Remember, Folks - "Target"-ed Marketing Needs Humans

by Ron Daly 

I know you've already read the Forbes article about Target sending baby-related coupons to the teenage girl before her father knew she was pregnant. In case you haven't, here it is. If you're too busy to read it, the short version is this: 

• Girl buys pregnancy-related products
• At point of sale, Target identifies those products as products pregnant women buy
• Target sends girl baby-related coupons
• Father finds coupons, calls Target, complains
• Target calls back to smooth things over with the father
• Father has to apologize to Target  -- daughter actually WAS pregnant

Stunning, right? Not really. 

Marketers have lots of information with which to work and can make offers and decisions about consumers that would surprise the average citizen. Target's got their system down. Amazon does it every time you log in, and weekly in an email ("Customers who bought this item also bought..."). Google's got a history of everything you've searched for as a Google user that they're using to put certain items in front of you. 

Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. But when you take some of the humanity out of marketing, this is what happens - a girl has to break the news to her father that she's going to need those coupons after all. A major, life-changing event, a big secret, gets dropped on the dining room table and left for all to see. Not because Target had any interest in revealing this girl's pregnancy, but because, somewhere along the way, she went from person to data point. 

How do you avoid things like this? I have to believe, after more than a decade of working on things like this, that preference matters. How you communicate things to people, how you make offers, what they've told you, directly, that they want out of your relationship - that has to matter. 

When a consumer says they don't want offers, don't send them. 

When they unsubscribe, don't email them anymore.

When they refocus the message themselves, don't keep drowning them in information they don't want.

In the history of marketing, we've never had clearer insights, or a greater pool of data from which to draw conclusions. Just remember, emotional intelligence matters, too. 

Marketing needs humans and a little more humanity.

What are your feelings on this story? Let us hear them in the comments section.  

 

 

 

Guest Author Marvin Umholtz: Stop Feeding the Strategic Crocodiles Snapping at CU Heels

The following strategy-focused overview candidly dissects the challenges and risks that are dangerously snapping crocodile-like at the heels of credit union leaders.  The mere fact that there is so much change going on and so much change that could go on in the 2012 to 2013 timeframe makes credit union’s reluctant to take major strategic steps when significant energy and resources might be demanded to manage through these unprecedented challenges.  Although potentially unsettling for those who like easy answers, this overview’s’ fundamental premise is that today’s credit union leaders must thoroughly understand what they are up against and mitigate it.  Credit unions aren’t paranoid if malignant forces are truly out to get them!  Use this overview as a discussion-starter at the next Management Team or Board of Directors meeting. 

Strategic Macro-Trends Affecting 2012:

• Today’s political, legislative, and regulatory risks far exceed the traditional operating risks – credit, interest rate, liquidity, transaction, compliance, strategic, and reputation.  The crushing regulatory burden exacerbated by compliance’s escalating cumulative complexity now drags on the credit union business model and threatens its future viability. 
  
  
•  The polarized Congress and the gridlocked legislative environment that results cause strategic uncertainty in financial services regulation, mortgage finance, and the economic recovery.  The November 6, 2012 elections could lead to a massive macro-directional overhaul of the federalgovernment.  That added ideologicaluncertainty makes scenario planning and financial modeling difficult at best – perhaps impossible. 
  
  
• Many credit union officials claim that the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board has been relentless in imposing its interventionist agenda on credit union decision-makers.  On a regular basis the NCUA Board demonstrates through its policy directives, supervisory edicts, rulemaking, and enforcement actions that its priorities too often stray from an emphasis on safety and soundness toward micro-management and counter-productive social engineering.  However, the biggest burning question – How much is the corporate credit union crisis resolution going to ultimately cost? – remains unanswered.
  
  
• In addition to its own pre-disposition to re-regulate credit unions, the NCUA is mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s(CFPB) statutory mission to examine for and enforce additional complex and costly requirements on credit unions.  The NCUA is destined to become a branch office of the marketplace-controlling CFPB enforcing a “level playing field” of fewer consumer choices and limited credit availability.
  
