A social network may include entities, such as insurance agents and potential customers. Moreover, the entities may be “linked” to other entities that, in turn, may be linked to still other entities. Social network entities may be “linked,” for example, if they are friends or contacts on a social networking web site. Such social networks are an increasing popular way for people to communicate and exchange information with friends (and friends of friends, etc.). For example, an entity might post or otherwise display information about his or her current activities or interests to be automatically distributed to other entities in the social network (e.g., in accordance with the pre-established links).
In some cases, an insurance agent may be interested in distributing information associated with insurance products or services. For example, an insurance agent might be interested in letting potential clients know that he or she will be at a particular location (e.g., a local coffee shop) at a particular date and time in connection with a sponsored event. It can be difficult, however, to manually distribute such information, especially when a substantial number of potential clients and/or different social networks are involved.
It would be desirable to provide systems and methods to distribute information, including information associated with insurance products and services, by leveraging existing social networks.
According to some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus, computer program code and means may be provided to automatically generate social network posting information responsive to a trigger event associated with an insurance agent.
A technical effect of some embodiments of the invention is an improved and computerized method of spreading insurance related information and a system providing improved communications to clients and/or potential clients. With these and other advantages and features that will become hereinafter apparent, a more complete understanding of the nature of the invention can be obtained by referring to the following detailed description and to the drawings appended hereto.
As used herein, the term “agent” might refer to, for example, a licensed or registered person authorized to sell insurance products. The term agent might also refer to any of a broker, a registered independent agent, a producer, an entity (e.g., an agency), an insurance provider, a sales representative and/or an employee or affiliate of an agent. Moreover, any of the actions described here might be performed by a device associated with an agent (e.g., his or her vehicle or smartphone might automatically transmit location information to central server).
Note that a single entity (e.g., agent or potential customer) might be included in both social networks 110, 120. Such social networks 110, 120 are an increasing popular way for people to communicate and exchange information with friends (and friends of friends, etc.). For example, an entity might post or otherwise display information about his or her current activities or interests to be automatically distributed to other entities in the social network (e.g., in accordance with the pre-established links).
In some cases, an insurance agent may be interested in distributing information associated with insurance products or services. For example, an insurance agent might be interested in letting potential clients know that he or she will be at a particular location (e.g., a local coffee shop) at a particular date and time in connection with a sponsored event. It can be difficult, however, to manually distribute such information, especially when a substantial number of potential clients and/or different social networks are involved.
In some cases, an insurance agent may be associated with only a single insurance provider (sometimes referred to as a “captive” insurance agent). In other cases, an “independent” insurance agent may be associated with several different insurance providers. Note that embodiments described herein may be associated with either captive or independent insurance agents. With respect to independent insurance agents, any of the elements described herein may be further based on or otherwise associated with an insurance provider identifier. For example, the detection of trigger events and/or the posting information provided to social network sites might be performed based at least in part on an insurance provider identifier.
In some cases, an independent agent or its related social media accelerator platform (as described below) can have the ability to receive social media related information from multiple insurance carriers to use in the present invention. This may result in having too much information either being posted to an agent's social media website or distributed through the accelerator as described herein. Too much information could confuse or overwhelm the customer viewing his or her social media site. Therefore, the present invention allows for an agent related social media filter which can select which content would automatically be uploaded to the agent's website or distributed through the related accelerator platform received from the insurance carrier or it delegated data source. For example, the filter can select articles based on the date of origination or receipt by the agent, by the identity of the insurance provider, by the subject matter of the article. The article subject matter can be determined by associated transmission classification information or a key word search can also be used. The agent filter can also be preconfigured to only accept articles or other information related to certain lines of business, topics of interest, recent articles or information from a preferred insurance carrier. The agent filter can be implemented on a computer system as described in
The agent's filter can also be dynamically updated based on feedback from the social media sites receiving the distributed content. For example, if a threshold number of customers indicate a dislike of certain content, that content can be reduced or eliminated by the filter. If a threshold number of customers indicate positive feedback, such as liking an article or giving a high rating, than the agent filter can be set to distribute the same or an increased number of information distributions with the same characteristics. This allows the agent to adapt the information delivery to his or her particular customers and prospective customers and better personalize the experience.
