IIABSC Installs Officers & Directors for New Term

IIABSC Installs Officers & Directors for New Term

Albertson, N.Y.—The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of Suffolk County, Inc. installed new officers and directors for the 2013 through 2014 term. More than 110 IIABSC members and guests attended the May 22 event which took place at the East Wind Conference center, Wading River. NY. Thomas J. Crowley, CPCU, retiring Chair of the statewide Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York, Inc. performed the installation ceremony along with John K. Mulvey, IIABSC past president who installed the new president.

Joanne Bentivegna, CIC, CRM, of People’s United Insurance Agency in Hauppauge became the organization’s president. Aaron Stein, CPCU, CFP, Norton & Siegel, Inc. Babylon. will serve as vice president. Paulette Katz, CIC, Maurice B. Cunningham, Inc. in Southampton will remain as the association’s treasurer and Richard de la Sota, CPCU of MRW Group, Inc., Huntington will assume the position of secretary.

IIABSC also installed the following directors:

• David H. Borg, CISR, Borg & Borg, Inc. Huntington;

• John J. Glennon of John J. Glennon, Inc., Hauppauge;

• Joseph Gundermann, AAI, Gundermann & Gundermann, Inc., Huntington;

• Eric Keiffert, CPCU, Hometown Insurance Agency, Bohemia;

• Michael J. Romeo ll, CIC, Industrial Coverage Corp., Patchogue;

• Laura Senn, CIC, People’s United Insurance Agency, Hauppauge;

• Stephen H. Testa, CPCU, ARM, Testa Brothers, Ltd, Northport.

Since 2005, the Vincent A. Alba Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes those individuals who for many years have demonstrated their commitment through exceptional service to the Big “I” associations and the American Agency System as a whole. This year, the award was presented to John D. Reiersen, CPCU, CFE, CIE for his outstanding leadership in the industry for many years.

Patricia Calvert received the distinguished Ferdinand coste Award in recognition of her unselfish dedication to the Big “I” associations and for furthering the ideals of fellow independent insurance agents.

Three award winners, from the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers Association Annual Business Meeting held on May 9, 2013 at the Ostego Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, NY, were recognized this evening. David H. Borg of Borg & Borg, Inc in Huntington was congratulated for receiving the Outstanding Committee Chair award; Patricia Calvert, executive director of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of Suffolk County and TriCounty Independent Insurance Agents Association had received a Distinguished Service Award in Cooperstown and both Long Island associations shared the award for 2013 Local Association of the Year for their exemplary work during the year and for helping their communities survive Superstorm Sandy.

Highlights of the talk…

The program centered on the importance of social media marketing. One of the first key factors Chris talked about was digital marketing and its role inside your agency. He said the following:

One key factor to digital marketing is to make sure that you have your personal agency’s brand attached to it. Another key factor is being able to have your phone number prominently displayed in large letters to make it easy for folks to contact you.

Digital marketing can play a key role in new business and also the retention of your existing business. It’s important to understand that in today’s world we all get so many emails we want to make sure we’re not spamming our prospects or our clients. We need to digitally email when everyone else is not, such as Flag Day or Veterans Day. These are great times to reach out and touch the community. Another part of social media is a mobile marketing app. ( I say it’s another part of social media because social media is all about communication and a mobile marketing app is another way that we agents can keep in contact and communicate with clients.) The importance of a mobile marketing app is growing on a daily basis because the younger generation wants to have the ability to have that app on their phone with such things as an insurance card, their agent’s contact information, the ability to report a claim off of the app and capability to pay their insurance bill.

I personally feel an app is not just good enough – it needs to be a ‘mobile marketing app’ which means it has to have the ability to have a dashboard and give you, the agent, the ability to communicate with each and every person who has downloaded your agency. That communication is key because it gives us the ability to reach out and touch each and every one of our clients on a very personal level.

Another topic I discussed this evening was the importance of having a social media strategy that has a balanced attack. What I mean by ‘balance’ is the ability to be very good in many different social media avenues rather than being great in a couple of them.

We need to be utilizing Facebook, agency Facebook and page, Google +,Vine, twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, linkedIn them and spotify. If we choose not to utilize all of the social avenues we will be ignoring many prospects and/or clients that may be in one of those social avenues. The key factor is balance, balance and more balance!

With all this being said, my last point was that it is a necessity that your agency hire a social media engineer and or marketing person that is dedicated to marketing your agency to the public. It is virtually impossible to be able to handle all of the social avenues, mobile marketing app and of course the traditional avenues of marketing without a dedicated individual from within your agency.

Chris Paradiso, President

Paradiso Presents

Stafford, CT

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of Suffolk County, Inc. is comprised of more than 200 independent agencies and brokerages in Suffolk County, New York, dedicated to providing fair and proper insurance coverage and financial services products to families and businesses.