  
• The global economic situation has not been this troubled in decades.  The U.S. Federal Reserve System Board of Governors has promised to keep interest rates at unprecedented lows through 2014.  Only slight improvements are expected in overall economic growth and employment over the next several years.  Consumers will continue to focus on deleveraging their debt and limiting their spending.  The federal debt continues to grow and the political inability to deal with demographically unsustainable entitlement programs embeds more uncertainty into the fiscal dynamic.  The wearying margin-less economic situation obstinately refuses to go away.
  
  
• Additional strategic hot topics: net worth expectations, capital access, deposit insurance reform, moral hazard, too-big-to-fail, systemic risk, loan portfolio mix risks, charter conversions, prepaid cards, consumer activist groups, financial literacy, credit union service organizations, participation loans, partisan political polarization, and many specific credit union-identified hot topics.  
  
  

Key 2012 Strategic Takeaways:

1.     Fundamentally Different Decade Ahead.  The next decade will be fundamentally different – economically, competitively, demographically, culturally, and politically – from the preceding decade.  Using the same strategic approach to the financial services marketplace as in the past would be insane.  The economy in particular is expected to inch its way along impeding everyone’s business plan.  To keep the credit union’s metaphoric head above water, its leaders must fully understand the prevailing undercurrents that radically impact on strategy.

2.     External Risks > Internal Risks.  External risk factors – especially political risk, regulatory risk, and complexity risk – will have more impact on a credit union’s strategic success than will internal factors.  What one does not control will exceed what can be controlled.  Get used to it – uncertainty and how well it gets incorporated into strategy is critical to a credit union’s successful operation.

3.     Federal Government Not Friend.  The Congress, the National Credit Union Administration Board, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Reserve Board have their own political agendas and are not a credit union’s friends.  Don’t let them fool anyone into thinking otherwise.  Instead, expect them to keep making things more difficult.  Treat their increasingly costly, complex, and burdensome demands with deference – but validate, verify, and when appropriate challenge their directives.

4.     Ultimate Stabilization Costs Unknown.  Regardless of whether the NCUA Board’s loss estimates for the corporate credit union legacy assets are realistic or not, the Board sets the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund(TCCUSF) assessment based upon those estimates and they drive the credit union’s costs.  Nobody knows for certain how deep the multi-billion dollar TCCUSF hole really is or how long it will take to pay it off.  Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

5.     Industry Infrastructure Fractured.  As a direct result of the 2008 financial system meltdown, the current credit union industry’s legacy infrastructure – including its in loco parentis regulators, non-risk-rated deposit insurance regime, and even its traditional trade associations – are showing signs of rust and structural weakness.  Proactive demolition and reconstruction of these faltering institutions sans dogmatic platitudes, entrenchedoligarchies, and one-size-fits-all approaches could go a long way toward restoring real return on investment for each increasingly diverse and independent credit union.

6.     Heavy Mortgage Loan Mix Untenable.  In the absence of a serious refocus of lending strategies credit unions are at risk of becoming the next Savings and Loan debacle.  Collectively credit union loan portfolios are dangerously loaded with low-return fixed-rate mortgages.  Many credit unions also rely heavily on originating and selling to the secondary market that is currently in flux due to the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the glaring absence of any private market investors, and Congressional proposals that could radically reduce the demand for mortgages.  It’s an accident waiting to happen that credit unions must anticipate and avoid.  

7.     Non-Bank Competition Toughest.  Big banks, community banks, thrifts, and even other credit unions are not a credit union’s biggest competitors.  Big box retailers, insurance companies, payday lenders, and other non-banks are running circles around traditional federally insured financial institutions and it will only get worse because most of the non-banks’ offerings are convenient, uncomplicated, and consumer-friendly.  Credit unions, and especially Congress and regulators, should learn from these competitors’ successes rather than try to stamp them out.

8.     Boomers & Seniors Rule, X & Y Drool.  Aging baby boomers constitute a major portion of credit union memberships and along with many seniors dominate credit union boards of directors.  Generations X, Y, and the very young will not be a credit union’s salvation in the near term no matter how hard they try to attract those smaller demographic cohorts.  Each credit union needs to find out what their existing baby boomer members want and find a way to profitably give it to them.  Neglecting boomers could be fatal to the institution’s bottom line.