It should also be understood also that an insurance agent may offer some or all of the products in any of the insurance categories described herein. Note that an insurance “agent” might refer to a physical office wherein the agent may operate alone, or may instead have many producers in the office who are licensed to sell insurance. According to some embodiments, these licensed producers within an agency could also the system and methods described herein. In some cases, the producers may be licensed to sell different types of insurance products, might have different areas of expertise, needs, etc. Thus, an insurance “agent” might refer to one who is appointed by an insurance agency to sell products on its behalf, or may be licensed producers within an insurance agency.
According to some embodiments, the “automated” social media accelerator platform 220 may open social network accounts, establish and/or modify social network links, and/or post social network information. As used herein, the term “automated” may refer to, for example, actions that can be performed with little or no human intervention. By way of example only, the social media accelerator platform 220 may be associated and/or communicate with a Personal Computer (PC), an enterprise server, or a database farm. According to some embodiments, the social media accelerator platform 220 is associated with a salesforce automation, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application, a Customer Service Manager (CSM)/content management system such as interwoven, Fatwire, etc. The social media accelerator platform 220 may, according to some embodiments, facilitate the establishment of one or more social network accounts based on the registration information received from the agent devices 210 and/or databases 230. Moreover, the social media accelerator platform 220 may facilitate the transmission of posting information to and/or through one or more social network devices 240 (e.g., Facebook servers).
As used herein, devices including those associated with the social media accelerator platform 220, and any other device described herein may exchange information via any communication network 160 which may be one or more of a Local Area Network (LAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a proprietary network, a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) network, a Bluetooth network, a wireless LAN network, and/or an Internet Protocol (IP) network such as the Internet, an intranet, or an extranet. Note that any devices described herein may communicate via one or more such communication networks.
Note that the social media accelerator platform 220 may be associated with various types of insurance policies, including personal insurance, business insurance, workers compensation, liability insurance, and wealth management offerings, including property and casualty insurance, life insurance, retirement and education investment products, and group benefits offerings.
Although a single social media accelerator platform 220 is shown in
The social media accelerator platform 220 may also access information in one or more databases 230. The databases 230 may include, for example, agent information (e.g., from a salesforce automation platform), template information, and/or event information. As will be described further below, the databases 230 may be used by the social media accelerator platform 220 to establish social network accounts, for customer/prospect targeting, and/or to distribute posting information.
The process 300 may be performed to facilitate the distribution of information associated with insurance goods and/or services. Pursuant to some embodiments, at S310 registration information may be received from a plurality of insurance agents (e.g., via remote insurance agent devices). The registration information might, for example, include information about an insurance agent, a list of social networks, potential clients, and/or usernames and passwords associated with social networks.
Referring again to
As another example, the posting information might be associated with a news article associated with risk. As still another example, the posting information might be associated with a social network reward to game. For example, a Facebook driving game might feature an agent's name, image, and/or agency name.
Referring again to
According to other embodiments, the trigger event may be based on information associated with a potential insurance customer or prospects of the insurance agent, such as a static potential insurance customer location, a dynamic potential insurance customer location, a potential insurance customer status, at least one social network relationship of the potential insurance customer, demographic information associated with the potential insurance customer (e.g., his or her gender), profile information associated with the potential insurance customer (e.g., marital status, date of birth, gender, interest groups, previous “likes” or other indications of approval, employer, and/or a list of friends), and/or an insurance product associated with the potential insurance customer. According to some embodiments, a customer's interests may be mined using keywords similar to processes used in connection with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and results may be associated with a trigger event. For example, a customer searching for a dentist, for a small business, or for retirement communities may be targeted to receive information about various types of insurance.
Other examples of potential customer information that may be associated with a trigger event include: a level of education (e.g., might be used in connection with underwriting and/or targeting); a hometown (e.g., might be used to select an agent from the same town); a current location (e.g., to suggest meeting in person); a marital status (e.g., may be related to risk profile); an occupation (e.g., for small commercial underwriting); activities, interests, likes, links, favorite movies and music, and/or status updates (e.g., for targeting).
