Today I was looking for something on Facebook and came across the Lloyd’s of London group site. What I found was a page imported from Wikipedia – this time in Portuguese (!). I’ve talked about this before and how poor insurance companies are with social media, but it really beggars belief that Lloyd’s is so sloppy in its risk and brand management as to not have control of its own Facebook page.
Social media companies took control from FTSE and Fortune brands
A while back, Facebook started importing Wikipedia pages for Fortune 100 and FTSE 100 companies onto Facebook if the companies did not have a Facebook page – all without their knowlegde . Remember Wiki pages are updated by the general public, and not controlled by any company or organisation. I’m sure you can see the risks of that without me having to spell them out. For corporations that pride themselves in managing their image this is not good – to put it mildly.
Now Lloyd’s of London has a group page – admittedly with only 36 followers – that they have no control over. As a result of Wikipedia unilaterally establishing a Lloyd’s of London page on Facebook whenever the Wiki site is updated, so to is the Facebook page – which is why it is in Portuguese today. Just have a look at the screen grab below – it is quite something.
Lloyd’s of London on Facebook in Portuguese
Well – enough said. But they are not alone – and are in good company. Munich Re has a Wiki page downloaded on Facebook. As does Scor, General Re, Tokio Marine, QBE Insurance Group, White Mountains Insurance Group, Arig, Odyssey Re and Hannover Re. And the list goes on.
- Swiss Re at least has a page but it does have some non-corporate stuff on it- funny as it is…
- Warren Buffett loves Swiss Re
- Allianz rules supreme on Facebook with its Allianz Knowledge and others like PartnerRe and Mapfre at least have a page, though not managed well.
Setting up a Facebook page is not rocket science, so I’m a a bit bemused as to why these companies don’t know to at least bookmark their page and have control over it in the future should they need it. Tell the insurance and reinsurance PR and marketing teams to give me a call if they need some help.
*sigh* We still have a long way to go in this market.