9.     CU Business Model Threatened.  The traditional low-cost, high-service credit union business model seems increasingly at risk from its cumbersome governance structure, limited access to capital, reliance on loan and investment income, legacy modest means mission, innovation-killing hyper-regulation, and inadequate products and services authorities.  Credit unions desperately need additional ways to generate income, broaden service offerings, streamline delivery systems, and generate scalable growth.  The credit union business model will need to evolve in ways that will make the traditionalists uncomfortable, but the alternative is stagnation.  Credit union leaders must proactively advocate this business model evolution since it won’t be simply handed to them. 

10.  Urgency for Change.  Lead, follow, or get out of the way.  Credit union elected officials and management executives that are unwilling to be drivers of change should seek early retirement.  The future belongs to credit unions that are committed to and intensely involved in change.  A change management skill-set and a sense of urgency will be required if a credit union wants to emerge unscathed at theother end of the coming decade’s strategy-altering uncertainty-laden gauntlet.

 Have questions/comments for Marvin Umholtz? Leave them in the comment section below. 

The Unengaged Member- Whose fault is it? The Credit Union or the Member?

Reactivation and growth from unengaged members seems to be one of the hottest topics in credit union marketing circles. Why?

Most credit unions just received their annual report on member profitability. Executive Teams and Boards are staring at a section that lists the percentage of their members that are considered "unengaged" by the profitability model. From the clients we've talked to, the percentage is staggering - ranging between 20% and 30% of total members. To put that in perspective, if you are a 50,000 member credit union, you’ve got 10,000 to 15,000 of those members unengaged! 

So now the bigger debate - whose fault is it that most credit unions have a significant number of unengaged members? The member’s or the Credit Union’s? 

I recently found out that a colleague had gotten his last car loan indirectly from a credit union through his car dealer because it offered the lowest rate. He took the credit union up on the offer and put $5 in an account to get the loan. After the loan was paid off he became the typical “unengaged” member. When I asked him why he didn’t do more with the CU he replied "I heard from the CU once or twice over the course of the four years when they sent me a paper newsletter. As far as I’m concerned, it’s their job to let me know what products and services they could offer and they didn’t do a very good job." 

Key take-away, don't assume members know your product set as well as you do and that they all use the same communication channel.

Want to get engaged?

A recent article on the Bank Marketing Strategy Blog "Collecting Behavioral Insights Increases Value of Relationship" states that best-in-class financial organizations supplement traditional new account opening with an onboarding process that includes a short survey of needs and behaviors of the new customer. While this survey can also measure customer satisfaction with the new account opening experience, most banks focus on gathering insights into the reason for opening the new account, communication channel preferred, the financial goals of the customer and what financial services the new  customer holds elsewhere.

In addition, some banks ask questions to determine key life events that may be on the horizon and determine who in the household will be in charge of managing the new account. 

Forget whose fault it is!

 If you believe the saying that "It is cheaper to get an existing member to do more with you than it is to find a new member", then marketing should be focusing heavily on the unengaged number in their reports.

As Jim Marous points out in the Bank Marketing Strategy article:

A deeper knowledge of the customer's financial goals, channel preferences, product usage, preferred channels and reason for coming to your institution is needed to personalize the onboarding communication and move the customer from product engagement to relationship entrenchment.

Think about it, an unengaged member could be viewed as a new member that may not even know about all the products and services available to them. The same on-boarding email engines and surveys used to educate new members could be turned towards unengaged members to learn more about their original reason for joining the credit union, gather current financial needs and to introduce them to the benefits provided by the CU. Click here to see some actual onboarding examples from one of our clients.

Bring us your Tired, Poor and Unengaged.

 Technology offers a fast, inexpensive way to reach your unengaged members. We’ve built an online survey to see what we can learn from unengaged members to help credit unions just like yours. If you’ve got the list of unengaged members and can supply ones that you have email addresses for, we’ll supply the online survey and email engine to try and reach out to them. We’ll survey you members and provide you with the feedback. It’s FREE for the first ten credit unions that take advantage of the offer. Simply go to our Onboarding page and click "Ask for more info". We'll contact the first ten credit unions that apply and get them started.

