I enjoyed this note from Spokane Teachers Credit Union to their members:

“In the interest of full disclosure, STCU would like to announce that, in the midst of the national mortgage crisis, your credit union has had one bad home loan…[the crisis] was all over in less than an hour.”

Perhaps a little horn-tooty, but I think many credit unions have earned their bragging rights.

Read the full note here.

(via Filene’s “Does Capitalism Need Cooperation?“)

OK, I need some candid information from the credit union and financial industry braintrust that reads this blog.

The Economy is doing some pretty squirrelly stuff right now. Politics aside, the Bailouts seem to only be prolonging the inevitable. Surely there are some of you CU folks with greater insight into this mess. How bad is it going to get? For real. And I’m not asking you to tell just me.

CUs seem to be the only financial institutions left that have any trust. How are you using that trust to prepare people for what may come: very hard times? I hear people on TV saying Obama & Co. can turn it around. Super. I really hope they can. I’m rooting for them so hard. But I hear other people burying 20-pound bags of rice in their backyard, and these are NOT the usual crazies whose inane babbling is easy to write off, they are people whom I respect, sharp, sane, wise.

It seems like a great opportunity (responsibility?) for CUs to come out and say, “Here’s how you can act now to keep it from going bad.” Or “Candidly, it is going to get pretty hairy for a lot of people, so here are some practical ways you can prepare to weather it well.”

And I’m not talking about re-explaining “freer checking”, I’m talking about getting real with people about what they can do to prepare for what might be harder times than our country has ever seen. If CUs are truly dedicated to their communities this seems like a great time to commit to being about the “whole man”, to really being in this thing together.

People are looking straight answers. If you know something that will scare them – and I mean scare the living tootsie rolls out of them – will you tell them? Then, will you tell them how to do something about it? If you do, if you are on the level with people in ways no one else will be, then, when it does swing back around, they will never forget who kept their trust, who helped their families by saying some hard, scary things, then helped them process those things sanely. And they will remember it a lot longer than that free iPod.

Jeff has been talking about word-of-mouth in his last two posts (with more to come). But word-of-mouth doesn’t just happen when your members are happy with your services, it also happens when people are scared.

So, please, tell me what you know, then tell me how you are going to tell your members the same thing.

Part 2 of 3 about word of mouth marketing for credit unions

A well-crafted, strategic, and thorough word of mouth marketing program is a smart move for any business. But for several reasons, word of mouth marketing is especially appropriate and well-suited for credit unions. It is—dare I say it—one of the keys to this movement reaching its potential.

Word of Mouth Marketing is Cost-Effective

Most credit unions do not have the [perceived] luxury of outspending the competition. Bank competitors often have much heftier marketing budgets, and can get more media saturation as a result. In other words, they can emphasize quantity over quality. As credit unions with generally smaller budgets, we can’t do that…nor do we want to. With word of mouth marketing, we focus on quality over quantity—having a bigger impact on a fewer number of people. That way, we’re not paying for “waste” media. In other words, WOM lets credit unions work smarter rather than harder.

Credit Unions Are WOM-Ready by Design

When you bring together people with similar characteristics—let’s just call it a “common bond”—something not-too-surprising happens. People can relate to each other! And what happens when people can relate to each other? They tend to get along. To build friendships. And to…talk!

Consumers Trust Credit Unions More

It’s no big shocker that due to the events over the past several months, consumer confidence in financial institutions has taken a big hit. And while, yes, that unfortunately reflects on credit unions, I believe it’s safe to say that many people are feeling that it’s banks—not credit unions—that in all the negative national headlines and news stories. As a result, many credit unions have been able to not only keep the trust of their members, they’ve been able to further solidify their position as stable, trusted financial resources.

Stay tuned for the next installment, part 3 of 3, “Social Media and WOM.”

Click here to read part 1, ‘Have You Heard About WOM?’.

