Grow Your SEG Base With LinkedIn

I’ve never come across a credit union marketing or business development professional that I didn’t like at some level.

Why?

Credit Union people are just friendly. They care about their members and their community. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be working at a credit union, they’d be at a bank. (while that was meant as a joke, we all know it is true to some level)

YOU AREN'T THE ONLY ONE
Third Degree hears from many credit union marketers and business development officers asking for help with increasing their community charter opportunities and SEG base. We don’t have to tell you why this is so important for credit unions. Your charter is your current and potential membership base. The more members you have, the more you grow and the more you are able to help your members and in turn, your community. And that’s what being a credit union is all about. People. Community.

GET CREATIVE
While we believe that telling your story in a unique and compelling way with inspiring materials is the best way to show you are a great organization worth supporting and joining, there are other ways that can support your brand, products and services while helping you reach your goals.

YOU ARE POWERFUL PEOPLE, PEOPLE
Before we go into the “what’s” and “how’s” let’s get something out on the table: credit union people are humble and they have a hard time tooting their own horn. (just ask @CU_Cheerleader, Amy Lawrence) Credit union professionals  struggle with touting the “credit union difference” to the audiences they would like to reach. Third Degree helps credit unions with this every day by developing strategic campaigns targeted to not only increasing that membership base but share of wallet as well. And we’ve seen our credit union clients experience great success. But I’m not here to talk about us. I want to talk about you.

LINK TO POTENTIAL GROWTH
A great, easy additional tool to help increase your SEG base is social net-working. Specifically, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is growing by leaps and bounds more and more each day and is becoming a utilized resource among business professionals. Many of you are probably already on LinkedIn and that’s great. But are you utilizing it to achieve your credit union’s goals? Are you using LinkedIn to help grow your SEG base? You should be and we’re going to show you how!

Your Credit Union and Twitter: A Little Goes A Long Way

MAMA ALWAYS SAID...
Thank your followers. Maybe it is because I was raised in the south where we send thank you cards and say thank you for everything but I believe a thank you says a lot more than just “thank you.” A thank you to a credit union member or potential credit union member says that your credit union cares. Does that sound cliché? Of course. Is it true? Yes. Everyone wants to know that someone cares for them and part of your core values as a credit union says that you do, so here is an opportunity to live it out. When people follow your credit union on twitter, send a personal message and thank them for the follow! Don’t have an automated message, since most people consider that spam. (just think of the “golden rule” here)  When a follower re-tweets something you tweeted more than just once or twice, thank them. This is another opportunity to set your credit union apart from the big banks. Big banks are too busy to send a personalized thank you note, so credit unions have an opportunity here to step in and show just how personable and customer-service oriented they can be.

ON THE CLOCK
Have a schedule for your staff. You probably don’t have a full time person hired to just take care of social media for your credit union, do you? Didn’t think so. Neither do we. Designate 2-4 staff members to do your credit union’s tweeting at certain times of the day. It might be a good idea to assign them topics to tweet about. Have a front line staff tweet about the drive through line, your business development officer tweeting about community events and opportunities, the marketing director can tweet about new campaigns, etc… I’m sure you get the idea.

TWEET THIS
Have twitter guidelines Since you will likely have several people tweeting for you on your account, establish social media and twitter guidelines for your credit union marketing team. These guidelines should talk about when to tweet, what to tweet about and how to respond to both negative and positive @ mentions. Check out some of these social media guidelines for examples.

Credit Unions Putting Pieces of the Twitter Puzzle Together

HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR 
Are financial issues a very serious topic? Yes! And I’m not telling your credit union to use twitter to tell knock-knock jokes over twitter all day (although, I do love a good knock-knock joke!) but these financial times are hard on everyone. Having a light-hearted tweet every now and then that shows your personality can really be an encouragement to your followers and it allows them to connect with you on a different level. Because people work at your credit union, too and we all struggle with some of the same issues. This is particularly important to remember when dealing with customer service. Level with your credit union's members.

