That’s a valid question, if you think about it.
Your credit union’s field of membership is limited to a closed Select Employee Group, or SEG.
Those potential members all know you, and you know them. The potential for growth, unless you bring in a new SEG or SEGs, is limited. Many, if not most, of them are already members. With all this in mind, is there any reason to promote your credit union on Instagram or other social media platforms?
Or, what if you don’t already have a majority of them signed up for membership? Even then, when there’s room for growth within that SEG, reaching people in a core select employee group is as easy as reaching out to the employer, and the options are bountiful.
You can print up paystub inserts with info about the credit union. You can send informative articles to the company’s newsletter. What about sending an email through the sponsor company? You might even find yourself doing a regular live event, such as a lunch and learn?
The chances of members, and potential members, seeing specific, targeted marketing messages within this unique offline social network are a lot higher than your posts showing up on their social feeds.
So why bother with Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or TikTok?
Like I said, it’s a very valid question, and it’s a question many closed SEG credit unions grapple with today.
To answer the question, we need to backtrack a little. What are the benefits of social media? Of having a consistently updated social media presence in a world that’s saturated with posts that don’t get a whole lot of likes and/or shares?
Once we know this, we can ask if those benefits apply to closed SEG credit unions?
There are several benefits to an active social media presence. Try these on for size:
- Highlighting your members’ success stories.
- Highlighting your incredible staff.
- Showing your expertise.
- Educating members in a fun way, with bite-sized memes and videos.
- Creating a sense of community.
For all these reasons, social media can be just as beneficial to a closed SEG credit union as a community credit union where to doors to membership eligibility are wide open.
In fact, it would be difficult to find a credit union in today’s environment that is actually growing new members because of social media. Truly, the ROI of social media efforts is far from clear and measurable.
So, before you write off social media because of your perceived charter limitations, think about everything you can achieve through regular social media posts, and ask yourself if it’s worth a few minutes a week to create a sense of community, give your staff the attention they deserve, and show current members that if there’s a trend out there, you’re on it.