Homework

• Get a sense for what has worked for other companies, by checking out the case studies at http://womma.org/casestudy/
• Join the FREE Society for Word of Mouth

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Jeff Stephens is CEO of Creative Brand Communications (a multi-sensory marketing and experiential brand development agency), whose new division, PSST! is the world’s first word of mouth agency for financial institutions. Drop Jeff a line at jeff@psst-marketing.com.

Subscribe to PSST! Marketing’s RSS feed here.

Part 1 of 3 about word of mouth marketing for credit unions

Think back to the last time your friend asked for a restaurant recommendation. Maybe you eagerly told them about the hot new dinner spot that just opened. Your friend hadn’t heard of it, but was excited by your recommendation. How did it make you feel to pass along this hot tip to your buddy? It made you feel great! You are cool. You are in-the-know. You were helpful.

People tell others when it makes them feel good to do so. So the question is, “what can we give people that will make them feel cool/smart/helpful when they tell others?” Or in other words, “what can we do that’s so buzz-worthy that they cannot possibly keep it to themselves?”

Word of mouth is kind of like the oceans—as old as time but until recently we didn’t know much about them. Ever since cavemen were roasting brontosaurus burgers over newly discovered fire, phrases like “dude, have you heard about __?” have been influential and credible sources of recommendations.

Yet as credit unions, we’ve not been able to harness the power of word of mouth marketing. In fact, it wasn’t until recently that word of mouth marketing in any industry truly came into its own as a discipline. It was around 2005 when the Word of Mouth Marketing Association formed to create and formalize an official industry trade group to truly transform word of mouth from being a mystical elusive idea into a respected discipline.

WOMMA defines word of mouth marketing as: “Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place.”

Principles and Steps of Word of Mouth Marketing

To wrap your brain around the main principles and steps of word of mouth marketing, start by asking yourself these questions, in this order.

• Talkers — Who will talk about you and tell their friends?
• Topics to Talk About — What will give people a reason to talk?
• Vehicles for Spreading the Message — How can we help make the message spread faster, farther and easier?
• Joining the Conversation — How will we participate in the conversation the talkers are having?
• Tracking and Measuring ROI — How will we find out what people are saying?

Up next, part 2 of 3: “Why WOM for Credit Unions?”

Homework

I highly recommend you read Andy Sernovitz’s book, Word of Mouth Marketing for an excellent primer on the subject. Andy is also one of the founding fathers of WOMMA.

Subscribe to some good WOM blogs:

• The WOMMA Word
• PSST! Word of Mouth Marketing for Credit Unions
• Buzz Marketing Daily

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Jeff Stephens is CEO of Creative Brand Communications (a multi-sensory marketing and experiential brand development agency), whose new division, PSST! is the world’s first word of mouth agency for financial institutions. Drop Jeff a line at jeff@psst-marketing.com.

Subscribe to PSST! Marketing’s RSS feed here.

Many social media tools are either cheap or free (including blogging platforms like Wordpress and Blogger, DIY social networks like Ning, podcasting tools like Odeo, and online video like YouTube and Viddler).

But as anyone who’s jumped into the space can tell you, this doesn’t mean social media is a cost-free answer to a given strategy. The big costs are time and commitment. Creativity. Empathy. Enthusiasm. From a person or group of people. And it can almost become a double-edged sword, because the more successful your social media initiatives are – the more people are participating in your community and conversation – the more resources are required to manage it all.

From moderating comments, to creating content, to monitoring conversation elsewhere on the web – social media, a prospect that at first glance may look shiny, new, accessible, and cost-effective, can be extremely resource intensive.

So I want to ask some credit unions that are doing it, some of which I’ve called out specifically below: How do you approach resource management for your social media projects?

Do you hire a community manager? Do you clear room from an existing employee’s plate? Do you spread the work out among several employees? Do you close your eyes and hope for the best?

