There are lots of 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 cross-sample 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? (100words)
2. Other than Twitter, are there other social media platforms that may be more appropriate for a credit union to use? (100words)
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? (100words)
4. Do you think this type of institution would be better off not using social media at all? If yes, what should they use to engage with their members? Justify your responses. (100words)