Reviewed and written by Jeff Stephens, CEO/Creative Brand Communications

Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union recently partnered with personal financial management firm Wesabe to offer Addison Avenue Groups, an online initiative hosting a variety of discussions on financial topics where people can answer each other’s questions and offer advice.

Groups cover broad subjects like “Buying a House,” within which are topical discussions such as “Mortgage Payment for Debit Ratio,” and “Buy vs Build.” Discussion is open to both Addison Avenue members and Wesabe.com customers (except for a few specific groups), which greatly expands the number of people holding conversations in the online community.

“We invested a lot of time, energy, and money to launch Addison Avenue Groups,” the credit union said. “You can go join a discussion (or start your own) about any financial issue, topic, or question that comes to mind.”

“You can now leverage the wisdom of thousands, online, any time, for free,” the credit union noted.

A page for each “Group” displays the most recent discussions.

Addison Avenue’s guidelines for its online discussion groups.

“After discovering the richness of personal finance wisdom in Wesabe’s online community, we knew it was essential to provide this experience to our membership,” said Stu Fisher, SVP of eCommerce at Addison Avenue.

Marc Hedlund, CEO of Wesabe, says, “Leveraging the Addison and Wesabe communities, members will have access to thousands of smart advisors to help them reach their financial objectives.”

” Not only does Addison Ave. understand social networking and how to add value to a key demographic, but they took it to a level that makes perfect sense.”
— Eric Gagliano, Market Match

Openly displaying member posts and comments on the Addison Avenue website certainly shows a level of confidence few financial institutions have previously shown. It gives the impression that Addison Avenue is transparent, progressive, and receptive to suggestions and criticism. Not very many other financial institutions are willing to take that risk, though notable exceptions include USAA’s Member2Member forums and the First Direct Live microsite.

Key Questions:

• Does the online community actually help members become more financially literate?
• What qualifies someone to give financial advice?
• And who is to say that users don’t also post — either on purpose or inadvertently — harmful recommendations?

Key Fact: Addison Avenue members bank primarily online, with only about 30% ever setting foot in a branch, which presents a unique set of community-building challenges for the credit union.

Addison Avenue Groups is the credit union’s latest online effort in bringing members together. Addison Avenue has pushed to create a sense of community among members through social media and other virtual outlets, including its Addison Avenue Groups, Addison Cafe Blog, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

“We tweet, blog, reach out through our online community Groups,” Addison Avenue’s Fisher says. “We do whatever it takes to keep in touch with our members.”

The credit union even hosted a coffee-shop TweetUp, where Addison Avenue members on Twitter could meet and chat in real life.

Wesabe included the Groups functionality as part of a customized version of its Springboard application for banks and credit unions. Wesabe’s Springboard allows financial institutions to integrate Wesabe’s personal financial management (PFM) tools directly into their websites.

Bottom Line:
Addison Avenue Groups brings people — members and prospective members — together in a constructive, value-added and relevant manner. The quality of the peer advice is secondary to the engaged sense of community that members get from the conversations. And as the initiator and facilitator of this community, Addison Avenue scores big with participants.

Overall, the credit union clearly has a better grasp on social media than your average financial institution. A lack of physical interaction has forced the credit union to explore alternative channels for communication and community-building. Addison Avenue tries diligently to create a sense of online community, which is commendable. This initiative differentiates the credit union from most other financial institutions who don’t bother with this sort of thing…if they even know about it.

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About the author: Jeff Stephens is founder and CEO of Creative Brand Communications (CBC), a full-service bank and credit union branding and marketing agency. CBC helps financial institutions find their story, tell it, and most importantly, prove it.

Here are some of the major innovations and significant online/technology trends that financial marketers should watch in the coming years. (Please note: This is by no means intended to be a comprehensive or definitive list.)

What do you think will be a major trend shaping financial marketing in 2010 and beyond? Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

1. The Megasite

The once-simple microsites financial institutions made for their marketing campaigns have ballooned into massive undertakings. Look at the monstrous scale of Umpqua’s “Save Hard, Spend Smart” website or GTE Federal Credit Union’s “U-22” site. These are major undertakings with multiple layers and dozens of pages.

Nowadays, creating an immersive and engaging online experience requires a lot more work. Figuring out how to integrate the array of social media platforms — Twitter, YouTube, Facebook — is a struggle.

Megasites will be a continuing trend through 2010 and beyond. Just be sure to create brand/image synergy between your promotional subsite(s) and your primary website.

2. Financial Edutainment

Financial education will have to become a lot more entertaining and interactive in 2010 and beyond. Check out BofA’s “Morris on Campus,” or their comic attempt with “Mo Rocca on Banking,” to get a good idea for how high the bar has been raised.

