Branding Your Credit Union on Facebook

Not a Campaign, It’s a Relationship

First: What is Social Media?

Leveraging online channels to create conversations with your audience.

Develop and maintain consistent two-way communication with members.

But remember:Social media is not a Campaign;

it’s a Relationship.

Why Social Media?

• Share your expertise with members• Create conversations with members• Build relationships with members• Become more human with members

The Tools

Social Media Channels

• Blogs - Blogger, WordPress• Microblogs - Twitter• Video - YouTube, Hulu• Podcasts - audio testimonials/education• Social networks - Facebook, LinkedIn• RSS feeds - subscriptions

Social Network

A place calledFacebook

What is it?

What is it?

• It’s a social network -- not social media.– Largest social network surpassing MySpace

• More than 300 million people worldwide use this social network to keep up with friends, share photos and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

• Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

Facebook Rules

• Discover where your members are– Are they on Facebook?

• Listen to your members• Talk to your members• Energize your members (brand evangelists)• Help support your members (provide advice)• Embrace your members (rewards)

Facebook Goals

• Complement your traditional marketing efforts• Open a new communication channel for your

members• Create interest in your credit union• Sell products and services• Position your credit union as a financial

resource• Be consistent with communication!

Facebook Benefits

• Creates opportunities to build relationships• Reinforces branding• Differentiates your credit union• Builds community with your members• Builds trust among members (humanizes you)• Immediate feedback from members• People focused• Opportunity to control your message

Facebook Users: Age Group

Facebook Tips

• Define your audience• Set your goals/objectives/strategies• Pick your settings carefully• Create a compelling page

– Make your page as rich and robust as possible

• Research tool– Query your members

• Promote events

• Be a resource– Offer good resources or something useful for fans like Carolina

Collegiate’s Internet Banking “MyMoney” app

Facebook (Fan) Pages

• Allow artists, businesses, and brands to showcase their work and interact with fans.

• Pages come pre-installed with custom functionality designed for each category.

• Third party developers build an array of applications that they will compete for Page Admins to add to their Pages.

• Facebook Pages are also not subject to a fan limit and can automatically accept fan requests.

Facebook (Fan) Pages

Set up likeProfile

Finding Pages

• Pages will receive News Feed distribution for various actions fans take on the Pages.

• Users see these stories and can click through to the Page and can then become of fan of the Page.

• See a Page on a friend’s profile, visit the Page by clicking on the Page’s profile photo.

• Users can also search for the Page by name, either within Facebook or from Google, Yahoo!, etc.

• On the Page, users can click on the "Become a Fan" button in the upper right hand corner.

Leveraging News Feeds

• A feature that tells Facebook users about their friends’ recent activities on the site.

– Like Wall posts on Profiles or Tweets on Twitter

• First thing users see on their home page when they log in to their accounts.

• News Feed drives the viral spread of information on Facebook through networks of friends.

– Causes a snowball effect – as something becomes more popular, more people hear about their friends doing it through News Feed.

– Results in literally hundreds of thousands of people hearing about something in just a matter of days.

News Feed

Members become aFan, News Feedsappear on memberProfile pages tokeep them updatedon credit unionactivities

Facebook Groups

• Groups are oldest and simplest way to build community around your brand.

• A central place for members to participate in conversations around your brand.

• Comes with boards for posting discussion topics, photos, videos, and links right out of the box.

• Easily send news and updates to your group members as often as you like – messages arrive in their Facebook Inbox.

• Create as many Groups as you like for free!

Groups Go Viral

• Once members have joined your Group, they can easily invite their friends to join the Group via a built-in Invite feature.

• If your members are excited about your Group, it can grow really quickly.

– Stephen Colbert went from zero to 1 million in 9 days

• Your group name will usually appear on your members’ personal Profile pages until they leave the group.

• Because Profile pages are highly trafficked, these links generate lots of clicks to your Group page.

Create Group Events

• Because of the viral impact Groups have within Facebook, it is the perfect venue to promote events and products…

– Branch openings– Low rates– CDs or IRAs– Mobile banking– Financial advice seminars

Christian Financial Events

Christian Financialdisplays its eventpage for members

Verity Credit Union

“VerityMom”promo onFacebook

Facebook Apps

There are thousands of Facebook apps for:• Business• Education• Entertainment• Friends & Family• Games• Just for Fun• Sports• Lifestyle• Utilities

Facebook Apps

FacebookApplication Directoryhouses thousands of apps to customizeyour page

You can even buildyour own apps andsubmit for verification

Carolina Collegiate MyMoney

Carolina Collegiatehome bankingapplication for college students

Provide memberswith a useful resourcefor financial advice

Notes and Photos

• Two Facebook apps that allow you to share blog posts and photos

• Use these features to post content about your brand– But be careful to always do it

authentically – don’t be spammy.

– If your photo albums are all company logos, for example, you’ll lose a lot of credibility.

Events

• Free application developed by Facebook that anyone can use to promote marketing events, product launches, transactions, or company milestones.

• When you create an event, it gets a fully-featured page, much like a Group, that includes a wall, discussion, photos, videos, and links.

• Facebook Events makes it easy to get the word out to hundreds of people, manage your guest list, and build community around your upcoming event

Events

Spire FCU

event page

describing one

of its many events

Social Ads

• A Facebook Page will allow brands and businesses to maximize viral promotion through Social Ads.

• Social Ads leverage the power and viral nature of Facebook News Feed by serving relevant stories when users’ friends take actions with a Facebook Page or Application

• Social Ads help brands and businesses maximize reach to a greater percentage of the Facebook audience

Taunton Mobile Banking Ads

Taunton FCUleverages Social Adsfor its mobile bankingservice and otherpromotions

Social Ads cont…

• With Social Ads, Facebook offers advertisers the option to pay on a CPC or CPM basis, whichever they prefer.

• Social Ads program offers very powerful targeting capabilities:– Drill down by age, sex, location, keywords, education level,

workplaces, political views, relationship status, etc.

Social Ads cont…

Social Ads also offers placements in the News Feed, which get much better click throughs.

Polls

• Polls offer an easy way for marketers to quickly conduct research within their targeted audience.

• Results are streamed in real time to a dashboard that allows marketers to break down results by gender and age.

• Based on your targeting preferences, you can get hundreds of responses within an hour.

Note: Don’t do too many polls and annoy your members.

Polls

Examples

Facebook Wrap-Up

• Compliments traditional marketing efforts• Creates and maintains two-way communication with

members• Receive immediate feedback from members• Humanizes your credit union• It’s cost effective• Positions your credit union as a credible financial

resource• Another channel to leverage for messaging• But don’t be spammy - be educational!

Questions?

Mike LawsonDML Communications

760/845-8146dmlcomm@gmail.com

www.dmlcommunications.comwww.twitter.com/dmlcomm

http://dmlcomm.blogspot.com