There are plenty of ways to get information online. We’ve got direct contact to other people’s opinion through forums, blogs, twitter, email spam (!). A lot of it is thrust at us because eyeballs still mean money in the online world. So it seems, there is a huge volume of insurance blogs out there which purely exist to take paid for content (for search engine or advertising motives) and do not actually provide anything of use to someone looking for a “proper” insurance blog.

So to help those people out, here’s a list of our top 10 insurance and personal finance blogs (besides our own obviously) which are spam free and regularly updated with useful, as well as tongue in cheek, posts:

1. Love Money
2. Money Magpie
3. Miss Thrifty
4. Money Hospital
5. Fru Gal (Totally Money)
6. Money Central (Times Online)
7. Money Blog (The Guardian)
8. Fluxposure (Adrian Flux)
9. Neville’s Financial Blog
10. Riskheads (insurance technology focused blog)

So there you have it, a nice conformist’s list of the top 10 UK insurance and personal finance blogs for your enjoyment.

The site is light hearted but full of information on the depths of the insurance industry. The writing style is open, jolly and honest and you really feel like you’re getting something out of every post. Most of us have subscribed to the RSS feed here in the office and we suggest you take a look to see if there is something for you.

The blog content appears to fit in to two categories:  providing fairly technical information on the insurance industry, insurance software and the development of tools for brokers and insurance agencies; and introductory yet technical articles on insurance terminology like how to calculate an insurer Combined Ratio and why you should never add resource to a late software project.

We hope to introduce a few more of our favourite sites and tools to you, our readers over the next few weeks. Please comment or contact us if there is anything you would like to let us know.

The deal is deal worth around £100m (roughly $150 million)…The merger is effectively a reverse takeover of bigmouthmedia by LBi, which will remain the dominant shareholder with a 51% stake in the enlarged company.

• Total revenue of £136.9m (2008 £178.8m) impacted by the credit crunch which reduced the supply of credit.
• Adjusted EBITDA of £36.0m (2008 £48.4m).
• Gross margin increased to 68.9% (2008: 65.3%).
• Full year dividend of £67.8m or 13.34p (2008: 3.5p).
• Visitors to the Group’s website flat at 120m. Excluding travelsupermarket.com visitors increased 9%.

Google have not confirmed whether they are extending the format to other vertical such as the mortgages comparison rollout last year dubbed Merchant Search.

Comparison Ads improves the ad experience on Google by letting users specify exactly what they’re looking for and helping them quickly compare relevant offers side by side. There are no long forms for users to fill in, and Comparison Ads will not send advertisers any personally identifiable user information.

The credit card tool also allows a side by side comparison of each card’s features such as fees, rates, interest etc.

I’m sure the major comparison sites will be saying that they’re not scared. But they should be. What do you think?

Insurancewide and Peoples Choice were the first to launch this idea and it looks like they may have stolen not just the idea but the logo as well!

The campaign by Trevor Beattie’s agency, BMB has full support from Confused:

There was a real danger of descending into a shouting loudest and longest competition, which would not only destroy margins but risk alienating customers…What we have decided to do is to focus on bringing customers back to the site.

Carlton Hood, Confused.com

Has anyone got the online video? Let us know in the comments and we’ll post it up on youtube for all to watch.

Peter Wood already owned 30 per cent of the esure business which maintains a top ten spot for UK car insurance. Most consumers know the brand via the strap line from Michael Winner ‘calm down dear’.

Lloyds acquired the business during the merger with Halifax Bank of Scotland in 2008 whilst Wood was in his element. Wood set up Direct Line (sold to RBS) and founded esure and Sheila’s Wheels as a JV with Halifax.

“This sale means we can focus our efforts on our core general insurance brands of Halifax and Lloyds TSB”

Lloyds Banking Group CEO, Arcie Kane

But, the real question is what has happened to GoCompare who were granted a £30m loan in 2007 from esure?

Your competitor uses twitter. You don’t. You think it’s a waste of time and it’s worthless. Here’s how other business uses twitter and the newly launched Google Buzz to their advantage. Use twitter to beat your competitors.

Exposure

Exposure, marketing, awareness, online relationship management. They are all vital to keeping your customers close, keeping your customers happy and being more successful. Twitter and Google Buzz allow your company to have a voice in your extended community. Use this wisely to show your slightly more social, non-corporate side and to really connect with those that buy your products or services.

How to Build Exposure

Sign yourself up to tiwtter under your business name and start. Just start. Start tweeting or just start following. A few initial tips to get you going:

1. Follow your competitors (you might learn something)
2. Follow your partners
3. Follow your sneezers (your active community members)
4. If you need to unfollow, do it slowly, don’t unfollow in bulk
5. Retweet, share the love
6. Contribute to the conversation by stay relatively on topic

Promotions

Companies like Dell and Comcast have done a fantastic job in this area. Offering promotions to your followers helps you reward your loyal customers and to increase exposure.

How to Offer Promotions

You can offer a freebie, a money off voucher or an entry to a draw. Keep it simple, make it work. Follow others doing it to get some tips:

1. TweetMeSavings
2. Guardian Promotions

Support and Sales

Customers need help – they want you to help them. This can be existing customers or new customers. So, provide an access point for them to contact you. If you’re open, upfront and providing support in an open way, your customers and future customers will value you more.

How to Provide Support and Sales

There are many tools out there to help you. Start small, start with a dedicated member of the team to manage the interactions and expand as required. A few to get you started:

1. CoTweet – all in one business twitter solution
2. Topify – Keep on top of it all with email notifications

Marketing

Don’t underestimate the effect of traffic from Twitter and other social networks. Get retweeted by Stephen Fry and Aston Kutcher and you’ll likely crash your servers. Use it to your advantage. Follow advice from the excellent Rae and Lisa and build your brand to enhance your marketing, not at the fault of it.

How to Market Yourself on Google Buzz and Twitter

1. Start slowly and increase your readership
2. If you’re local, use location awareness (those in your vicinity)
3. Share Information, become a knowledgeable resource
4. Use tools like Hootsuite or Twitterfeed to manage interactions

Get In Touch with Us

Want to know more? Get in touch. Email us or leave a comment below to see how we can help your business.

A quick screenshot:

Statistics on App Usage don’t look that impressive:

So, what do you think? Are you hooked? Do you love it or hate it as much as Gio Compario or the Meerkat?