And beyond that, maybe the scariest thing of all, what if the initiative goes really, really well? What if your community becomes enormous and active? How do you plan to grow with them?

(I’d love to hear from: Carolina Postal CU’s Deb McLean, MidState Educator’s CU’s Danielle Chatfield, Members CU’s Matt Davis, UTFCU’s Brandon Ballentine, Premier CU, Whoever is overseeing America First CU’s Review System, Verity CU’s Shari Storm, Vancity’s William Azaroff & Kate Dugas, and anyone else who’s hands are dirty with social media.)

How much do you trust your members? How much should they trust you? A couple of days ago the NAFCU Compliance Blog kicked off a discussion about credit unions offering consumer opt-outs from third party and affiliate marketers.

Okay first, selling your members’ information is just shady. Come on.

But moving on – my attention perked when the Compliance Guy brought up a credit union that allows its members a full-on marketing opt-out:

These members have the right to exclude themselves from all credit union marketing campaigns. (Interestingly, this credit union currently does not need to offer their members an opt-out under the privacy rules and does not plan on offering an affiliate information opt-out.) I asked how it worked, and the compliance officer said that it seemed to keep a very specific segment of their membership happy. “And happy members deposit more,” she added.

I’d like to shake this credit union’s hand. What an enormous amount of trust and respect for their members’ time and privacy.

But that brings up a new question – how do you reach members that have opted out of everything? I think part of the answer lies in the reason for opt-out. These members aren’t trying to shut you out entirely, they’re filtering out irrelevant noise. So the key to reach might be relevance. Opt-in.

One simple-ish way to stay relevant and paperless is to offer topical RSS feeds and email alerts (see NPR’s news feeds). For example, right now I’d absolutely subscribe to a “small business” feed offered by an FI. But if I see another credit card app, I’ll probably set something on fire.

How would/do you reach members that have removed themselves from your traditional marketing?

Maybe a better question is – would you even give them the option?

As you may have read here, here, here, here, and here, CUES Experience was a blast.

What struck me the most about Mark Stutrud, Summit Brewing Company’s founder and CEO, was that he knows exactly who Summit is and where it’s going. He makes no apologies, and doesn’t try and water Summit down (figuratively, but also literally….there’s no “Summit Lite”), or grow without reason to be like his larger competitors.

One of my favorite quotes by him was, “If we aren’t making some people mad a few times a year, we aren’t doing our job.”

My main takeaway, and the theme of my workshop after the tour, was to differentiate by knowing exactly who you are and pursing that as deeply as you can. Get specific. It takes businesses years and a lot of hard work to find a nitch. Credit unions come with one – its automatic! And as a result we have a built-in affinity and culture from the very beginning. So own that.

Our final question was this: What is something you can do at your credit union that is so relevant to your specific SEG and/or community, that it absolutely wouldn’t make sense somewhere else?

Also, I highly recommend Ron’s post on his Summit takeaways – “Financial Services Marketers Could Use A Beer .”

Here are the slides (a few of which make little sense without their talking points):

| View | Upload your own

Also, Summit beer is fantastic. If you can get it in your area, do it.

ps: I didn’t take any pictures, because I’m a moron. But I’ll update this post with a link to some shots from the tour as soon as a certain someone hooks it up.

A great conversation with Tim over dinner tonight brought up this:

I probably write one out of every ten ideas I have for a post. Why? Because I tend to overthink, over-present, and tie a bow around my point. This doesn’t just stress me out (and it does) – pre-packaging a point clips off the conversation. In trying to wrap up my own conclusions, I bypass the fact that what I really need and want for any given topic is your collective perspective.

What hurts my blogging? Formatting. Packaging. Which is dumb.

Here’s to grittiness, reality, and ideas.

I’ve read a few posts across the financial blogosphere about Starbuck’s user-generated idea site, MyStarbucks Idea, and its relevance to financial institutions as a channel into consumer insight another way to listen.