Want to share your re-engagement strategy? Let us know about it in the comment section.

Bringing a Knife to a Gun Fight - Why Cutting Marketing is a Bad Idea

by Ron Daly 

I'm sure you've heard the old adage "never bring a knife to a gun fight". Good advice - even though I've never been in a gun fight, I know I'll never be bringing a knife. Why? Because you're not only under-prepared, you're going up against someone with a huge advantage. 

I bring this up because of an article in the CU Journal by Paul Lucas, a branding consultant who's worked with a number of CUs and companies (including my own) on their branding. Based on a recent Bankrate article about what consumers shop for in a financial institution, Paul came up with some pretty interesting conclusions about the role branding and marketing play.

From Paul's article:

...17% of shoppers start looking for a new bank because of dissatisfaction with rates and fees, but only 4% of them choose their new bank because of rates and fees.

Why does that happen?

Because shoppers are swayed by brand image, advertising and bank branches in convenient locations. Perhaps this disconnect helps explain why more people are changing banks more often.

How did they choose which institutions to shop? The selection drivers lead me to believe that brand awareness is the key, and of course that's heavily driven by brand image. The big banks get strong awareness by buying it.

Paul also mentioned that BofA spent $2 Billion dollars on marketing in 2010. Two. Billion. Dollars. Spent by one bank. In one year.

What percentage of your budget goes into marketing? Paul makes a good point: 

The banking industry spends around 5% of income on marketing. If the credit union industry spent 5% using smart, targeted creative we could increase awareness, making us more competitive against banks.

Instead of spending more, however, many credit unions have cut the very things that sustain brand image: advertising, branch maintenance and member services staff. It's a downward spiral that left spinning long enough can take a credit union out of the game.

While CUs might have it where it counts (low fees, better rates, more specialized service), every inch of ground they gain gets thrown out the window when they don't pay to make it known.

Now for my two cents -- You really want the business? Time to start asking for it. Maybe the "gun" you bring to the fight isn't $2 Billion, but as any shooter will tell you, firepower's not the only important factor - having a better aim means a LOT. Time to really focus in on the member/potential member. What do they need? What do they want? What do they fear? 

One other important fact from Paul's article says the main reason people start shopping for a new FI is because of a shift in their life's circumstances. Maybe it's time you started wondering what those circumstances are...and how you can be there to help. 

I welcome your feedback in our comment section. 

 

 

Not Measuring Results -- Some Jaw-Dropping Insights into Credit Union Social Media

by Ron Daly 

Recently, to gauge our clients' level of interest in our new social media "getting started (or not)" course, we decided to send out a survey and see where our clients were (or weren't) with social media. 

The course that Jimmy Marks, our Creative Media Director, spent the summer building focuses on: 

1. Deciding whether or not to get into social media and the information you'll need to gather first
2. What it takes to make good content
3. Getting fans and followers that match your goals
4. Safeguarding yourself against compliance and security issues
5. Monitoring your results

...and we wanted to see how useful that advice would be to current clients who were interested in social networking. 

We sent out a simple survey. The results we got back were shocking. 

First, some table setting:

Average size of credit union surveyed: ~400 million

Average year-over-year share growth: 5.04%

Average number of members: 35,216

Now, the numbers worth noting:

• 63% of CUs surveyed are involved with and using social media in some form. 
• 54% of those are using Facebook, the winner by far. Second place was a tie between YouTube and LinkedIn
• Of the CUs that said they are using social media, 51% had been using social media for less than two years.

Interesting thusfar, but here's the number that made my jaw hit the floor: 

• Of the CUs surveyed, 76% DO NOT MEASURE THEIR SUCCESS OR THE RESULTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AT THEIR CREDIT UNION. 

What??? 76%??? It's true, according to our results. 

