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Social media has been an important business development resource for $234 million/28,000-member CME Federal Credit Union, Columbus, Ohio. AVP/Business Development Crystal Gatchel, a CUES member, makes it a habit to “LinkIn” with people she meets. For example, after reading about a business leader in Columbus’s CEO magazine, Gatchel contacted him through LinkedIn and now his company does business with CME FCU.
“Using LinkedIn has helped us establish long-term relationships and communicate with individual members,” she says. “Social media creates a more professional lead-in than catching people off guard with a cold call.”
Gatchel says CME FCU hasn’t used LinkedIn for content marketing yet, but does leverage Facebook to celebrate local efforts like Firefighters for Kids and Toys for Tots. Her team takes photos at SEG partner events, posts them on Facebook, and notifies people that they can tag their own photos if they would like. People see the photos, tag them, and send them to each other on social media.
Gatchel cautions that too much social promotion can backfire, however. “If you oversell yourself on social media, people will un-friend your page,” she notes. “It’s better to use it to let people know that we gave out an award, attended an event, or donated to a worthy cause.”
For $1 billion/121,000-member Achieva Credit Union, Tampa, Fla., social media has been an important part of the business development strategy—and is about to become even more so. The credit union employs a social media specialist who reports to Chief Operations Officer Tara Murphy, CSE, CCE, and is responsible for credit-union-wide posts and videos on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
“What we’re finding is that we want to utilize social media even more than we do today,” says Murphy, a CUES member. “Combining traditional marketing with social media gives us the opportunity to reach more people through different channels. It helps cement us as an organization as well as our products and initiatives.”
Videos feature footage from events and also the credit union. For example, one social media post showed credit union employees in Halloween costumes, which enhances approachability for the credit union. Achieva CU also posts a summary of all its events for the entire Tampa Bay area.
The YouTube post that got the most attention was a celebration of Achieva CU’s inclusion in a Tampa Bay Times list of top workplaces. CU executives made a dancing video that became such a hit with employees that they succeeded in getting the managers to do a “performance” at the annual all-staff gathering.
“People like to see that,” Murphy says. “It gives our members a little bit of insight into the people we are and the family we are and the credit union, and that’s really important to us.”
As part of Achieva CU’s business agreement with the City of Cape Coral, the city also posts the credit union’s events on its social media pages. For example, Murphy says, the Lee County Education Foundation posts information about the Achieva Olympics and Chili Blast—a day of games, food, and fun for families—to all the teachers in Lee County. “Having that kind of access to large employee groups is powerful, especially when we’re viewed as a trusted partner,” she says.
Murphy adds that Achieva CU plans to create an educational video library next.
“Traditional marketing gets information out, whereas social media creates a community,” Murphy says. “To reach every level of demographic, it’s really important to combine traditional marketing and social media, because social media is not going away.”
Ann Dee Allen is a writer and editor based in the Midwest.