As usual, the good folks at Vancity are ahead of their game with weallprofit.vancity.com, a (beautifully designed) user-generated idea site that launched months ago.

Their explanation of the site and philosophy hits the nail on the head:

You can call us a financial institution, you can call us a credit union, you can even call us a bank. But the truth is, when it comes right down to it, we’re really just in the business of ideas. An idea for a different way of banking is what got us started. It was the idea of profit sharing that made us grow. And today, it’s the innovative ideas that help make our members financial lives easier and our communities stronger. In short, through good ideas, we all profit.

At Vancity, we believe good ideas can come from anywhere. Which is why we always like hearing new ones. If you have an idea you’d like to share, then by all means, put it on the wall.

Well said.

Vancity’s William Azaroff says the site will be getting a facelift in the next several months. I’m looking forward to the action if/when they begin to implement the ideas they’re collecting.

(Starbucks site via Jim on Netbanker, Robbie on the fi-linx blog, and Brady on Grow Your Bank)

I thought it’d be nice to start the week off with a rant inspired by three things:

1. Jim Bruene’s recent post about the scrappy usage (his word: ‘anemic’) of financial apps in Facebook.
2. My disagreement with this quote from the CUES Nexus blog (sorry, Lisa):

   If you want to reach Gen Y, why not be where they are? The more than 68 million Facebook users (many of them young people) spend an average of 20 minutes a day on the site. And about 250,000 new users sign on every day. Some CUs are already there, waiting to greet them.

3. That there are still high-fives given for credit union MySpace pages.

Social networks…

Are Not:

Real estate. If you look at online communities as an opportunity to park your caboose and head people off at the pass, you’re missing the point. Go buy a TV spot, pop up or newspaper ad – stick to the proven, tried and true methods of interrupting and annoying people.

To brands who treat conversations like billboards: you’re not just old marketers, you’re also posers. (And I should note that I’m not talking about Lisa here at all.)

There are 140 Facebook apps added every day. This is Noise 2.0. The apps that are the most successful are those that help Facebook users do what they came to Facebook to do rather than react to the fact that they happen to be there. More on that in a second.

Are:

Communities. If you bust in on that without immersing, participating, understanding, you are a door to door salesman. If you show up, you and your toothy grin, you’d better be adding value to the community by helping them interact, grow, and have a deeper connection with each other (that’s why they’re all there in the first place). The Cluetrain Manifesto said communites are groups “of people who care about each other more than they should.” And each community/platform is unique, but also interwoven. Engaging the Facebook community looks different from engaging the Second Life community looks different from engaging the Twitter community.

For Example:

Why is Facebook’s iLike so successful (361,568 daily active users, $15.8 million in funding…for a Facebook app)? Because people use Facebook to communicate themselves, learn about and connect with people. iLike enables that and, as a result, enhances Facebook for its users.

This is shown across the board in the numbers too. According to Adanomics data (made sense of by Asi Sharabi) the most widely used apps (44%) are “Identity Formation / Social Comparison.”

Why do I think Fiserve’s MyMoney will not succeed as it is right now? Because, frankly, who cares that you can access your account within Facebook? It is not that difficult or time consuming to open a new window or tab and get to my online banking login. Thank you for saving me three clicks, but until MyMoney brings more to the table I’d rather keep my applications clean.

What if you could use MyMoney to visualize your progress as you saved for a vacation, a new toy, or the secret to time travel. What if a few trusted friends and I could use Facebook’s social tools to build a cross-FI collective overdraft protection account that auto transfers cash in a time of need, notifies each person on the account, and in doing so: 1) saves me fees and 2) builds in the obligation to replace that money as soon as I can?

By the same token, Financially Fun Island™ (not a real thing, but almost a real thing) in Second Life will, at best, attract a lot of industry insiders who are interested in this “innovative new tactic.” But the citizens have better things to do than go to your island and play money games. They’re building an active economy. However, a financial institution that offers home, land, and small business loans in Second Life for Second Life is enriching the in-world experience…not just capitalizing on it.