Many credit unions are using “savings challenges” to stimulate interest in lessons of thrift. Umpqua’s “Save Hard, Spend Smart” initiative has a number of financial education components. ING DIRECT’s “Planet Orange” is another great example. And Nevada State Bank hired the world’s most celebrated conman to create a series of online educational videos about fighting identity theft and financial fraud.

3. New Channels for Customer Service

Live online chat has been around for a few years, but financial institutions are deploying it at a quickened pace. With instant online chat, you can address people’s questions and concerns right at the point-of-sale, transforming an otherwise static, one-directional marketing tool into an interactive sales/service experience. Expect to see a continuing increase in the uptake of live chat.

BofA was the first bank to provide customer service via Twitter. Wells Fargo, Wachovia and others have joined in. Now, BofA is getting serious. They have a whole dedicated Twitter team, and a new fancy CMS tool to manage their Twitter-based customer service interactions.

But you don’t need to be on Twitter to provide next-generation customer support. For example, you can text “unhappy” to the State Bank of India and they guarantee they will respond to your complaint within 48 hours.

4. Online PFM

Few things have made as big a difference to consumers over the last couple years — from a practical perspective — as the introduction of online Personal Financial Management tools. Online PFM is like a more robust, next-gen version of desktop applications like Quicken, enabling consumers to track spending and manage their money. One big feature is that many PFM solutions aggregate information from multiple financial institutions in a single view. Other PFM features can include financial advice, community features, and visualizations.

Companies offering online PFM services like Mint, Geezeo and Jwaala have taken the financial industry by storm. Now, white label players are coming into the market, and some banks are even deploying their own proprietary PFM solutions. Any financial institution that underestimates the significance of the PFM trend is making a big mistake.

5. “We’re Listening”

Financial institutions who believe that their primary purpose on the social web is to listen will solicit feedback — both the good and the bad — from the public, and do so publicly. They are out there on the web saying, “Go ahead and tell us what you think.”

HSBC’s FirstDirect, with a website displaying good and bad customer feedback, is one of the most notable examples. HSBC also invited folks to speak up on its “Soapbox.” There’s also Westpac in Australia with its “Truth Pod.” USAA hosts “What’s on Your Mind.” And United FCU created “Matter” so Gen-Y could rant and complain.

6. Proprietary Applications

ING DIRECT was probably the first to introduce an API for Twitter with its “Fee Tweeter” application. And Vantage Credit Union’s “Tweet My Money” is a fully-proprietary innovation that allows people to access account information and make transfers via Twitter.

Chase hosted a contest for charitable donations using its own proprietary Facebook app. And SunTrust recently launched its “Swap A Solid” Facebook application enabling people to trade durable goods with one another.

Netbanker.com has written extensively about iPhone innovations in the financial industry. Check out their archive of iPhone articles. They even produced a comprehensive (and meaty) report.

7. Remote Deposit Capture

Whether by mobile phone (like USAA and WV United FCU), scanner (like Jefferson Financial) or even the honor system, enabling people to make deposits remotely will be a big trend from now until checks go away.

8. Online Reviews, Q&A Forums

Allowing actual users of your products and services to publicly comment on them at your website is Web 2.0 at its purest: open, honest, transparent and accountable. America First Credit Union was one of the first financial institutions in the country to let people rate and review its products. You can take it a step further and let people ask and answer questions, as USAA has with its “Member 2 Member” forums.

9. Online Contests for Charity

Financial institutions will wake up in 2010 and realize they can be making engaging online promotions out of their charitable donations. Just look at what Servus Credit Union and Wells Fargo have done. None of this was really feasible before social media tools came along. And you don’t need to give away a lot of money, as one credit union proved with its $2,000 scholarship giveaway.

10. UGC

While nothing new, UGC (short for “User-Generated Content”) will continue to be one of the primary ways financial institutions integrate social media tactics into their marketing mix. Financial institutions will host blogger contests, photo contests, “my ugly [fill-in-the-blank]” contests and make-your-own TV contests. Just be careful that you don’t “salt the mine” with your own submissions, as one bank painfully learned.

11. Making “Community” the focus of Online Communities

Instead of building self-serving online social media communities, some financial institutions are trying to help improve their real, offline communities. Check out what this bank and these two credit unions did to help their communities during the recession. To see this strategy lived out to its fullest, take a look at the myriad of ways Caja Navarra supports its communities online. This Spanish bank will put most non-profits (and not-for-profit credit unions) to shame.

12. Automatic Savings Plans

BofA was one of the first to introduce automatic savings programs, with its “Keep The Change” project. Then there was Wachovia’s “Way 2 Save.” Citizens Bank recently introduced “GoalTrack Savings,” a goal-based savings account with rewards. Third-party products like Bancvue’s “Kasasa” are integrating automatic savings options. You can even include automatic savings into your auto loans.

