Charles Wasilewski

At 11 am on Wednesday, September 30, Aartrijk Brand Camp was officially over. I said “goodbye” and “thank you” to a few Campers in the lobby of the Hotel Sax, and headed out for a jog into the pleasant late-September day in downtown Chicago.

We, the Aartrijk team, had just finished a two-day conference, after about nine months of preparation. The 90-plus attendees at Brand Camp, it seemed, sought to understand the sociological, business, and brand impacts of social networking in the insurance world. I felt a buzz of awareness and learning going on throughout the Brand Camp sessions. The very idea of a first-ever conference about social networking in the insurance industry seemed to create a strong awareness that something worthwhile was happening. Mitch Dunford, CEO of Wells Publishing, commented in response to one of the sessions: “History will remember us as the people who made the change” to social networking.

It’s easy to overstate what a industry confab can do (especially the ones we work on ourselves). I’ve been to a bunch and I know that great ideas and good intentions can fade once I get back to the workaday world. As I jogged, I wondered if that would happen this time. I crossed Michigan Avenue and headed for Millenium Park and a glimpse of the awesome Lake Michigan.

Amidst the city sounds of traffic and people, hundreds of people were heading to and fro for lunch and the rest of their work day. But two people caught my notice as I crossed their path: a man using crutches and a woman limping with a cast on her foot. Customers, certainly, of some insurance carrier and broker who provided health insurance or resolved the accident claim.

It hit me: The insurance industry needs to use social media because there are millions of people who need the products and services that the insurance industry provides. They will only find out what the industry can do if insurance people are part of the social network conversations that are going on every minute of every day.

Many people I know in the insurance industry are passionate—they truly believe in, and want to spread the word about, the insurance products (whether property-casualty or life/health/benefits) they sell and service. I admire many for their skills in sales, leadership, analytics, branding, and other areas.  They’ve put those skills to work to benefit individuals, families, and businesses.

But the industry needs social networking skills to help it tell the story about what insurance does. In a big, noisy world, social networking is an amazing phenomenon that lets people carry on quiet conversations about important things. That’s why social media matters to the insurance industry.

—Charles Wasilewski

Follow Aartrijk on Twitter: @Aartrijk. Follow Brand Camp conversation on Twitter using hashtag #ABC09.