wider marketing efforts. I would suggest that in the 21st century it is arguably an essential part of the insurance brokers marketing mix.
- Existing and/or Ex-employees – Check their accounts. Are they sitting there gathering dust? Don’t let the account just sit there, take action.
Paul Handleigh
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