Now, I'm not one to just hear numbers and completely ignore how they got there. As I looked at a later question, where we asked respondants what information they would want to hear in a social media workshop, many people said they needed measurements and better metrics. As a result, part of me wonders how much the lack of measurement has to do with not understanding what these CUs are measuring or how to measure it.

Some of the results were actually very helpful - many CUs are measuring their results in feedback and next-steps in the marketing/sales funnel, not just numbers of "likes" or followers. I worry, though, that much of the problem with social media is how people think it's a solution to something. If you don't have a clear message and a clear understanding of how people make buying and borrowing decisions, what difference could YouTube or Twitter possibly make? 

At DigitalMailer, we have lots of followers and friends and likes and so-on and so-on and so-on. But make no mistake, we don't call any of those "leads". Not until we've been contacted by that person via email or phone. It's great to promote the brand and talk about what you're up to, but that's not where our scope is focused. Twitter and Facebook help us keep in touch with partners, clients and some very interesting people - but pleasing clients and making products and services that save people money is the thing that keeps the lights on. 

In our workshop, we've got a lot of helpful information and some good actionable steps. More importantly, we encourage the kind of forethought it takes to talk yourself (or your superiors) OUT of doing social media if it's NOT the right way to spend your time, money, or creative energies. 

The workshop is $500 and includes a 90-minute presentation and a downloadable workbook. To sign up for our next session, click here. 

A Must-Read Blog Post on Security, Safety and Liability

by Ron Daly 

This blog post from the NAFCU Services blog should be a must-read for those of us in financial services - bank, credit union or otherwise. You might remember some months back when the story of Comerica and Experi-Metal hit the news. According to this post from the NAFCU Services Blog: 

Earlier this summer, a U.S. District Court ordered Comerica to reimburse Michigan-based Experi-Metal Inc. over a half-million dollars for funds the company lost after Comerica approved nearly two million dollars in fraudulent wire transfers from Experi-Metal’s account following a phishing attack against Experi-Metal.

As David Frankil from NAFCU Services points out:

This case addresses one of the most challenging security questions facing financial services today – who is ultimately responsible, the credit union or the member? That should be a trick question, since the answer is really both. However, this court case opens up significant liability for credit unions and emphasizes the need for both extensive in-house anti-phishing and fraud detection capabilities, as well as extensive educational efforts aimed at members.

The highlight was added by me.  It's imperative that members and customers get educated about what to expect from your emails and it's your duty as a sender to keep on top of phishing attacks and properly inform members when one occurs. 

Are you Delivering Financial Telephone Books and Newspapers?

by Ron Daly

Some things just never change, but should. Two examples.

My family and I returned home this week from our west coast vacation. As we turned into the driveway my daughter spotted a large plastic package with items inside leaning on the mailbox. Being nine, she naturally assumes that every package delivered to the house is something for her. As I exited the car I saw her struggling to carry the package with two large yellow books and one large white book inside. Dropping the 1,000 page books at my feet she asked “Dad, what are these?”

To which I replied, "Those are telephone books, sometimes referred to as 'yellow pages'."

If you have a nine-year-old you know there are even more questions to follow...I believe it went something along these lines.

Q: What are they used for?

A: People use them to look up up the telephone number of someone they want to call or a businesses they might want to hire.

Q: You mean they don’t Google them, look them up in their Outlook contacts or call 411?

A: Guess there are still some folks out there that need them.

Q: Did you pay for these books or ask for them?

A: No, dear.

Looking down the street at all the bags of books lining the driveways as far as the eye could see–

Q: Why did they print all these books, waste all this paper and leave them on everyone’s driveway if no one pays for them or uses them?

A: Guess it’s a conspiracy.

Thumbing through the A-L Yellow Pages she stopped in the “D” section

Q: Dad, why isn’t DigitalMailer listed in the Yellow pages?

A: Well, we are a digital communication company and it doesn’t make sense to spend money this way. Besides, any person that has to use the yellow pages to find us is probably not ready for the products and services we offer.

Q: What good is this ad on this page? It’s in black on yellow paper. There are no moving images and nothing interesting about it. I can’t click the website address to learn more and I can’t hit the phone number and have my cell phone dial the call for me.

