examples out there of successful viral videos,
which give the impression that social media is an easy way to
build brand awareness and generate new customers – but is
social media really a jackpot machine that will pay off to all
firms?
The following is a summary of the key findings of a 2013 report
undertaken by The Financial Brand. They looked at a crosssample
of credit unions (which are forms of small mutual
banks) in the USA. They were primarily interested in their
Twitter usage for business and promotional purposes. Ideally, if
a credit union could get their members (what they call their
customers) to follow them on Twitter, then this could become
an effective form of low-cost communication.
With that highly beneficial outcome in mind, this is the key
findings of The Financial Brand’s report:
•Almost 1 in 3 credit unions appear to have abandoned (that is,
no Tweets for 30 days or more) their Twitter accounts
•Around 20% of their followers are “junk” – either spam-based
or now inactive
•The average credit union only has about 400 followers, which
is less than 1% penetration of their membership (customer)
base.
QUESTIONS
1.Because credit unions are a financial institution, do you think
that they will struggle to get their customers to “engage” with
them via social media?
2.Other than Twitter, are there other social media platforms
that may be more appropriate for a credit union to use?
3.Do you think that this type of institution would get better
results if they combined social media with a traditional form of
advertising? If so, which one(s) and why?