Some cities have adopted green building codes requiring that buildings be rebuilt as green. Some jurisdictions, including California, will soon require that office buildings, hotels and buildings that are for sale or lease must disclose their energy star score. These new green building regulations, as well as the actual task of going green, can be overwhelming for a business owner. Insurance companies and agents can work with them to help ease the process and make sure their green exposures are covered.

In this edition of Markets in Motion, MyNewMarkets.com Associate Editor Amy O’Connor talks with Fireman’s Fund about how agents can help insureds with the going green process and with a business owner who has successfully made the transition to a green business.

The message Claudia drives home is that social networking is not a Silver Bullet to success. Rather, she sees social networking as providing her with a new set of tools that has enabled her to expand the way she communicates with prospects and customers. Yet, the foundation of her success is rooted in traditional marketing principals and practices, and the understanding that building long-lasting trusted relationships not only takes time, but is hard work.

Texas agent David Berry has used the marketing lessons he learned from his experiences in the captive agency system to find success as an independent agent. Listen as Berry discusses how he uses traditional marketing practices, combined with the new tools of social media, to grow his business.

Berry understands the importance of investing in technology; but more importantly he understands the need to make sure it’s used wisely. He’s committed to building strong relationships and providing great service as he builds his new business, and credits social media as a powerful tool to help him contain costs and expand his reach. Peter and Rick particularly enjoyed listening to Berry speak passionately about the advantages and value of the Independent Agency System.

Essentially, Osborne’s government plans to dismantle the current tripartite regulatory system, eventually abolish the Financial Services Authority [FSA], and place all financial regulation under the control of the Bank of England.

These are major changes, and the details haven’t yet been worked out, but one expert who welcomes the changes is Branko Bjelobaba. He currently heads his own consulting firm, which specializes in handling regulatory requirements, including audits and compliance. His firm works with a number of professional organizations, including the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) and the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries (AMII). He’s also a longtime member, and currently a Vice President, of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Peter and Rick discuss the renewed energy and engagement they are seeing across the industry. For example, at the recent ACORD conference they noticed many new vendors and lots of younger folks in attendance. The exhibit hall was filled with activity and a renewed energy that had not been in evidence for several years. Clearly, there is a realization that in spite of value of social social networking – face-to-face networking is still a critically important component in a successful business strategy. Perhaps associations, user groups, and others who hold conferences can learn from this. More than education and keynote speakers, it is the networking opportunity that may drive the events of the future.

More than their experience at several recent events, Peter and Rick are seeing a resurgence in confidence and a commitment to the independent agency system by agents, brokers and carriers alike. Yes, part of that is technology based. The growing implementation of Real Time is helping agents do business in a more efficient and effective way and social networking is giving them a whole new set of tools to help them build and strengthen relationships and more effective way to communicate with their community.

Sharon Emek, President and CEO of WAHVE.

Listen to Sharon as she shares her vision for this new company with Rick and Peter.

The definition of retirement has changed. Consider two trends:

1) People who are “retired” from the insurance industry in the traditional sense (no longer going to an agency or a carrier to work in a management or professional position) still want to work, but under different working arrangements.

2) Those who are hiring in our industry now consider “retirees” as a prime market to fulfill their demand for a quality workforce for their businesses.

Matching up vintage workers (those people who have left the traditional workforce but want to work from their homes) with hiring managers is what this innovative new company is all about. The acronym “WAHVE” reflects the focus in placing “Work-At-Home Vintage Employees” with insurance organizations such as independent agencies.

As an insurance producer, I came to learn how vital agency staff people are to selling and servicing insurance clients. As an agency principal, I came to appreciate how precious quality performers are to running an insurance agency. Now, as the founder and CEO of WAHVE, I’m pleased that we can offer employees and principals the only remote domestic staffing option for insurance agents and brokers. – Sharon Emek

Ryan Hanley, is an Independent Agent with the Gilderland Agency in Albany, NY.

Just two short years ago Ryan started his insurance career and at the same time started to “dabble” with the social web. While the agency wasn’t yet ready to jump “head first” into social networking they gave Ryan the freedom to do so.

Being new to the industry he started researching insurance issues, and then writing about his experience on his new blog, “Albany Insurance Professional“. Ryan also set up Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn accounts.

Has it been a valuable and profitable experience? According to Ryan, “social networking is how he builds and strengthens relationships and generates new business – It is no longer an experiment.”

Listen to Ryan as he shares his experiences with Rick and Peter.

In a recent conference call with Insurance Journal’s Stephanie K. Jones, CAA members discussed the evolution of what eventually became known as its producer development program.

Included on the call are: Mark Bridges, vice president of Duncan Fraser Bridges in Amarillo; Don Jones, president of Crockett Insurance in Crockett; Rowdy Nutt, vice president of Bosworth & Associates in Tyler; Michael Bosworth, president of Bosworth & Associates; Jon Weems, producer from Benton-Luttrell-Brown in Van Alstyne and Sherman; and Tony McAlister, producer from BRIA Insurance & Risk Consultants in Austin.

Linda Rey is a second-generation agent and owner of Rey Insurance in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Frank Rey founded the agency in 1978 to serve bilingual clients in the local community.

