Carolyn Lasky COMM 497 Social Media Monitoring Assignment December 9, 2012

State Farm Insurance Cos.

Purpose: State Farm Insurance is a Fortune 50 company based in Bloomington, Illinois. The company was founded in 1922 by a retired insurance salesman, George Jacob Mecherle, who created the company in an attempt to operate fairly and do the right thing for insurance customers. This report seeks to examine State Farm Insurances presence on social media as well as areas for improvement based upon customer feedback and comparison between State Farm Insurances competitor: Allstate Insurance. This monitoring report will identify and critique the various social media outlets for State Farm as well as provide feedback for areas of growth. The online conversation about State Farm Insurance needs to be monitored because the insurance industry is highly competitive. It is easy for a customer to have one negative experience with a company and switch to another insurer. If State Farm can respond to negative comments while making the customer feel like he or she is a part of the State Farm family, the company will be better off.

Methodology: Data was collected from November 23, 2012 until December 9, 2012. The most useful tool used to monitor the public opinion on State Farm and Allstate was Google Alerts and Twitter analytics such as searches and Klout scores. With several emails and searches a day, I was able to stay up to date on everything that was being said about State Farm and Allstate. An intention of this report is to compare State Farm to Allstate, to see where State Farm has room to grow and where State Farm is ahead of its competition. To compare these two, I examined their Facebook walls, Twitter followers, Twitter searchers, and a Wildfire comparison between brands.

Results: State Farm Insurance Cos. has a presence on the following social media:

Flickr

State Farm
Twitter
YouTube Facebook
State Farm Nation

@StateFarm

LinkedIn

@StateFarmNation

State Farm

The app

State Farm Latinos

Facebook: State Farm has one primary Facebook page. Over the course of this research, this page went from 272,484 likes to 273,362 likes by 2pm on December 9, 2012. This page is filled with promotions such as the discount double check, sharing photos from events and grants sponsored by State Farm, and sharing useful tips relating to home, auto, or life insurance. The State Farm Facebook wall is a mixture of complaints and people giving praise for how State Farm has handled a specific incident. State Farm uses this Facebook page primarily to educate its customers, and to engage customers with useful infographics.

Source: Facebook

State Farm Nation is a second Facebook page that has the most likes of the State Farm family of Facebook posts at 1,455,108 likes as of 2pm on December 9, 2012. This account was created and is described as a place where you discuss lifes challenges and opportunities, connect with others facing life-shaping decisions, find helpful tips and information while you search for your place in this world, and plenty more. This account has the most likes and has the most engagement out of all of the State Farm Facebook pages because it posts information that is interesting and unique to the audience State Farm is catering to. From graphics explaining what organic actually means to graphics displaying the difference between tablets and e-readers, the information truly does not pertain to State Farm Insurance on the surface.

Source: Facebook

Twitter: @StateFarm: This is the official State Farm twitter run by Blake from Public Affairs. Blake provides news and assistance for those who need it. On this account, State Farm shares posts from the State Farm facebook, important information, and also discusses with customers. When customers complain, there are responses from Blake with suggestions on

how to tackle the issue. @StateFarm has been ranked as a Top 1000 Influencer on Bing, as identified by Klout. @StateFarm has a Klout score of 80, which indicates the accounts influence on the Internet. @StateFarms amount of tweeting was analyzed using TweetStats.com, the results (below) show that that most tweets happen on Wednesday and at 8am.

Source: TweetStats.com

@StateFarmNation: State Farm Nation is the Twitter destination for help with tips, solutions, and info on the stuff that matters. Similar to the State Farm Nation Facebook mentioned in the previous subsection, this Twitter shares interesting information unrelated to State Farm Insurance. With over 28,000 followers, State Farm Nation has a large following but not extremely high engagement. Every tweet is averaging about 4 retweets. 4 retweets out of 28,000 followers is not the best indication of engagement. The goal of this account is to share helpful tips and put an interesting twist on topics that customers already care about. @StateFarmNation has a Klout score of 61, which seems relatively unimpressive considering my Klout score is 57. @StateFarmNations amount of tweeting was analyzed using TweetStats.com, the results (below) show that that most tweets happen on Tuesday and at 10am.