As still further examples, the trigger event might be based on information associated with an insurance product available via the insurance agent, such as insurance information, an advertising campaign, a location associated with the insurance product, a price associated with the insurance product, a benefit associated with the insurance product, an event associated with the insurance product, and/or an expiration or renewal date. According to some embodiments, a customer's social network “likes” of a product or company might be used to give the customer a loyalty discount or other benefit. As still another example, a trigger event might be associated with a customer “checking” in at a particular location via a social media network (e.g., Facebook places or Foursquare), such as an agent's office or ad advertising campaign location.
Other examples of insurance product information that may be associated with a trigger event include: friends (e.g., adding an agent or insurance provider as a friend might result in an insurance product upgrade); checking in (e.g., an insurance product might be available to potential customers who check in at a gym at least three time per week); and photographs (e.g., people who travel to certain locations might not be eligible for certain insurance products).
Responsive to the detection of the trigger event, at S340 posting information may be transmitted to a social network server on behalf of the insurance agent. The posting information might comprise, for example, text information, image information, audio information, video information, and/or a website link. Examples of posting information may include a status update, a blog entry, a comment, a forum entry, a message associated with at least one social network relationship of the insurance agent, and/or a social network request (e.g., a friend request). Note that the posting information might be customized based on information about the insurance agent, information about a potential customer, and/or information about an insurance product. According to some embodiments, the posting information further includes information about a social network benefit that may be provided to the potential customer (e.g., credit or points that may be spent or otherwise applied in connection with the social network).
Note that posting information might be associated with an advertising campaign for a new insurance product. As other example, the posting information might be associated with a charity drive, a special offer (e.g., get five friends to join and get a 10% discount), a neighbor program, or a contest. According to some embodiments, the posting information might point out an action of a friend that links to the agent to create interest in a particular product. As another example, posting information might indicate that an insurance enterprise will donate a substantial amount of money to a charity selected by potential clients who “like” a particular Facebook post or that a friend already does business with an agent or carrier.
According to some embodiments, social network information associated with a plurality of insurance agents may be aggregated. For example, a number of posts (or comments about posts) may be aggregated. A social media accelerator platform may then display aggregated information to an operator associated with the insurance enterprise. Such a feature might, for example, let an administrator determine how effective a particular campaign is on various social networks. The aggregated information might, for example, include information about insurance product sales, social network activities, and/or social network relationships. The aggregated information might, according to some embodiments be used as a “feedback” mechanism associated with the automatic generation of future posting information.
As a result of the embodiments described herein, an improved system and method may be provided for the distribution of information associated with, for example, personal and business insurance policies may be achieved.
The embodiments described herein may be implemented in any number of different ways. For example,
According to some embodiments, the social media accelerator platform 620 may automatically open social network accounts, establish and/or modify social network links, and/or post social network information. By way of example only, the social media accelerator platform 620 may be associated and/or communicate with a PC, an enterprise server, or a database farm. The social media accelerator platform 620 may, according to some embodiments, facilitate the establishment of one or more social network accounts based on the registration information received from the agent devices 610 and/or databases 630. Moreover, the social media accelerator platform 620 may facilitate the transmission of posting information to and/or through one or more social network devices 640. The social network devices 640 might be associated with, for example, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln, Foursquare, tumblr, YouTube, flickr, digg, Pandora, last fm, upcoming, mybloglog, slideshare, and/or MySpace. According to some embodiments, a third party service 650 may facilitate communications between the social media accelerator 620 and social network devices 640.
The processor 710 also communicates with a storage device 730. The storage device 730 may comprise any appropriate information storage device, including combinations of magnetic storage devices (e.g., a hard disk drive), optical storage devices, mobile telephones, vehicle computers, and/or semiconductor memory devices. The storage device 730 stores a program 712 and/or social media accelerator engine 714 for controlling the processor 710. The processor 710 performs instructions of the programs 712, 714, and thereby operates in accordance with any of the embodiments described herein. For example, the processor 710 may detect an occurrence of a trigger event in connection with a first insurance agent of the plurality of insurance agents. Responsive to said detection, the processor 710 may automatically arrange for posting information to be transmitted to at least one social network server in connection with the first insurance agent.
The programs 712, 714 may be stored in a compressed, uncompiled and/or encrypted format. The programs 712, 714 may furthermore include other program elements, such as an operating system, a database management system, and/or device drivers used by the processor 710 to interface with peripheral devices.
