Top 3 Lessons from Social Media and Claims Webinar

BRITTA WAGNER
HNI Claims Assistant

In today's world of smartphones and Internet technology, for most people there's not a day that goes by without liking a friend's vacation pictures on Facebook, sharing an article with your professional network on LinkedIn, or retweeting a wisecrack from your favorite actor on Twitter. Social media is everywhere, and it's becoming an especially powerful tool in litigation.

HNI's recent webinar, How Social Media is Changing the Game in Claims Handling, tackled how social networks are starting to play a big role in claims management. The presenter, Attorney John Pion, talked about how businesses can mitigate their social media risks — and how the content posted to social networks can be leveraged in claims situations.

Jodi Mathy, HNI senior claims consultant, shared her top three takeaways from the webinar in this two-and-half minute video:

Top Takeaways from How Social Media is Changing the Game in Claims Handling

1.) Businesses can ask for cooperation. Believe it or not, lots of employees will "friend" their employers (and give their employers access to otherwise private information). Try to ask for access before moving to legal action.

2.) Use social media as a risk management tool. Talk with your employees about how their social media activity can be a reflection of your organization. Their social actions will be scrutinized in a risk event! Put best practices into your official social media policy.

3.) Think outside of the box. We all know about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. But there are more places online where people are freely sharing information. For example, don't overlook the website for your local newspaper. Most articles have a comments section that gets a lot of action, and you could gain a lot insight from public comments on the story behind the story.

What would you like to ask an attorney about social media and claims management? How have you successfully leveraged social media as a risk management tool? Please sound off in comments! Your answers could shape a future blog post!

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