2 minutes
When Amplify Federal Credit Union opened a branch recently, Rocket Electrics built a customized bike just for the credit union, down to its brand color scheme, to display in the new lobby—and to show off in photos on Facebook and Twitter.
And when IBM, the CU’s original sponsor, hosted a “take your kids to work” event for employees, the Austin, Texas, credit union sent one of its business members bearing sweets: The Cupcake Bar was on hand serving cupcakes decorated with the Amplify logo.
Amplify FCU aims to be both a helpful financial services provider to its business members and a good customer—and its business members often return the favor with public testimonials and engaging social media interactions, says Lisa Nicholas, VP/marketing for the $671 million credit union serving 47,000 members and 2,300 businesses.
Examples of strategies that can help build affinity with business members—and market business services in the bargain—include:
- Promoting the business-CU connection. Rocket Electrics, which offers its bike-buying customers financing through a merchant lending program with Amplify FCU, recently tweeted, “Can’t quite swing buying a quality ebike? We do offer financing from Austin’s own @AmplifyCU.”
- Capitalizing on photo ops. A cool bike in the lobby and yummy cupcakes make for inviting Facebook and Twitter posts and offer a great shout-out for business members’ products and services.
- Partnering for the community. Amplify FCU participates in the American Statesman’s “Season of Caring,” a holiday campaign to support families in need, and the credit union has sponsored its own home makeover giveaway. In both cases, it contracted with business members for renovation services, steering both business and promotional exposure their way.
- Highlighting their business expertise in guest blogs. A local Realtor and attorney, both business members, have authored guest blogs. http://www.amplifyaustin.com/whats-new “It’s a nice relationship—we give them a byline to promote their business, and they supply useful content for our membership,” Nicholas notes.
She credits the business connections with helping to build Amplify FCU’s social media presence, which has grown from 400 Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Amplify followers to 1,600 over three years and from less than 200 Twitter https://twitter.com/AmplifyCU followers to 1,800.
“What we look at more than the number of followers is engagement—who’s posting and retweeting,” she notes. “We’ll post something, business members will answer for us, and other members will chime in. These conversations really help to jump our numbers.”
Amplify FCU plans to continue ramping up its social media interactions with business members, especially those who register at the top of the Net Promoter Score https://www.cues.org/article/view/id/Assess-With-NPS scale for sharing testimonials about their credit union. “They’re our ‘Tens,’ the businesses who really value their relationship with the credit union,” Nicholas says. “It takes a lot of resource time to build these relationships so you want to look to your more loyal business members.”
A long-time contributor to Credit Union Management, Karen Bankston writes about credit unions, membership growth, marketing, operations and technology. She is the proprietor of Precision Prose, Stoughton, Wis.