I’d much rather be enabled than greeted.

Alright, that’s all I’ve got. You can yell at me now.

Hi, I’m Terrell Meek, Marketing Manager at Verity Credit Union. The following is a true story.

One day in 2006, I typed the name of a restaurant I wanted to visit into Google, hoping to find their website. Instead I stumbled upon Yelp: Real People, Real Reviews™. The site intrigued me from the beginning because I love to write, I love to try new things and I love to meet new people. I signed up, created my profile, wrote a couple of restaurant reviews and have been addicted ever since.

When I first joined Yelp, not too many people in Seattle had heard of it yet and they were in the process of hiring a full-time marketing person to help grow and promote the community. I started to be active in the talk threads, asking and responding to questions, and finally a group of us decided to meet up in person for dinner. More dinners followed, and pretty soon I was meeting up with Yelpers for concerts, plays, coffee, shopping and other events. Some of us even formed a craft club called Sew Drunk, which ironically did not involve sewing or booze.

More and more people joined the community, Michelle was hired as their full-time marketer, and the site improved and added functionality. The talk threads also evolved and became a place where almost any topic could be discussed. One day, about a year ago, I was pinged by Michelle in a private message. She told me that someone was complaining about Wells Fargo in the talk threads and that it would be a perfect opportunity for me to talk about the credit union difference. I found the conversation and gave my two cents, fully disclosing that I work at Verity. After that day, I became a go to person on financial matters. If there is a conversation about banks or debt, savings, credit cards, budgeting, etc., I am usually alerted. I have never told anyone I’m a personal banker, an accountant or financial advisor. They all know I work in marketing, but they trust me.

Recently, I used the talk threads to do an informal survey and asked how people manage their finances. I asked how likely they’d be to use Wesabe or Mint and pointed them in the direction of those websites. I received several emails thanking me for sharing that information. When Verity’s Velocity Checking launched, I found an old talk thread about saving money and bumped it by talking about our new account. This resulted in a flurry of emails, and again, many notes of thanks. Because of the conversations I’ve had with these friends online, I’ve been asked to upload any financial seminars through Verity on the “events” section of Yelp. I have handed out our temporary Passport cards (get two meals for the price of one at local restaurants!) at Yelp sponsored events and they are a huge hit.

People not active in the Yelp community have criticized my actions. Sure, from the outside, it may seem like I’m only online to shill my credit union, but honestly, that’s boring and I don’t roll that way. The truth is, I’m just having fun, making friends and sharing information (which is bringing in new members). Although the site is bigger than it used to be and it’s harder for me to meet everyone and stay on top of all the conversations, I still participate. I am constantly learning things that bring value to my life: great restaurants to try out, where the sales are, what shows are coming to town.

I wrote this post to offer encouragement to other credit union marketers who are wary of jumping into social media. I know how you feel—I’m actually only on a small number of social sites and find some of them intimidating. I would advise that you take a look around your credit union, see who is already using these sites and go from there. You might be surprised to find a staffer among you who is already advocating for you online.

(If you’re viewing this in an RSS Reader, click here to see the poll.)

FinovateStartup is right around the corner, and if it’s anything like last October’s conference tickets will be sold out soon. Finovate and FinovateStartup are financial innovation and technology conferences put on by tech+finance guru Jim Bruene of Netbanker.

Startup companies demoing their products (Jim’s blog says “No PowerPoint slides allowed!”) include: Andera, Boulevard R., Buxfer, Motley Fool CAPS, ClairMail, Credit Karma, First ROI, Jwaala, Lending Club, Mint, Prosper, SmartHippo, Unified Money, and the rockstars from Wesabe (see how big a fan I am of Wesabe here).

It’s a stockpile of some of the coolest things to happen to money since they invented “buying stuff.”

