While many people are aware of the largest, popular online communities like LinkedIn and Facebook, not many people realize that there are also very specialized social networking sites for health insurance. These networks have various forms, but for the most part they consist of either insurance agents networking for leads, or consumers seeking out both health and insurance advice.
Why Social Networking Sites for Health Insurance?
The health insurance industry is one that has many areas of expertise and interest. Insurance agents seek new leads to sell their insurance product, such as new employers looking for a group coverage plan or individual consumers who need private health insurance. Then there are the claims adjustors and others who work for insurance companies and sometimes need advice or guidance to navigate the very large and complicated world of health insurance. Finally, there are multitudes of consumers who are confused by much of the red tape and the claims processing procedures, and having a social network for guidance can be godsend for many of these people.
Health Insurance Forums
One of the most popular types of social networks are forums, where visitors interact with each other in "threads" of discussion on specific topics. These are the most common type of social networking sites for health insurance, because visitors can post a comment or question about some aspect of health insurance, and then other members of that social network can answer the questions at their convenience. The following websites are a few of the top forums that cover health insurance.
- Insurance-Forums.net offers a popular online forum community to insurance agents. Topics covered in this large forum include getting started selling insurance, forums for the many different types of insurance, a forum on employee benefit issues and of course the largest forum dedicated to "general insurance agent discussions."
Health Insurance Communities
In addition to the social networking sites that focus on forums as a medium for member exchanges and discussion, other websites offer complete social network platforms that are much like MySpace or Facebook. Unfortunately, there really aren't many well designed, professionally maintained websites that offer a good user experience on a reliable network.
Final Words
Whether you're employed within the health insurance industry, or you're a consumer of the insurance products, these forums and social networks can offer you insight, contacts and guidance to navigate the complicated and confusing world of health insurance.
