How can you leverage the power of social media to build your business?
As not-for-profit institutions, credit unions exist to serve members rather than to maximize profits. This means that credit unions have a unique purpose that sets them apart from traditional banks – a commitment to fostering the financial well-being of their membership and beyond. BCU, a Vernon Hills, IL-based credit union, is fiercely dedicated to upholding its Purpose of Empowering People to Discover Financial Freedom.
BCU is a not-for-profit, member-owned Credit Union that is fiercely dedicated to Empowering People to Discover Financial Freedom. BCU is driven by its commitment to providing a fast, easy, secure banking experience and extraordinary service for close to 350,000 members. The BCU field of membership includes employees and families of large employers that are focused on the financial well-being of their workforce; those who live or work in northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and the island of Puerto Rico. All BCU members enjoy lifetime access to financial services and well-being programming that inspire confidence through the brand promise “Here Today For Your Tomorrow.”
BCU utilizes five tactics to bring this to life through social media. Other credit unions and financial institutions can begin to practice their unique purpose by following these strategies:
1) Create Thumb-Stopping Content
Americans spend an average of 2.5 hours on social media every day*. We’re consuming more content than our brains can handle, and on top of it all, the subject of finances can be a difficult one to broach. For this reason, it’s important to meet your audience where they are and present information in an entertaining, digestible way. Stop your followers in their scrolling tracks by implementing catchy headlines, animations, short-form video, and interesting audio. The takeaway or call to action should be easy for your followers to understand. Remember, you’re going to reach people outside of your membership base who may have limited knowledge of how credit unions work. For BCU, social media allows them to hone in on the ‘People’ aspect of their Purpose of Empowering People to Discover Financial Freedom. For example, a quippy animation depicting dollar bills flying out of an open window grabs the attention of BCU’s audience. They continue watching for small steps they can take to improve their home’s energy efficiency, celebrate National Cut Your Energy Costs Day, and save money. In addition to the animation, users are directed to an educational article from BCU’s financial well-being program, Life. Money. You.®. Posts with simple messages and engaging imagery can provide valuable lessons to empower any member of your audience, regardless of where they are on their financial journey.
2) Put Your Best Feed Forward
Gathering member feedback is likely a big part of how your credit union operates. Your social media strategy should be no different. It’s important to consistently collect and learn from user data to maintain an agile and proactive content offering. This can involve addressing frequently asked financial questions, sharing updates and improvements based on member feedback, or providing financial tips and tricks such as BCU’s participation in America Saves Week, hosted by non-profit, America Saves. This annual campaign is a celebration and call to action for everyday Americans to commit to saving successfully. Being proactive is another way to engage your audience. In light of the rise in scam and fraud attempts across all industries, BCU quickly anticipated that, although their security measures were sound, members may begin to worry about the safety of their accounts. BCU took to its social media channels with a brief animation to explain the importance of device safety with the catchy headline, “If you connect it, protect it.” The helpful tips encouraged members to do what was within their power to keep their general information safe while BCU continued to uphold its safety and security measures. Targeting specific audiences with relevant content is another useful strategy for credit unions, specifically; whether it’s targeting a community charter to communicate a Branch event, or focusing on a specific region much like BCU has done to share information on financial relief opportunities for members affected by hurricanes in Puerto Rico.
3) Celebrate Your In-House Ambassadors
If your employees are invested in your purpose, they will naturally be your organization’s best brand ambassadors! Encourage and interact with posts on employees’ personal channels and share their successes on your organization’s feed. BCU loves to champion its employees and their passions whenever possible. Oftentimes, leaders in the Credit Union will be featured in articles and podcasts or colleagues will share their candid appreciation for BCU as a workplace, which BCU will republish as part of their employee spotlight #WaytoWOW series. A simple post featuring an employee’s pet or highlighting the accounting department’s most recent volunteer outing can garner fantastic engagement from members and the community alike. At the end of the day, we all want to celebrate one another, and your members/customers love seeing your familiar faces on their feed!
4) Flex Your Expertise
If you think about it, the employee experience informs the member experience, and Credit Unions should use this to their advantage. Our dedication to service is a well-trained muscle banks don’t have. In a commoditized, tech-driven industry, people can bank anytime, anywhere. When a question arises, they may not always be near a Branch or have the ability (or the desire to) make a phone call. Social media acts as a self-serve channel in this way, so it’s important to have a dedicated social servicing team to help provide near-immediate responses to comments, questions, direct messages, and so on. To help strengthen their online presence, BCU collaborated with digital marketing agency B Squared to form a hybrid in-house Social Strategy & Social Care team. With a specialty in social media customer care, they helped BCU curate a team of employees that exemplify a passion for Empowering People to Discover Financial Freedom. This team of 4 works full-time to address member questions and concerns, and provide caring, timely responses. Strong, engaging content is only as good as the service that follows.
5) Have fun!
As a financial institution, it can be easy to stay the course of cookie-cutter content that does exactly what it needs to do and nothing more. It’s important to remember you can take inspiration from and be successful with different types of content – from what you might typically see both inside and outside of the financial services industry. While it’s necessary to maintain whatever guidelines you’ve set in place, make earnest attempts to engage your community with fun, relevant topics and events. You can use a recent viral social media trend to educate members or create a series of posts that aim to debunk Credit Union misconceptions. BCU is fond of their ‘Surprise and Delight’ campaigns where they award particularly active and loyal users with branded swag and hand-written notes to show their personal appreciation. These types of interactive posts still carry out your organization’s Purpose while allowing members to see your light-hearted, softer side.
Ultimately, the key with each of these tips is to keep your institution’s purpose top of mind. If you’re a credit union, this is likely your members’ well-being, but these tactics can be applied in any industry. Regardless, your content – in addition to remaining agile, utilizing internal resources, fostering a strong member experience, and keeping the fun of social media alive – must reflect your dedication to whatever it may be that drives your business forward. With your purpose as a foundation, you are on your way to curating a social media feed that can truly impact your audience!