TWEET HELPFUL HINTS
Inspiration in 140 words or less is perfect for a mom on the go, a college student on the way to her class (because college students certainly wouldn’t be paying attention to twitter IN class, now would they?) or a businessman waiting in the airport. People don’t always have time to read an entire article about something, so tweeting a summary or snippet from the article not only can inspire and encourage them but it also gives them a reason to check out the article (hopefully it is posted on your website because you wrote it on your blog!) you linked to in case they do have time. (you did link to the article, didn’t you?)

NOW PICTURE THIS
People want to know who they are talking to. Have you ever followed one of those egg profiles on twitter? Probably not. No picture sends a message that you are trying to stay hidden or you are spam.  Even if you don’t always have the same person tweeting, make sure your audience knows who the tweeters are! At the very least, have a picture of your logo. Take a look at @ThirdDegreeAdv’s twitter page for an example of how Third Degree does this.

Tweeting Tips for Your Credit Union

If you haven’t noticed, Third Degree has some stuff to say about social media. It is always changing but most of what we mention here should pretty much remain the same as social media continues to evolve and change.

DON'T BE EGOCENTRIC
Yes, people are following you because they like your credit union, they are probably members and yes, they want to know about what you are doing in the community; when your next member’s meeting is and the newest promotion you have to offer. If you want them to continue to follow you and if you want to draw potential members, tweet about other things that are specific to the financial industry and the community but not completely about your credit union.

STAY SOCIAL
Speaking of keeping followers, you want your followers to follow you and keep following you, right? So make sure you stay engaged. Indra Gardner reminds her audience that social media is SOCIAL, so have conversations! Start them and respond to them! This will also show that you live out your principle of  "for people!" You are personable people, so live that out!  In our book, Credit Union Savvy, we talk about how social media is a directed dialogue between brand and audience, not idle chit chat. It’s a focused, authentic back-and-forth interaction between the client and their target.

Are You Ready For This? Credit Unions Dive Into Twitter

Your credit union decided to take the big step and get a twitter account. Now what? Do you just jump in and write whatever the first 140 characters that come to your mind are? Probably not the best idea.

Have a plan
 If you know Third Degree, you know we are always telling credit union marketers to have a plan. Strategize. This is the foundation for every campaign that Third Degree launches for each of our credit union clients and for good reason. We get great results because of our strategic creative process.  If you have just started your Twitter account, think of the specific followers you want to follow you and target your tweets toward them. Want to get a Gen Y following? Tweet about social media, college sports, college events, etc. Boomers? Tweet about parental advice, family activities, etc. You get it. Put yourself in their shoes and think: “If I were a _____ (Boomer, Gen Xer,etc..) what would I want showing up on my Twitter feed? What information would be helpful for me?” Take your answer and bend it towards information relating to your credit union. For example, if you put yourself in a Boomer’s shoes,(maybe even get more specific with a female boomer – hey, they have a lot of influence) you will probably want to receive tweets that relate to family, your kids, grocery shopping, household spending, etc. How can you turn those topics into something that relates to your credit union? Simple—put a financial twist on it. Link to articles about financial literacy and education for teens  or better yet, teens and money.  You can talk about community events like Dave Ramsey coming to your town. This brings us to the next point….

Know your followers
Make sure you know who is following you so you can tweet what is relatable to them. Analyze the list of your followers to see who your tweets are attracting; this way, you know what needs tweaking and what needs to stay the same. This is also a great opportunity to think of more programs to better fit the needs of those who are truly interested in your credit union and increase your share of wallet. Survey your followers and ask them what perks they absolutely love (that free coffee in the foyer), what additional services they want to access (maybe financial planning?) and what your credit union could do better. People want to be engaged and this is a great way to encourage that.

A Little Bird Told Me: Social Media Tips

Third Degree has said it before and we’ll say it again: social media is an avenue for connecting you to your credit union’s membership and potential membership. Is this a scary step? Yes. Will it be worthwhile? If you do it correctly, it will most certainly be.We’ve put together some helpful Twitter strategies and tips to make this process more manageable.

