#ILoveMyCreditUnion and the Credit Union ‘Movement’
At the end of July, the Illinois Credit Union League ran its #ILoveMyCreditUnion social media campaign. The purpose of this campaign was, according to the league, to “inspire high energy conversation about why we love our credit unions.” On the surface, the campaign appeared to see great success, as CUToday reported that the campaign reached 22 million people and there were 33 thousand live interactions.
However, when you take a closer look at the people who participated and shared the hashtag, many of them were credit unions themselves and those employed by them, the credit union leagues and other industry partners.
Take a scroll through the hashtag for yourself:
This begs the question: How did #ILoveMyCreditUnion work as a public awareness campaign for credit unions?
Credit unions want to expand their membership and creating a public awareness campaign is a great way to do that. And individual credit unions made it their own, but still member engagement was minimal.
Even some celebs like Sarah Silverman and Suze Orman joined in!
But how are campaigns such as #ILoveMyCreditUnion supposed to reach the general public - and yes, credit union people have friends outside of credit unions - if it remains mostly insulated to those in the industry?
I asked the CEO of Your Marketing Co. Bo McDonald for his thoughts on credit unions and public awareness, and what he told me was a bit unexpected, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense:
“They’re not hitting the mark, but not for lack of effort,” Bo said. “The messaging doesn’t answer the question, “what’s in it for me.” We want people to open their eyes to a credit union, but the question “what’s in it for me” is never answered for the consumer.”
“What’s in it for me?”
That is the million-dollar question when comes to consumers deciding to become members of a credit union. If they don’t know what they are getting out of it, then what reason do they have to join a credit union? The answer to that question may not be the same across all credit unions, but it needs to be a part of your public awareness so the public understands why you can be trusted to handle whatever needs they want addressed.
In the case of #ILoveMyCreditUnion, there is an aspect of the campaign that it absolutely got right: Being real. Credit unions and members were able to share their stories, it didn’t cost credit unions anything to put those stories out there (unless they chose to put a little bit of ad money into it), and it all came together in a cohesive way. However, as Bo pointed out, this can’t be something you do once and that’s it. “This is something that should be done at least once a month on a particular day,” he said.
If credit unions are to continue using social media to reach the general population, simple promotions alone are not going to cut it. Bo recommends two approaches for credit unions to take on social media:
1. Be real. As mentioned above, sharing stories of members works, but photos of staff and real members work better. Visitors to your social media pages will get to know the faces and stories of your credit union and what you do every day.
2. Content is king. Share content that both educates and engages with non-members. Continue to engage and build that relationship with them, and the next time they have a financial need, your credit union will be in their minds.
We all love our credit unions, but we’re the ones who already know about the awesomeness of our not-for-profit, cooperative financial institutions. We know credit union perform amazing, life-changing, even life-saving, work every day. People are emotional about their money, and they want to know it’s safe and they’re leveraging what they have to the fullest extent for their family’s current and future financial stability.
Credit unions’ success is from being a movement of average Americans, pooling their resources to build a better life and community for all. Are credit unions a movement anymore? We’d love to hear from you!
