5 minutes
Running a one-person marketing department, Carrie Susemihl, marketing manager at $165-million KALSEE Credit Union, Kalamazoo, Mich., provides tips on making the most of social media with limited resources.
1. What have you learned from the social experts?
That social media is a 24/7 service channel. People expect immediate responses at all hours of the day (and night). That can be difficult for any credit union with a 9-5 staffing model to accommodate, especially when it comes to account issues and questions that the marketing person sitting on their couch on their smartphone at 10 p.m. on a Saturday can’t answer. Having to tell someone who’s stuck without a working debit card that we’ll help you Monday morning doesn’t cut it anymore. A credit union needs to find a way to answer these questions for members during non-working hours.
2. How do you measure social media success?
Success is more than follows or page likes; it measures engagement and interaction, and whenever possible, actual business results. Measuring business results from social media (and most any online channel) is challenging for credit unions that don’t open accounts online or where loan apps or online banking exist on vendor-hosted Web domains. Tracking the conversion funnel is almost impossible with those kinds of breaks in it.
At KALSEE CU, we use a spreadsheet to track follows and likes, but more importantly, shares and comments. It’s this listening component of social that can be tremendously beneficial.
3. What tools do you recommend?
A social media scheduling platform like Buffer or Hootsuite is a must. They’re a huge time saver and can help you to align your messaging across multiple platforms. And it’s usually free to get started. Some credit unions take it further with the integration of their social channels into their email and website traffic tracking programs. Hubspot, for example, can tie an email address and social media profile to the individual’s IP address for additional and more targeted cross-channel interactions.
4. What about promoting products?
Social media, when done well, puts a human face on the credit union. I recommend focusing 75 percent of your content on human interest-type storytelling which adds value to the member and fosters the relationship. Only a small portion of your timeline should be product-focused, and even then the narrative should be one of how the product or service positively impacts the individual – not selling a service. Try using member testimonials or specific examples of how the product or service makes the member’s life easier to integrate products into your social strategy.
5. What can CUs do better on social channels?
Social media often resides entirely with the marketing department, however, having a member service team on call to answer account issues is best-in-class service (once your following grows enough to create some volume of questions). I also see many CUs with too little or too inconsistent of a posting presence. One or two Facebook posts a week isn’t enough to build meaningful engagement. Instead, try for one or two Facebook posts each day. Take time to fully engage, even if it’s just on one channel to start with.
6. What are your social media “must-have” accounts?
Facebook is probably the single best social media platform for CUs as of right now. Twitter is excellent for industry and B2B connections. LinkedIn can help you to build your image as a progressive, compassionate employer. YouTube is ideal for search engine optimization of your brand and for hosting videos you’d like to embed on your website or share on other platforms.
Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat are more challenging platforms as they are almost entirely visual, a medium that is not always a natural fit for a financial institution. (How do you take a picture of a checking account?) Still, by all means, go for it! But spend a little time coming up with a plan on how to make image-centric content (sometimes without the response mechanism of a link to click, like on Instagram) work for you.
7. With limited time and resources, which channels should CUs focus on?
Start with Facebook. It’s a versatile platform (works well with all kinds of media), is easy to use, and has a substantial (huge!) following. Plus, for a small budget, even as low as $50 a month, you can gain momentum with Facebook paid advertising and boosted posts. (I find that Facebook paid advertising yields much higher engagement for less money than traditional search engine marketing.)
From there, consider your goals. Are you looking to connect with area businesses? Do you have a passion for videos or photo content? Do you have ardent, young employees who can help you to explore whatever the next cutting-edge platform is? Look to leverage the content you have across multiple platforms to save time and money. But avoid duplicating the same post at the same time across all platforms. Instead, tailor the delivery to the platform as much as possible while maintaining your brand voice and message integrity.
8. Do you have any other time-saving tips?
For credit unions short on time, I suggest one of the automated content platforms that are available. At KALSEE CU, we use “It’s a Money Thing” (from CUES Supplier member Currency, Chilliwack, British Columbia) to provide members with money-saving tips. The subscription enables us to post a new topic each month across all of our social channels, on our website and in-branch with corresponding articles, graphics, infographics and videos. The content is fun and educational in nature. So far this year, these posts have garnered more than 12,232 website page views for us and have been the centerpiece of our social media strategy.
Stephanie Schwenn Sebring established and managed the marketing departments for three CUs and served in mentorship roles before launching her business. As owner of Fab Prose & Professional Writing, she assists CUs, industry suppliers, and any company wanting great content and a clear brand voice. Follow her on Twitter @fabprose.