As used herein, information may be “received” by or “transmitted” to, for example: (i) the social media accelerator platform 700 from another device; or (ii) a software application or module within the social media accelerator platform 700 from another software application, module, or any other source.
In some embodiments (such as shown in
Referring to
The agent identifier 802 may be, for example, a unique alphanumeric code identifying an insurance agent. The agent name 804 and agent 806 may further identify the insurance agent. The selected social networks 808 may indicate those networks the agent is interested in joining and the selecting insurance products 810 may indicate which products are available from the insurance agent associated with that agent identifier 802 (e.g., automotive, life, 401(k), property, and/or workers compensation insurance). Although only a limited amount of information is illustrated in
The template identifier 802 may be, for example, a unique alphanumeric code identifying a template that can be used to construct a page on the social network 904. The template element 906 may include a portion of the page (e.g., an agent address or photograph) and the element location 908 may indicate where on the page the element should be located. Note that multiple elements 906 may be used to construct a single template (e.g., multiple elements 906 may be associated with a single template identifier 902). The element data 910 may, for example, indicate where the information associated with that element may be found (e.g., from another database or a file location).
The posting identifier 1002 may be, for example, a unique alphanumeric code identifying a social network post that has been automatically generated as part of a social network campaign. The posting trigger 1004 may be associated with a rule or condition that resulted in the post. For example, a person who has a birthday stored in a database may automatically receive a birthday message, photograph, or game from an agent via a social networking site.
The posting trigger 1004 may be, for example, associated with contact information (e.g., name, birthday, and address), profile triggers (e.g., an interest of a potential client), an agent type or appointment such as a National Producer Number (NPN) or code, or a customer or agent behavior (e.g., opening an email or usage of a billing function). According to some embodiments, an agent may establish “preferences” that help define which trigger events are appropriate. For example, a death of a spouse, a change in relationship status listed on a social media database, or a recent “like” of an article about disability insurance might represent a trigger event.
The posting trigger 1004 might also be associated with potential customers, such as a ZIP code, keywords in his or her Facebook entries, group memberships, relationship status, age, gender, birthday, or workplace information. The posting trigger 1004 might also be associated with insurance product information, such as products selected based on the size and nature of a potential customer's business, a number of employees associated with a potential customer, and/or a product renewal date.
The posting agent identifier 1006 may be a unique alphanumeric code indication the party associated with the posting information and may be identical to or based on the agent identifier 802 of the agent registration database 800 described with respect to
The following illustrates various additional embodiments of the invention. These do not constitute a definition of all possible embodiments, and those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention is applicable to many other embodiments. Further, although the following embodiments are briefly described for clarity, those skilled in the art will understand how to make any changes, if necessary, to the above-described apparatus and methods to accommodate these and other embodiments and applications.
Although specific hardware and data configurations have been described herein, note that any number of other configurations may be provided in accordance with embodiments of the present invention (e.g., some of the information associated with the databases described herein may be combined or stored in external systems).
Applicants have discovered that embodiments described herein may be particularly useful in connection with insurance products, customer targeting or profiling, wealth protection, wealth accumulation, and/or educational savings. Note, however, that other types of insurance products may also benefit from the invention. For example, embodiments of the present invention may be used financial, medical, educational, and other types of information.
A potential customer's request for social network applications (“apps”) and/or use of apps may be used in connection with any of the embodiments described herein. For example, an agent might post a Facebook app that requests targeting or pricing information (e.g., a credit score, a number of accidents, or his or her age) from a potential customer. This information may then be used to generate a quote and/or to send information to the customer via the social network. As another example, a financial calculator type app might help an agent determine information about a small commercial business (e.g., an industry, a number of years in business, a payroll range, a fleet type or size, workers compensation classes, a ZIP code, and/or a frequency of prior accidents) or a commercial account (e.g., a company role, a number of years at a company, a current insurance provider, and/or a line of coverage).
The present invention has been described in terms of several embodiments solely for the purpose of illustration. Persons skilled in the art will recognize from this description that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but may be practiced with modifications and alterations limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/466,726 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTING INSURANCE SOCIAL MEDIA RELATED INFORMATION” and filed on Mar. 23, 2011. The entire contents of that application are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61466726 | Mar 2011 | US |