A Social Web Strategic Plan for Credit Unions

I just gave a presentation on the social web for the Michigan Credit Union League this past weekend. As I was preparing for it, I realized that while I have blogged about ROI for credit union social web activities, I never addressed the planning aspect of it.

So below is a mini-strategic social web plan for credit unions using the P.O.S.T. model presented in the book Groundswell. Its main focus is to use members to generate ideas for product development.

People

• Members that want to help the credit union innovate and improve
  

Objectives
Credit Union Objectives

• Ensure member satisfaction and loyalty
• Provide new products and services that members want
• Gain insights into member financial needs and issues
• Enable and encourage ongoing member dialogue and collaboration

Member Objectives

• Be part of a financial institution they like and have a vested interest in using
  
• Have access to financial services that will help them and make their lives easier
• Have someone to turn to with questions about their personal finances they can trust
• Be part of building a better credit union to meet their present and future needs

Strategies

• Regularly encourage and ask for member input on the service they receive
• Make it easy to provide service and quality feedback and rankings
• Garner member input and feedback on new products and services they might like
• Engage in conversations with members about the financial issues and questions they have
• Provide thought leadership on personal finance matters
• Ask the question “What would I do if I were a credit union?”

Technology	Purpose	Why
Twitter	Quick, short updates	Provide nuggets on the future of personal finance, product and service improvements and personal finance tips
Blogger	Thought leadership	Thought leadership on how personal finance technologies and resources can improve member lives
Facebook	Relationship building and member feedback	Main forum to capture member input, and a scrapbook of member-focused activities focused on their role in helping the credit union
YouTube	Educational videos and testimonials	Educational videos, and member testimonials and ideas
LinkedIn	Credit union information	Maintain a presence and be part of a large audience of networked professionals.

A few other ideas for a plan focus are:

• Members that want to be involved in community events
• Members that want to have better control over their finances
• Members that are a part of student branches

Obviously, depending on the area of focus you choose your plan could look very different than the one above. The important part, though, is that you have a plan in place to guide your efforts and help ensure you stay on track.