The Credit Union Difference

If you are looking for ways to deepen your relationship (and share of wallet) with members, maybe it’s time to look in the mirror and see how well your employees understand the credit union difference.

FROM THE INSIDE OUT 
Why look internally to improve how your credit union is doing externally? Because when you walk into an organization where employees truly believe in the values and mission statement, you can feel the difference from the moment you walk in the door.  Your members and prospective members can too.

A LOOK INSIDE
One of the keys to developing a strong internal culture is self-awareness: knowing what makes your organization unique in the marketplace, and ensuring your employees embrace that differentiation.
Part of the broader culture shared by all credit unions is a commitment to members and communities that goes beyond providing basic financial services.  One credit union treasurer summed it up well during the Great Depression by describing credit unions as “not for profit, not for charity, but for service.”   While most credit union employees and members understand that credit unions are not-for-profit institutions, many don’t know about the seven cooperative principles that guide how credit unions operate.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll take a look at each of these seven principles from the Credit Union National Association Cooperative Alliances Committee and how understanding them can benefit you.

4 Tips For Using LinkedIn Groups to Help Grow Your SEG Base

Now that you know WHY you should join a LinkedIn group, what do you do? How do you participate and when should you participate? This isn’t always common sense. Social Media etiquette is constantly changing and evolving but there are a few things that probably won’t ever change:

CONTRIBUTE
Once you join a group, try and contribute. You might not want to jump in immediately – go through the past discussions; see what the group’s personality is and what are the most popular subjects (and the most unpopular) and go from there. If you have some advice to give or a story to share, go for it! Once you feel like you know the group’s personality, start a discussion about the most recent pain point at your credit union. Don’t be scared to ask for advice and don’t be afraid to give it either! You may not have something to share right way but if there is a question posted that you know the answer to, just go ahead and contribute! Help a fellow credit union professional or community member out!

DON'T BE TOO NEGATIVE
When you give advice, or comment on a post, try to do it in a way that doesn’t embarrass the one who posted or the others who have commented. You don’t want to be known as someone who is there to just make trouble. You want to make friends and make connections to grow your network and SEG base.

COMMENT
You will find that people in groups are incredibly willing to help- especially credit union groups with other credit union professionals and credit union consultants, etc.. there is a lot of free advice sharing in groups. Don’t just “receive” though.. give a little as well! Make sure you contribute to other’s questions to the best of your ability!

CONNECT
If someone helps you, you should invite them to connect to your network on LinkedIn. You never know who they know! If they were willing to help you once, they are probably willing to do it again. You want as many of those people in your network as possible!

Social media is all about being social, right? Groups are a great avenue to network, be social and connect with others in the credit union space and in your community.

Why Credit Unions Should Use LinkedIn Groups

So you have your very own LinkedIn profile and you are connecting to people! Bravo! What now? How can you further utilize this free tool to connect to businesses and professionals?

LinkedIn groups are a great way to connect to your community and other credit unions. Why should you be active in a group? (hopefully you would be in more than just one!) Several reasons:

• Staying active this way online gives you a chance to live out your cooperative principle of “cooperating cooperatives.” When you join a group (especially a group such as “credit union professionals” or “credit union hub” on LinkedIn), you have the opportunity to start and share in discussions with you credit union colleagues and with the community. (it all depends on what group you are in!)

• You never know what you can gain. Groups give you the ability to give and to receive. I recommend you do both.  Not only is there a possibility of gaining knowledge from other credit union professionals but you have the chance to give something back to when you add to the discussion.

• Stay informed. Keep up to date with what is going on in the credit union space. Do you have the opportunity to do this through CUNA newsletters and Credit Union Times? Sure! But the thing about social media is you get your information immediately. You don’t have to wait for next month’s (or next week’s) issue to come out to find the latest.

• Catch trends as they are happening, not after. If social media does anything, it is catching trends before they are happening and as they are happening. When you are participating actively in a group for your community, you can see where the pain points are and where your credit union can step in and help. You can help your credit union stay connected to community concerns and know which products and services to advertise.

So go ahead, search out some credit union groups and some community groups. Get active, get involved and connect!

You're Linked, I'm Linked, We're All LinkedIn

Now that you are aware that you, as a credit union marketer and business developer should have a LinkedIn account, what’s next? How does a credit union marketer use LinkedIn to help their credit union?

A NATURAL CONNECTION
As I mentioned earlier, credit unions attract some great people- credit union professionals are usually friendly, sociable and smart. That being said, you tend to make friends pretty easily. In his book “How to really use LinkedIn” Jan Vanmeiran lays out the technical aspects of how you can use LinkedIn to connect with others you have met and some that you haven’t.
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THE ART OF LINKING-IN
According to Jan, it is all about the 2nd connection network. Your first connections are the people that you already know; those that are already “linked” to you. If you have been on LinkedIn, you’ll notice that LinkedIn will often “suggest people you might know.” These people are 2nd or 3rd connections that are linked to your first connections.

FIRST STEPS
So, back to how a credit union marketer or business development officer like yourself can use LinkedIn to increase your SEG base and community charters. You want to approach company X to garner their interest in linking to your credit union but you just can’t get past the gatekeeper (we hear about this from credit unions of all sizes quite often). Credit Union marketers should be using LinkedIn to connect to the people they need to talk to through the people they already know in their network.

SEARCHING ON LINKEDIN
There is a search option on LinkedIn as well as an advanced search option. Click on the advanced search option and type in the company as well as the department or title of the person you are looking to talk to and their location information. Make sure you indicate you want CURRENT employees.

START THE CONVERSATION
The search will pull up everyone in that company that is on LinkedIn and related to that company and the position/title you listed. From there, you can see whether or not this person is a 2nd or 3rd connection. What you are looking for is a 2nd connection; LinkedIn will show you who you know that knows the person you are trying to get in touch with. Now, depending on how well you might know that person, all you have to do is give them a call (I would suggest calling them if you know them well) or shooting them an e-mail and ask them to make an introduction; either through LinkedIn, e-mail or even in person.

WINDOW WITH A VIEW
Jan drives home the point that “you never know who your network knows” and LinkedIn is the window that gives you a view into your network’s network. Use it. Give your credit union colleagues a chance to live out one of their seven principles: Cooperation among cooperatives.

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.