CUES Symposium speaker offers insight.
By Theresa Witham
Jay Baer presents at CUES Symposium.[/caption] Online, we have an overwhelming amount of competition for our attention, said Jay Baer, marketing strategist, best-selling author and president of Convince & Convert, speaking at CUES Symposium: A CEO/Chairman Exchange on Monday. He shared some examples from his personal Facebook feed and it looked something like:
- picture of a friend’s cute kid,
- post from a company that he follows,
- post from his wife,
- another post from a company.
“Yours looks exactly the same and so does the Facebook feed of every single member and nonmember,” he said. The same goes for Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. It’s a combination of personal and commercial relationships. As a brand on social media, “are you more interesting to me than my wife?” he joked. Probably (hopefully!) not. And on the day after Sunday night’s big game, Baer said: “We’re all competing with Katy Perry and the Super Bowl." So what should you do about this? How does a credit union shine through posts about the halftime show and someone’s adorable nephew? “Stop trying to be amazing and just start being useful,” he said. It’s a concept Baer calls Youtility (and it’s the title of his book.) “Youtility is marketing so useful that people would pay for it,” he explained. Two examples: Hilton has a Twitter account called Hilton Suggests. It’s run by Hilton employees around the world who share travel suggestions. They respond to travelers looking for restaurants or things to do in a particular city. The example that Baer shared was a tweet about restaurants near a specific hotel in Dallas. Even though the hotel mentioned was not a Hilton hotel, the @HiltonSuggests account responded with some recommendations. Hilton has employees spending time helping people who aren’t even customers, Baer stressed. Hilton understands that, eventually, that person is going to need another hotel. And who are they going to think of first? Hopefully the Hilton. With Youtitlity, you need to embrace the long game, “the promise of eventually,” Baer said. Another example is Clorox’s My Stain Helper app. It’s a great app that offers tips for cleaning any kind of stain. Blueberry, baby food, blood to name a few. When Clorox was designing the app, company leaders had some tough conversations and debates. Should the app always recommend Clorox as the answer? Should it have coupons for Clorox products? In the end, the company knew that making a truly useful app would mean having times when Clorox was not the best answer to a stain and that embedding coupons would change the nature of the app. “Giving something away that stands on its own has much more long-term gain,” Baer said. Baer also shared some examples of how credit unions are doing Youtility right. He pointed to Elevations Credit Union’s events and seminars. And to Idaho Central Credit Union’s Pinterest account, specifically its Food on a Budget board. And it’s not just for credit unions. As an individual, you can be a Youtility, too, said Baer. “You can be the person that everyone else says, ‘Wow, she’s really useful. I want to spend more time around her.’” Start by asking yourself every morning: “How can I help? That is where Youtility comes from,” he said.
Theresa Witham is a CUES senior editor. Elevate your marketing at CUES School of Strategic Marketing™ I and II in Seattle. Be recognized for your outstanding credit union marketing in the CUES Golden Mirror Awards.