Social Media Tips
Know what is going on! If you aren’t using a social media/Twitter management tool like TweetDeck or HootSuite, you should be! Not only will it help you stay organized but you can open up a “search” column to seek out mentions of your credit union. In fact, make sure you have a search column open at all times with your credit union’s name in it! This way, you are updated immediately when anything good or bad is said about your credit union. Not only will you be able to provide better customer service and know who is saying what about your credit union but this will provide you with a FREE analysis of where your credit union may have some challenges.

First Response 
Respond as quickly as possible to what we like to call the “3 C’s of Twitter”: Comments, Compliments and Complaints.  We know… who would ever complain about a credit union? But it does happen on Twitter (hey, everyone has their bad days, right?) and the best customer service you can give is letting these people know their credit union heard them… and cares! Maybe there is nothing you can do about the complaint, but sometimes a simple “I’m sorry” is all that is needed to mend a broken bridge.  You can also keep a log of the Tweeters who complain, so if there is an issue that the credit union is working on, you can let them know. If you needed more encouragement to do this, remember the followers of those who mention your credit union- every time you have a conversation with these Tweeters, it is an opportunity to advertise your credit union. Being consistent and keeping your credit union’s brand out and about and in front of a large audience (like Twitter) will keep you at the top of a potential members’ mind when they decide to ditch their bank and go with a credit union.

Stay tuned. More credit union social media tips are coming your way..... 

Making Payday Loans Honorable and Profitable For Your Credit Union

Payday loans tend to bring to mind Hollywood-crafted images of tall, beefy men in grey suits, slicked back hair and Italian accents.  In reality, loan sharks and your average store-front payday loan shops have given payday loans a bad rap.  But people are still applying for them—YOUR people (err…members)— and they are still being cheated out of their hard-earned money.

CREDIT UNION JUSTIFICATION
Members generally with lower credit scores seeking lower loan amounts tend to not be the most sought after business for most financial institutions. Many credit unions have justified not getting into the payday lending arena because, “It’s just not best for the member to borrow in these types of circumstances.”
But some credit unions are beginning to reconsider this due to the huge demand, paired with the desire to protect members from predatory lending.  Quoted in a “CU Times” article, Mark Allen, SVP of mortgage and investment at Washington State Employees Credit Union declared, “Credit union payday loan alternatives bring better products to market that benefit consumers by offering lower rates and more favorable terms.”

Q-CASH
When WESCU began investigating payday lending, “… [W]e began asking questions:  How many members were going outside the credit union to get a product we didn’t offer?”  Allen and his team discovered, “WSECU members had borrowed more than $6 million from storefront payday lenders, paying more than $900,000 in interest during the previous year.”
In response, WESCU created Q-Cash to satisfy a payday loan alternative. Q-Cash “has the convenience factor, but with better rates ($12 per $100 borrowed; 20 points below the market rate) and longer terms (60 days),” said Allen.

EVERYONE'S DOING IT
Check out North Carolina State Employees Credit Union. They created a short-term loan with a 12% interest rate and maximum limit of $500.00. "We wanted to find a way to get our members out of this trap," says Jim Blaine, SECU president in a recent USA today article. Members of North Carolina State Employees Credit Union are sure to appreciate this program since the state of North Carolina has recently been hit with over 75 tornado's and we all know insurance companies aren't quick to hand out cash.

HAPPY ENDINGS
Is there a happy ending to this story? Allen believes there is: “Both in our pricing and overall service model, WSECU has found what we believe is solid middle ground: offering a better short-term loan product for credit union members at fair rates and terms that benefit consumers and allows for a sustainable line of business.” SECU also has a happy ending for their members: “Each month, more than 40,000 people use the product, which has a maximum 31-day term. Overall, members have accumulated $10 million in savings accounts.” Happy endings don’t just happen in Hollywood.

1. Allen, Mark. “Payday Loans Are Credit Unions’ Business.” Editorial. Credit Union Times Hoboken. 22 Dec. 2010: 12. Print.
2. Krchhoff, Sue. “Breaking the cycle of payday loan trap.” http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/general/2006-09-19-credit-unions-usat_x.htm