Linda discusses how she has incorporated the use of social media into the agency’s marketing strategy. For Linda, it was an “effective way to be present, visible, and increase awareness and exposure.”

This agency has made very effective use of video to put a human touch and project personality on their website. Linda states, “it is OK to show personality – it isn’t always about business.”

While it is important to have a solid strategy, Linda feels that having fun and enjoying what you are doing are keys to being successful an benefiting from the use of social networking.

You can also follow Linda Rey and Rey Insurance on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Social media expert Amber Naslund is Director of Community for Radian6. Her job is to steward the Radian6 brand on the social Web—monitoring what the community is saying about company.

There’s no perfectly right way to blog, Naslund says. “I tell people if they are going to start blogging, it is kind of a commitment; something that will take some time.” Blogging a couple of times a week should keep you in the habit, she says. Her blog is Altitude Branding.

Set expectations for your audience so they can rely on steady information, she says. “The beautiful thing about blogging is that it can be a little bit messy; it doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be an evolution of ideas. Blogs are an opportunity to share all types of things, like videos—it’s not always about creating new content.”

Consumer expectations have shifted with social media, she says. People expect companies to be more responsive. But at the same time, old values implemented into new technology—like treating your customers well—and social media has given businesses ways to meet expectations of customers faster and easier then ever before.

Yet, it can be “very scary” for a business to have transparency, she says. “Open up dialogue inside the company. Pay attention to the larger dialogue in social media doing searches on Google or socialmention.com. You need to have rules and frameworks, but it’s more about trusting your employees.”

The very nature of the online world is that it is evolutionary, Naslund says. “The location-based stuff is really popular. I also think that we will see more exclusive networking sites, ones that are smaller and more niche.”

Naslund offers two free e-books at Altitude Branding. Other contact sites: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Insurers, and indeed the whole world, saw first hand the amount of damage storm surge could produce. Just three years later, Hurricane Ike blasted ashore near Galveston, Texas, with a massive storm surge that helped it become the third most costly U.S. hurricane on record, largely due to the surge.

Armed with that knowledge, First American Spatial Solutions (FASS), a provider of spatial and natural hazard risk solutions and a member of The First American Corporation family of companies, developed a model to analyze storm surge exposure at the individual property level.

An FASS report released in late March illustrates the exposure of single residential structures to storm surge in 13 key geographic areas. FASS determined the top five U.S. metropolitan areas in terms of storm surge exposure are: Miami; New Orleans, La.; Tampa, Fla.; Charleston, S.C.; and Virginia Beach, Va. The numbers are massive. The storm surge exposure to Miami alone in the event of a Category 5 hurricane $53.6 billion, according to the report.

With the start of hurricane season looming, forecasters are predicting an above-average year for Atlantic hurricanes and a heightened risk that one will threaten the U.S. coastline.

With this in mind, Insurance Journal’s Stephanie K. Jones spoke with Dr. Howard Botts, vice president and director of development for First American Spatial Solutions, about the product his team has developed and how it might be used.

Dr. Botts began by describing his company and talking about why and how First American developed the storm surge product.

So, how does a large independent agency with multiple offices approach new marketing and communications opportunities on the social Web? They apply it first inside their own firm.

Peter and Rick spoke with two representatives in IT and communications at a forward-thinking independent agency, Holmes Murphy Insurance. Based in Des Moines, Holmes Murphy has 13 offices in 11 states, 500 employees, and 77 years in the market.

Cindy Adams and Lori Tapscott have taken the agency on a “very deliberate path” with social media. Lori and Cindy were part of a team that looked at social media and educated each other and established a policy.

The pair wanted Holmes Murphy to maintain a culture of collaboration on the agency’s Intranet. Each division in this large firm has specialty groups, and the key was to allow the communities to get together. The agency also uses an RSS feed and monthly newsletter, and keeps a presence on Facebook and Twitter. It also hosts video for testimonials and niche marketing.

Cindy was a contributor to the Agents Council for Technology policy guide for her fellow independent agencies as they go down the social media path.

All of this has been done with the usual problems that the insurance industry has; hurricanes, typhoons and other economic losses. Lloyd’s has come through with flying colors. Just prior to the interview that you are about to hear, they announced that they had made a profit for the year 2009 of approximately 3.9 billion pounds, that is over 5 billion dollars. It is also the most profit that Lloyd’s has ever earned.

Peter and Rick spoke with Steve Brooks, an independent agency owner in Westlake Village, Calif. who is a proponent of personal lines and social media as a marketing tool.

While many agencies sell a mix of commercial and personal lines, Steve is very focused on upscale personal lines accounts. He started his firm from scratch 20 years ago, and is 98% personal lines.

Personal lines is stable, with higher persistency than commercial, especially in an economy where businesses are moving their insurance, or going out of business altogether. And the personal lines book is worth more to an agency, Steve says.

Traditional media—such as TV ads and direct marketing—don’t work as well as they once did for personal lines, he maintains. He likes social media—like Facebook and Twitter—for reaching a higher-end clientele. “It’s hard to measure ROI on social media sites,” he says, “but the intangible references are priceless.”

And he likes to work relationships. Commercial lines agents refer preferred personal lines to Brooks because they take the line seriously and want it handled well. “You can’t wait until business slows to start doing this,” he says. “You need to be doing it all the time.”