Comments on: Credit Unions on Facebook

By: LB

LB — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:26:40 +0000

As a member and an employee of a credit union, I would not like to have my credit union give information to Facebook. I have had a profile on Facebook for several years, but I feel this online social network has become increasingly intrusive. I would be very irked if my credit union provided information to it.

I’d rather see ads come from my CU through well-established means. A mention on a monthly statement, a stuffer, signs at the branch or something similar.

By: Morriss Partee

Morriss Partee — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:33:19 +0000

On EverythingCU, folks are reporting that they are having success using targeted, local ads on Facebook itself, which are inexpensive. http://www.everythingcu.com/discussion/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewtopic&DiscussionTopicID=9700

By: Robbie Wright

Robbie Wright — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:15:07 +0000

Great comments everyone. I think we’ll hold off on the invites through Facebook (we would be uploading member info to a non-verified third party and I don’t really want to go through the NCUA’s due diligence on Facebook). Plus we need to get a few more things in line to run a little promo on it. The logoff on online banking is a great idea William as are the coffee cards. Thanks guys!

By: WInter Prosapio

WInter Prosapio — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:23:45 +0000

I agree, and think the promo when you log out is a great idea. I’m going to pass that along.

By: William Azaroff

William Azaroff — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:29:02 +0000

I agree with the others here. For what it’s worth, when we put up a promo for ChangeEverything when our members log out of online banking, it often gets the highest clickthroughs of of the promos we do.

By: Jeffry Pilcher

Jeffry Pilcher — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:19:30 +0000

I’d do something promoting your new Facebook page within your online banking platform — a splash page after members login, or a banner ad within the system itself.

By: Mike Templeton

Mike Templeton — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:54:07 +0000

To advertise the Facebook group to your members, I would use channels already established like member email addresses and your CU’s website. Looking them up on Facebook would be too time-consuming, plus there’s a chance you’ll miss people.

If you can energize your existing base into getting onto Facebook and joining your group, they can help you spread the news via their networks.

However, as William mentioned, make sure your group is ready to go with content, functionality, etc. If you’re not providing value to the potential group members, they’ll most likely look and leave.

BTW, I’ll check out the group tonight (I saw you invited me), as I don’t have access at work.

By: Laura Baker

Laura Baker — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:40:37 +0000

You can try what we did and send an email to your members about your Facebook group. I offered our members a Starbucks card for becoming a fan of our page, but there have been some who became fans on their own.

If you don’t want to send an email, you can also try just adding a link to some areas of your CU’s website and put it in the newsletter somewhere.

I think it might seem creepy if you look up your members on Facebook and ask them to join. Better that you just keep telling them about the group and create value in it so that they go there on their own.