Source: TweetStats.com

With both Twitter accounts, Blake (@StateFarm) and whoever is operating the State Farm Nation account are great at linking back to other social media sites, such as Facebook posts. Creative contests such as Triva

Tuesdays take place = to spread valuable information and create interest in a topic. According to Whos Talkin searches on November 25, December 2, and December 9, a majority of the tweets mentioning state farm have to do with State Farm commercials such as being on the phone with Jake from State Farm or individuals filling in the blank with what they want, ex: like a good neighbor state farm is there with Starbucks! Most of the complaints found via Twitter search are relating to people being on hold with State Farm for too long, being the worst, and one particularly upset user, @E_Wands, voiced his complaints with some profanity. YouTube: The State Farm YouTube channel has 7,534 subscribers and 23,504,229 unique video views. With different tabs labeled commercials learn good neighbors break room and latino, visitors can click through tons of videos. State Farm uses this YouTube channel to share the commercials that people love as well as to inform their customers and anyone who may have stumbled upon their YouTube channel of how-tos and other tips. The YouTube page also has behind the scenes videos that may be extremely interesting to people. There are many great videos on this YouTube page that had not been promoted well through the companys other social media sites.

Flickr: Flickr is State Farms photo home on the web. Through their photostream, State Farm has many different albums. For example, a recent album is Holiday Fire Safety. This photo album has tips for how to protect your home this holiday season, with photos of an overloaded electrical outlet, candle, powerstrip overload, and unattended cooking on the stove. These photos are intended to make those viewing the album aware of some of the hidden dangers to avoid in order to avoid a house fire and therefore avoid filing a claim with State Farm. State Farm also has albums of photos with car collisions, Hurricane Sandy aftermath, Hurricane Isaac, Teen Driver Safety, and the list goes on and on. There are not many views and comments on these Flickr photos. The album of Holiday Fire Safety only has 12 views. The 2012 Hurricane Isaac album has been up since September 10, 2012 and only has 67 views.

Aside from social media generated by State Farm, the conversation in the news about State Farm over the past three weeks has dealt mostly with events that State Farm has sponsored, scholarships that State Farm has given, or donations that State Farm has made, especially surrounding Thanksgiving and the holiday season. State Farm delivered a car to a family in need on November 25, and on November 29 donated $5,000 to the food bank of South Central Michigan. From recognizing student athletes in West Virginia to lowering insurance rates in Idaho, the publicity surrounding State Farm was extremely positive. However, one of the top results when you Google search for State Farm Insurance is a YouTube video titled State Farm Insurance Sucks! It is imperative for State Farm to focus their efforts on SEO of other sites, to try to get their social media in the first page of results.

Allstate, State Farms competitor, has a presence on the following social media platforms:

Flickr

Allstate
Blog YouTube Google+ Pinterest Twitter
@Clicktoempow er @allstatec ares @Allstatenew s @Allstate

Allstate Motorcycle

Facebo ok
Allstate Insurance

Allstate is the second largest insurer behind State Farm. After examining all of State Farms social media, it appears Allstate is working to educate the public on what they do. They have a presence on a wide variety of social media platforms, as you can see in the web above. The Allstate website itself, Allstate.com, has links to the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+ accounts.

Allstate Facebook: Allstate has an interesting approach to Facebook. One account they have developed and put time into is the Allstate Motorcycle Facebook account. This is a page for bikers and people who love their bikes. Each graphic is specifically targeted to bikers and every link shared has something to do with motorcycles. This page has more likes (166,513) than the Allstate Insurance page (160,242). Allstate gets brand recognition and awareness for their company through the popularity of this account and without trying to sell insurance or even talk about insurance. One motivation for Allstate is that they are not the number one insurer. By having a presence on a wide variety of social media platforms, Allstate can attempt to broaden their customer base and develop an online presence. Allstates heavy focus on Google+ and Pinterest, along with the development of the Allstate Bikers Facebook page is indicative of Allstates desire to reach out to certain niche groups. Allstates Pinterest has 10 boards: For Your Home, For Your Future, For Your Inspiration, For Your Toys, For Your Life, For The Love of Sports, For Your Ride, For Fun, Work Here, Work with Purpose.

