How to Engage Your Credit Union Members Online

For many credit unions, online engagement begins and ends with setting up a Facebook page and periodically posting specials and promotions on it. In this day and age of the savvy online member, this is no longer enough. To truly engage current or potential members, and hopefully up your wallet share, a more thoughtful online approach is needed. 

A recent study from Digital Fieldwork, Digital Engagement Framework for Credit Unions and Millennials, definitely focused more on the younger generations, but its findings could help your credit union better engage online with members of all ages. 

Facebook

The study discovered that the average credit union Facebook page gets “likes” from between 1% and 15% of its actual membership, the median falling at about 5%. As for the posts themselves, credit unions tend to post about their services, latest news, upcoming events, etc. While these are good to post periodically, they won’t motivate your members to engage with you. The posts that get the most member interaction? Posts that discuss community news, share stories or are in general more social in nature are the most popular.

Your average member isn’t on Facebook to seek financial advice. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be part of your social media strategy. Use a sampling of different kinds of posts to see which garner the most attention. Start with your more traditional promotional post and then try a few fun ones that are topical or just more “humanizing” and see what happens. Each credit union will have different results, so revise your social media strategy accordingly once you see what posts are the most popular. 

Twitter

The Digital Fieldwork study uncovered that only 1% to 2% of a credit union’s membership is on Twitter. This social media platform is more B2B rather than B2C. Take a look at your followers to check who is actually following you. Chances are it’ll be other credit unions and industry-related companies. As with Facebook, run some test posts to see what gets the most engagement. 

Do these low member follower numbers mean you should forget Twitter altogether in your credit union’s strategy? Nope. One interesting feature Twitter has is its advanced search function. You can search for people in your community that are talking about financial-related topics like credit card rates, debt, car loans, etc. Just use Twitter search operators like near: NYC within: 15mi. Then your credit union can be proactive and engage with the Twitter user instead of waiting for them to come to you! Learn more about Twitter advanced search here.  

Forums

A major focus of the Digital Fieldwork study is to use forums to interact with current and potential members. Chances are if someone is going to a forum to talk about finances it’s either because they’re unhappy with their financial institution or just have questions that need answers. Lucky for you, your credit union can help with both! And your responses won’t just be read by the questioner, but by everyone accessing that forum as well. The study recommends reddit, askville, Yahoo! Answers, creditboards and You Need a Budget. We could also recommend these forums: FatWallet, Money Talk, Bogleheads and The Finance Forums. Do a few searches and see if you can find some forum users who could benefit from your credit union’s help.

Whatever social media platforms your credit union uses, just make sure you approach them with a plan. If you credit union isn’t strategizing on how to convert social media engagement into membership and wallet share growth, then it’s like you’re talking to yourself. 

Let CU Solutions Group help your credit union create a realistic, measurable and solid social media strategy to help you succeed in the digital world.