A: Not everything keeps up with the changes going on. This is just an old-fashioned way people use to find information.

Her final comment as she walked the books directly over to our recycling bin and dropped them in… "What a waste of good trees."

One more example to share, from a conversation we had with a lovely lady I’ll refer to as “Marge” at the large national newspaper in our area. We decided rather than to stop the Sunday paper while we were gone, we’d just cancel it altogether. After waiting in the call queue for a while Marge was lucky enough to get our call. Here goes:

Ron – We’d like to cancel our Sunday paper subscription.

Marge – Why?

Ron – We get our news from other sources, we never read it and we wind up just recycling it each week.

Marge – What if we give you weekdays free?

Ron – (Thinking to myself – OK Marge, I don’t read Sunday and now you want to give me six more days not to read and recycle?) No thanks, we just want to save the $15 per month by cutting out something we don’t need.

Marge – You know, if you use just three coupons per week from the Sunday coupon section the paper will pay for itself with the money you save.

Ron – (Thinking to myself – Ok Marge, I’m not a “35-cents-off-of-ground-round-cut-that-coupon-out” kinda guy, but I do like that song. Besides that, my yellow and white flowered coupon organizer was retired about two weeks prior to my marriage, never to be resurrected again.) No thanks, we can get coupons and discount codes online for most of the stuff we need.

Marge – What if we just charge you 59 cents each week of the Sunday paper? Will you stay?

Ron – (Now I’m starting to boil realizing that I’ve been paying $15 per month for at least ten years for something that Marge is now selling to me for just over $2.40 per month) No thanks, just cancel the subscription.

I can remember which one of us hung up on the other, but the paper has stopped showing up.

Some things just never change, but should. So, my question is… Are you still delivering financial telephone books and newspapers? Are you relying on old systems and technology to reach customers faster and in the communication channel they want? Have you looked at the organization to make sure that you are not? Do you have any idea where financial services are going on the web and in the branches? Is your Virtual Branch even open?

We’ve launched an eStrategy presentation on the future of financial services that is perfect for senior management and Boards of Directors. Contact me at rdaly@digitalmailer.com for more information.

Truth or Dare: Do You REALLY Need a Social Media Expert?

by Jimmy Marks 

I saw a discussion group on LinkedIn - "Is there such a thing as a Social Media Expert?" 

It's an interesting question. With social media still such a young enterprise and with so many questions still in the minds of users and content creators, you have to wonder...is there really such a thing as a social media expert? 

What's sad is that in the short time "Social Media" has existed, we've already developed a stereotype of the "social media expert". It's usually a man, usually in a very expensive suit. His speech is very terse and he's VERY SERIOUS about how social media can help your credit union. 

Granted, he doesn't know what a credit union is, who you serve, how you're chartered, how you're capitalized, what your loan portfolio looks like, what your CAMEL rating is, how many employees you have, how much money you have...

He doesn't know anything about you or what you're doing. And he'll never care. Because by the time his check clears, he's moved on. It's like "The Music Man", only he's not coming back to win your heart and the heart of everyone in River City.

Why care matters

Am I a social media expert? That depends, I guess. I know how to set up and use the networks that most of you are using or considering using (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, etc.). But I think that's about one-tenth of the equation. My biggest social success has come from one thing and one thing only, and that's caring. 

I was hired a few years ago by DigitalMailer to start a company blog for their website. In time, I slipped into the position of Creative Media Director. When I had to get the blog noticed and read by the right people, I simply emailed a long list of financial industry bloggers that I thought would be good contacts. I said, very simply, that I wanted them to read our blog and to feel free to comment on our posts. 

In time, those "thought leaders" became personal friends of mine. In time, I became a person they thought of when they thought of eStrategy. Now, with hundreds of contacts and relationships formed, I can say I'm helping to inform more people about what our company does than I would have if I'd just started without their help.

It didn't start with Twitter, it didn't start with Facebook. It started with me asking them for their guidance and their friendship. I cared about their opinion enough to seek it out. They cared enough about my actions to continue communicating with me. They're great people and, pretty soon, a few of them are going to change the way things are done in this industry. 