Watch videos from last year’s Finovate here, and sign up to attend here.

The Credit Union Innovators Podcast

Last week Tim McAlpine from Currency Marketing launched a podcast devoted to highlighting and interviewing passionate and inspirational people from the credit union movement. His first guest is Gene Blishen, the tech-and-people-savvy General Manager of Mt. Lehman Credit Union.

One of my favorite parts is Gene discussing the future of credit union survival:

The question I would first and foremost ask any board or credit union manager is “Are you relevant to your members?” and, “Do you have passion to exist?”

Word on the street is there’s talk of an interview with the CU Skeptic. Sweet conflict!

Listen to it on the web here or subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here.

Banktastic, a social network for financial institutions

In late October of last year, the Garland Group launched this social knowledge hub for financial institutions. Now don’t get in a tizzy just because of the word “Bank.” Here are a few discussions happening in Banktastic:

• What is your favorite credit union marketing campaign of all time?
• Emerging Markets and What They Could Mean for CUs
• Using Mobile Phones to Make Remote Check Deposits (which is honestly worth a blog post of its own)

The community is currently in “semi-private beta” What does that mean? “We have no idea,” says Brad Garland. But you will need an invite to join. I have a few, and I know several others do too. Post in the comments if you’d like to join, and I bet you’ll get hooked up.

Update: The Banktastic Invite Fairy hooked me up with quite a few more invites. If you want one, email me at brent [at] trabian [dot] com.

Young & Free Alberta

If you haven’t taken time to look at the best credit union social media campaign in existence (only rivaled by ChangeEverything), please go check out CommonWealth CU’s Young & Free campaign (orchestrated by the crazy Canucks at Currency Marketing).

After running a contest to find the most charismatic and expressive person under 25 in Alberta, Canada to take a year-long gig as the CUs spokesprson, they hit a goldmine with winner Larissa (see yesterday’s post).

She blogs, she makes videos, she digs up free stuff, and she positions CommonWealth as a youth-centric credit union. And the entire campaign ties to their Young & Free Checking Account.

It’s brilliant.

Tech CU’s iPhone button

Says Gabriel Garcia in a comment on Netbanker (link added):

”...I created and iPhone icon for the Tech CU Blog. One of our members had coincidentally inquired about the same thing the day before. We tested it on his iPhone and enjoys it!”

What a cool way to engage tech-savvy members (of which I have a feeling Tech CU has many) while raising awareness of their blog.

Next stop? iBanking:

(Video of German bank Postbank’s iPhone account interface. Sorry, the video is in German…but the demo speaks for itself.)

The brass|SHOW

I’ve always dug the content Gen-Y experts brass|MEDIA put out in their made-for-gen-yers magazine, brass. It’s relevant, on-point, and an entertaining read.

In early Feb, they’ll launch the brass|SHOW. brass CEO Bryan Sims described it nicely in an email:

We developed a 3-5 minute video podcast about young adults, money and real world stuff, that credit unions can license and place on their site to begin delivering updated content rather than many of the static sites that are out there.

I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with. And I’m especially looking forward to seeing how it is received by young members.

Check out an example of how the brass|SHOW could play out on a credit union site here

Did I miss something? Post other instances of CU New Media Awesomeness you’ve found in the comments.

This is a straight-up re-post from Currency Tim’s blog, but I don’t care because this video needs to be posted as many places in Credit Uniondom as possible.

Please watch 19-year old Larissa, spokesperson for Commonwealth CU’s Young & Free campaign, explain the difference between credit unions and banks.

To quote Charlie from an earlier tweet:

“Larissa’s vid is just what I have in mind when I picture a national CU vs Bank differentiation campaign.”

Question for Tim:

Would you ever consider re-editing, and re-releasing a less-Y&F-branded version for CUs to put on their own homepages, “about us” pages, and blogs?

Question for CUs:

Is this something you’d like to put in front of your members?