Insurance companies experimenting in social media
I think we've hit critical mass in the forms of social media in which one person is expected to maintain a presence. The sheer variety (and volume) of sites, apps and platforms that are available, and constantly being marketed, to consumers makes me want to throw my smart phone off a highway overpass. Nearly every day I check Facebook, two Twitter feeds (personal and professional), Google +, Google Reader, Linked In, flickr, Spotify and more. Then there are the ones I have accounts for and don't check so often like Rypple, Yelp, Shelfari, LastFM, delicious, Digg and Foursquare. Almost every site now has social media integration (YouTube, news and sports sites, messageboards, etc.) You can't escape them (short of ditching your home internet connection, but even then, many workplaces are utilizing social media now too) and you can't possibly juggle them all.
[Frankly, I'd like a social media coach to come in, interview me for a few hours, and tell me which ones are best for me and how to optimally use them.]
But now, even insurance companies are getting involved in the social media game. From the descriptions of the two examples in that article, one from Humana and one from Independence Blue Cross, they are going about it in varying ways. The Humanaville world is just an additional non-integrated site to visit, though I like the idea of visiting "places" to get different kinds of information categorized by games, nutrition, education, and the like. It also doesn't say if it comes as a smart phone app, which would be useful because it could integrate with places/locations, calendars, grocery lists, etc.
The IBX site and app are integrated, allowing users to use it on Facebook or Twitter, taking into account that a lot of consumers already use these systems, and would be more likely to take on something new if it was seamlessly (or maybe even not so) woven into their existing social media lives. This quote sums up this line of thinking and design: "The beauty of it is that you really can leverage the built-in capabilities of the sites to take advantage of the capabilities of the smartphone," he explains. "It's not overly complex to do and it helps us bring in as many people as possible."
Since I already have Facebook, Twitter AND my insurance company is IBX, I plan on downloading the app and starting to play around with it to see what it's like and what it can do. I mean, what's one more thing to check every day, right!?