My point: audience is everything. And anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar. A big liar.

The biggest lie you've been told about being social

If I had to guess, I'd guess there's been at least one person who's gone out of his or her way to tell you all about how you're "doing it wrong." And sure, maybe you're not as accustomed to social networking as you are to other forms of marketing (by the way, yes, social media is a marketing enterprise. Marketing should be involved.).

The worst thing you can do for your social endeavors? Convincing yourself it's not worth the effort it takes to make it good. 

I can tell you that it takes FOREVER to build a following. I can tell you that not everyone's going to like you and not every kid in the playground will be your friend. I can tell you that a sales strategy is MUCH different than a strategy to gain followers.

I can get you started. But the level of care you bring to the table is what will make or break you. 

The "Truth" in Truth or Dare. 

Not to be one of those people that speaks in analogies, but here's a good one: getting started in social media is like making a cake. You need to know the ingredients, you need a little help with the mixing and the baking temperature, but the success of the "cake" is all in how much effort you put into it. 

You can get a store-bought cake and try to pass it off as home made, but over time someone's going to see through that. The same is true if you hire a "social media expert" to run your various social media accounts. Eventually, everyone's going to get tired of it. 

And yes, some people might not like your cake. Some people might love it and want another slice, and another, and another. Focus on that one person that likes it rather than the one that doesn't. A "social media expert" is most likely going to tell you that your efforts suck. Well, if you got into social media to impress social media experts, you might as well just get out of it, because you're not working to impress the people that matter. 

Some folks are going to tell you that baking a cake can stop up a leaky pipe in your basement. Those people are insane. The same with social media - if your infrastructure and your business model completely sucks, no amount of twittering or Foursquare promotions are going to save you. A cake doesn't solve a leaky pipe. Social media will never solve everything wrong with your business. 

The "Dare" in Truth or Dare.

With all that in mind, I'd like to talk to you about social media. I can show you the ropes, talk about ideas and strategies that I know to be successful, help you nail down the message and, if you're not ready, be honest with you about the things you need to get right before you get into social media. 

We've used social media to help us sell, to get the attention of new partners and clients and, most importantly (to me, anyway) to make us the envy of some of our stiffest competition. 

Can you do the same? That's not up to me. And if you come to one of my learning sessions, I don't guarantee you'll be a success. But I guarantee you'll understand more about what to do than you ever could alone. I guarantee you, you'll know what you want out of social media. 

With that said, here's a link to our sign-up page for a social media sit down. Get in touch with me and I'll be happy to slate some time for us to talk about what you're up to, what you want to do and what you're able to do. 

As a parting shot, I dare you to do one of four things with your social media endeavor of choice today: 

1) FOR FACEBOOK: Say something that's true of your credit union that the average user might not agree with - If you believe something, stick by that belief and throw it out there. What's one thing that you need/want to impress on your members? Don't be wussy and say something like "We believe that credit unions are great!". Say something bold and see what people shoot back with. Poke a bruise. Make a wave.

2) FOR TWITTER: Block or unfollow anyone who's following you that you can be sure is outside of your service area or is not a current member or potential member - How gutsy would THAT be? If you go through your followers list, you're likely to see a number of people who are not actually tweeting or are spam-tweeters. BLOCK THEM. If you see someone whose info lists them as a "social media expert" and they don't list a location within a few miles of your credit union, BLOCK THEM. If a major business is following you and it's not for any reason other than you mentioned them once, BLOCK THEM. Make your credit union account an account that just helps members. Set up a separate account for networking and use that to study what other CUs are doing. I can tell you for sure that more people contact @jimmymarks to talk about things and get a sales conversation started than those that contact @digitalmailer, and that's okay, because at least they associate me with the company. They're getting through somehow. And I've never been contacted by anyone who considers themselves a "guru" at social media. Because those guys typically have no money for what I'm selling. 

