How NOT to enter social media.
Posted by Trey Reeme on June 5th, 2007
Update (6/6): Gabriel Garcia from Tech CU’s marketing department offers a good explanation in the comments here. I’m looking forward to seeing what they produce in the real campaign, as this one wasn’t intended for public consumption.
Tech CU invites you to View the TechCU Mortgage Commercial.
Enthralling.
Or how about their welcome post, where you can consume the following gem:
Social media is not a repository for your marketing leftovers.
The last post was made April 8th, so maybe I just stumbled on a site where they’re testing social media out. (It’s not linked off their website.)
When I first saw them come up in an iTunes Store search for “credit union” this morning, I just knew they’d be a shining example of a CU using social media – a big budget CU with a tech-savvy member base who’d love the medium. On the contrary, I’m very disappointed.
Just a kickin’ design wrapped around no strategy at all. No idea about the folks behind the blog. No personality. No real people to be found. No reason to subscribe.
Without compelling content, the crickets will chirp.
Please, Tech CU, prove me wrong. You already get RSS as your main site’s got it on rates, news, and events. I want to see you get social media, too.
First of all. Ouch. That is so sad. And because they are a large credit union and respected by other CUs my fear is R & D. Rip-off and duplicate. Other credit union marketers might catch wind of this and copy!! NO!!!
How about this. On their home page (just below the shiny happy people stock art) is an event announcement for the African Library Project Book Drive. That would make an awesome podcast. THAT would create buzz and raise awareness of the credit union.
Well, sadly, I have yet to find a credit union blog worth watching that wasn’t purely for academic reasons.
That being said, I like Denise’s idea for the book drive. Give me some video of the event. tell me why it was important for my credit union (and me) to be involved. Show me some background on how the event was pulled off, who else was involved, who the speaker was (if there was one).
You could almost buy 5 to 10 minutes of my time if it were informative and warm and fuzzy enough. I want to know that I am part of something that benefits others, even if I don’t have time myself to participate. And if this event looks as fun as it sounds, you might even be able to sign me up for next year!
Now I know my credit union cares about my community and it’s children. It cares about literacy. It is actively searching for ways to enrich the lives of those less fortunate. It makes me proud to be a member.
It provides a tremendous amount of equity to the brand (benefit to the CU). It gives me something to tell my friends about (and a link to send them) and gives me the opportunity to be an advocate for my credit union. Its the opportunity to humanize the credit union. It is a chance to open a dialog with your membership.
THAT is what you should be doing with your podcasts.
Hi Trey,
My name is Gabriel Garcia and I work here in the Marketing department at Tech CU. I wanted to take the opportunity to directly respond to your post regarding our test implementation of social networking—-this was only a test. I think the test worked otherwise we wouldn’t be discussing it. :)
Tech CU is currently building a blog/podcast strategy in which we will feature podcasts about our industry, the organizations we support, our company and so much more.
I am removing the iTunes channel until Tech CU is ready to launch our blog/podcast and apologize that you stumbled across it in its infancy.
I hope that you will give us the opportunity to redeem ourselves once the Tech CU blog/podcast is ready to launch and I look forward to reading your positive comments once it does – Tech CU will prove that we take social networking very seriously.
Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions regarding Tech Cu’ test podcast.
Sincerely,
Gabriel Garcia ggarcia@techcu.com
@Gabriel: Thanks for the explanation on this thread. Knowing that this was a test makes it very forgivable. I’ve amended the post, and I’m looking forward to seeing the real campaign – will gladly re-review and give you the props you deserve!
Hi Trey,
I very much appreciate the opportunity to reply and your super-fast response.
You have my promise that we will give social networking the respect it deserves.
I am a big fan of podcasting and blogging and I have been partaking for over two and a half years now before joining Tech CU a few months ago.
Thank you again.
Gabriel Garcia ggarcia@techcu.com
Gabriel,
You rock. I love that you found this post and that it was a test. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Tech CU and I know you’ll do them proud.
Denise Wymore former VP of Marketing First Tech Credit Union (Beaverton, OR)
Hi Denise,
Much appreciated!
Gabriel Garcia
Above I said… “I have yet to find a credit union blog worth watching that wasn’t purely for academic reasons.”
I meant “podcast”, not “blog”. Thanks to Shari Storm for catching me on that on her twitter account (see, I told you ll it pays to have your Google Alerts set up). I was writing my own blog entry on credit union blogging at the time and had a brain slip.
There are a few good CU blogs out there but almost no good or relevant CU podcasts. If you find one – let me know!
Tony Mannor –
I’ve heard Google loves Twitter.
Thanks for the correction. I think there are some CU’s doing some great stuff (Vancity springs to mind).
Verity is working on a podcast series that is quick, relevant and engaging. It’s a tall order, but I believe it helps fulfill our mission of providing financial education. But boy, is it hard.
Nice to “meet you”. I’ll check out CUHype.com.