Source: Wildfire

According to this Wildfire comparison pictured above, State Farm commanded a stronger online presence beginning in November 2010. Alternatively, Allstate has done better on Twitter, with a huge spike in productivity and followers beginning in January and February 2011. However, State Farm has slowly but surely increased their followers to almost exactly match Allstates. Allstate is also targeting a subset of their audience very well, and catering to them by creating their own Facebook page: Allstate Bikers.

Conclusion: For the largest insurer in the United States, State Farm Insurance certainly does not have the strongest online presence across social media. The goal of State Farm across social media seems to be education on prevention of accidents and incidences. This goes along with the companys profile of being a good neighbor and always attempting to better the community and those involved with State Farm. State Farm is engaging on the multitude of Facebook pages through the use of polls, questions relating to Aaron Rodgers, one of State Farms sponsors, and posting exciting photos. State Farm does not try to sell insurance to every person who comes to the companys Facebook page, but rather spends time developing a community who is informed about a wide variety of topics. State Farm does this well on Facebook, but does not do it often enough on Twitter. A large part of what both State Farm and Allstate are trying to do is educate their customers on ways to avoid having accidents altogether. If accidents do not happen, the customers will be happy and the insurance companies will be happy because they will not have to make a large payout and will have increased revenues. The YouTube page with tips is extremely useful for State Farm, as people are generally more interested in videos or photos than they are in long paragraphs. This YouTube page should be promoted more and should be linked to more to get the views up and to truly be valued as an asset. However, as outstanding as social media is, there are areas for improvement. State Farms advertising/creative department has done an excellent job in creating advertisements that have a lasting effect and resonate well with the public. One way to integrate these advertisements with social media is to put a hashtag on the commercials, in an attempt to get a conversation going every time these commercials are one (which is pretty frequently). On a basic level, it is important to create meaningful and influential Facebook posts. According to an article on Mashable, the average American spends 6.75 hours on Facebook a day. If State Farm is able to create posts people enjoy, and come out with multiple posts a day, likes and shares on the post will increase as well as increased visibility for the page itself. In contrast to Facebook, the same Mashable article mentioned that the average time Americans spend on Twitter is 21 minutes. Regarding Twitter, the best accounts post solid content regularly. This requires a large amount of time and effort, but I would suggest that State Farm plan on tweeting more and identify the hours in which the tweets receive the most feedback and engagement. Another avenue to look into is Pinterest. Over the past year, Pinterest has had a 379,559% increase in use. This form of social media truly has skyrocketed and the users of this application are in State Farms target audience. Only 5% of

Pinterest users are under 18, and therefore 95% of the users are those who would potentially be purchasing home, auto, life, or any other form of insurance. Allstate has already developed a Pinterest page, and this is a website that State Farm should look into as they evaluate their social media strategy. Google+ is not the most popular social network, but establishing an account can be extremely useful. One advantage to establishing a Google+ account is that your account becomes linked with the Google search. When anyone Google searches State Farm, on the side the State Farm logo, slogan, and information about the company would come up. Along with that information, the top few posts that State Farm has made on their Google+ page will come up, along with the ability to put State Farm in their Google+ circle. That way, information that the company wants to share with the world would come up on the side when someone Googles the company. Pictured below, a screenshot of what the Google+ account adds to the side of Google.

Source: Google.com

Top Six Tips for State Farm: Make sure all social media sites are listed on the website and are easily accessible Create a Google+ page Tweet at the right time more often. Thanks to the TweetStats.com analysis, it was concluded that the most frequent tweeting occurs in the early morning, when users may not be tuned into Twitter. Integrate all social media sites. Link to the YouTube videos on the Facebook pages through posts and also with a tab, upload photos through Flickr and then link to them via Twitter, link to Facebook and YouTube on Twitter, etc. Promote YouTube! Increase engagement by having a contest to get to a certain number of views on a video, or a certain number subscriber on the channel. Although not completely necessary, perhaps create a company wide social media strategy with suggestions for agents. Many agents have created their own social media pages (Google+, Facebook, etc.) and it is imperative that the agents representing the company are upholding the major themes and initiatives of the company throughout social media. One

option for State Farm to implement in order to ensure the credibility of their agents on the Internet by creating an official cover photo for only State Farm agents to use.