3) FOR LINKEDIN: Hire someone off of the recommendations they list on their profile - If good help is REALLY all that hard to find, at least start with people that have a little word-of-mouth behind them. You know there's someone you're dying to hire at your credit union. Make their LinkedIn account your crucial factor - slice anyone that would have been considered for the job that DOESN'T have a LinkedIn page. Who's that leave? Food for thought.

4)  FOR FOURSQUARE: Make a mad, mad, mad, mad world out of it - Give away something REALLY AWESOME and see who shows up at the branch. Let's say you're giving away a month's worth of gas. Let's say you're giving away an iPad. How about a wad of cash you would've wasted on a phonebook ad? Make it a crucial giveaway. Make a big stink of doing that. Then try the same with a Facebook check-in. Don't get shy. 

Go to DigitalMailer.com/socialmedia.html to learn more about DigitalMailer and social media - while you're there, sign up to be notified when our learning sessions begin and when our guidebooks become available. 

Soapbox Special Edition: The MAC Conference Recap

Jimmy Marks, DigitalMailer's Creative Media Director, attended the Marketing Association of Credit Unions' Annual Conference in San Francisco. We asked him to write up a recap of the events. Here's what he come up with (that is, what he could remember). 

Tuesday, Pre-Conference: 

I took a little walking tour around Market Street and over to O'Farrell. Took lots of pictures, they're included here: 

The city was buzzing with people, some from the MAC conference and some going to WWDC a few days later. There are really cool pictures of the Apple logo being applied to the building from my view at the hotel Westin. 

I had dinner with the always-awesome Jill Nowacki from MAPS and Chris Giles, the General Manager at CU Wireless. If you're ever in San Fran and you like Indian food, you HAVE to go to Amber. It's amazing. 

A fun first day/night after a long flight, but the real fun started the next morning...

Your Word-of-Mouth Litmus Test: Do You Make the Cut?

by Ron Daly 

Kelley Parks is what they had in mind when they came up with the idea of a "go-getter". Shortly after leaving Call FCU, she founded her own consultancy called gira{ph} (the pronunciation of which I've been corrected on multiple times - it's just "giraffe", like the animal, it's not a trick or anything). She's written some great articles and made some waves by talking about what, exactly, makes an initiative stand out for a credit union. Recently, in an issue of the CU Journal, she shared what she calls her "litmus test" for word-of-mouth. According to Kelley - 

1. Is it engaging?
2. Is it true?
3. Is it relevant?
4. Is it fresh?
5. Is it memorable?

are the five questions you need to ask . If the program/plan you want to implement meets these criteria, you can bet they'll get people talking. 

Some great initiatives I've seen in recent years that meet these criteria: 

Shell Federal's iLife

Shell Federal in Deer Park, TX has a program to get people involved with the credit union. One of the programs they took on was Cell Phones for Soldiers, which provides cellular services for soldiers overseas. They collected a lot of prepaid cells and minute cards so soldiers could call home and they've engaged members in a way that's fun, relevant and lasting. 

Belvoir FCU Scavenger Hunt

Belvoir FCU in Woodbridge, VA teamed up with CodeGreen to create a web-based scavenger hunt. Members went to the site to browse through the pages and find the "slices of life" pie pieces - which increased viewership and time-on-site for Belvoir and far exceeded their marketing goals. I think this worked so well because A) everyone loves games and prizes, but more importantly because B) it makes the Internet feel like it used to - a fun place to browse around and discover. 

NARFE Premier's Onboarding Program

NARFE Premier FCU in Alexandria, VA started an on-boarding program that increased deposits by 24% and increased loans by 190%. More importantly, it cut their costs by 50% by year end. Why? Because the promotion highlighted all the points of Kelley's litmus test: 

1. Engaging members that just came to the credit union
2. True content, current rates, the values of the credit union on show
3. Relevant to members because NARFE serves a niche community (retired federal employees and their families) and the content reflected their needs and concerns
4. Fresh look (they'd recently rebranded after a merge) and fresh content (rate changes reflected month-to-month)
5. Memorable because an on-boarding series sends an email every few days/each week/twice a  month to members to keep you top-of-mind on services. 

Do your plans and products cut the mustard? Ask yourself why or why not and then take Kelley's advice.