Union Bank – “Rock Solid”

A blogger snapped this photo of a “rock” on the teller counters at Union Bank. It turns out the “rock” was made of soft foam. “About as solid as a marshmallow,” the blogger wryly notes.

Allianz – Elevator

An elevator wrapped in graphics that look like a bank vault. The sign inside the elevator reads (translaätion): “Keep your money in a safe place.” Clever out-of-home advertising.

Visa – “Anthem”

Every two years, TV viewers around the world are treated to some of the most spectacular, inspiring ads ever created. The cinematography, the story lines, the editing are all extraordinary. Unfortunately, most of these ads don’t promote the companies who paid millions to produce and air them. They only seem to build the Olympic brand, such this beautiful mintue-long spot for the 2010 Winter Olympics from Visa.

Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the ad that talks about themes like “imagination,” “spirit,” “precision,” “speed,” “grace” and “magic,” concepts that seem markedly unrelated to either Visa or banking. It’s almost like a PSA for the Olympics: “This feel-good moment of unity and celebration is brought to you by…Visa! More People Go With Visa.”

You may prefer watching this kind of spot versus an ad for something like “Head On, apply directly to the forehead,” but you’ll quickly forget it was Visa who made it once you see a dozen other advertisers trot out their similarly commercialized celebrations of Olympic spirit and pride. You can see another gorgeous Visa spot for the Winter Olympics here.

SunTrust – “Swap a Solid” Facebook Application

SunTrust Bank recently launched Swap a Solid, a Facebook application that provides users with a forum for exchanging goods and services with their Facebook friends. At the Facebook app, you can “Request a Solid,” or view “Solid Requests.” The Swap a Solid name harkens back to the bank’s current ad slogan, “Live Solid,” although some people might think it’s disgusting to “swap a solid” with anyone other than their spouse.

Standard Bank – “Mr. HIV”

Standard Chartered, a bank serving Asia, Africa and the Middle East, made a pledge to the Clinton Global Initiative to educate one million people about the prevention and spread of HIV & AIDS by 2010. To achieve this, they commissioned an animated short film that chronicles a “Mr. HIV,” a personified virus looking for a job so he can destroy the human body. The script is entertaining. The CG is comparable to a Pixar production. As far as public health PSAs go, you can’t get much better. You can watch the whole series here.

Deutsche Bank – Greenhouse Gases Widget

Deutsche Bank recently launched a free widgetized version of its “Carbon Counter,” a landmark digital billboard in New York City which displays the running total of long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The widget comes as part of the bank’s broader campaign to raise public awareness of climate change and encourage investment. (A widget is a downloadable, stand-alone application that can be embedded into an end-user’s web page or desktop.) It’s very interesting to see a bank commit itself so strongly to one side of a political hot potato.

Innovations FCU – “Jingle Bells Lip Dub”

You’re probably burned out on the holidays, but this video is too good to pass up. It’s a singing, dancing lip-synch of a techno version of “Jingle Bells.” The choreography involves the credit union’s entire staff — some 35+ people — in one, single 3-minute take. It is toe-tapping fun, festive and well-produced, yet not so slick that it feels expensive or pretentious. Hat tip to Christopher Stevenson at CUES who was the first to spot the video, and kudos to agency Raoust+Partners, who reportedly produced it.

Belvoir Credit Union – Brand Image & Identity

When Fort Belvoir Credit Union decided it was time to drop the “Fort” from its name, they turned to Third Degree Advertising for a new brand image and identity that is decidedly unmilitaristic.

Capitec – Simplicity

This minute-long TV spot features CG animation with a narrator in a virtual world who describes a bank that is unbelievably perfect. Quite frankly, it sounds too good to be true. The spot ends with the tagline, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Click on the hotlinked summaries to read the full story.

Smells Like a Robbery: BNZ spraying robbers with traceable DNA micro-mist

Facebook? Twitter? Why you probably shouldn’t…

Bah Humbug: BofA cancels family’s Christmas w/24 overdraft fees totaling $840

The Night Shift: How do you staff a 24-hour video teller?

5 Wishes: If consumers could love a bank, here’s what it might look like

Credit Union Calamity: Capital woes undermine market opportunities

The Card Game: Watch this excellent Frontline exposé about credit cards online

Unmet Potential: CRM for financial services firms

Good, Bad, Ugly: Breaking down a US Bank direct mail piece

BankNotes365.com Online gallery with photos of robbers and the notes they pass

BAI Wrap Up: Netbanker’s executive summary of the best innovations

The Scenario

Someone feels they’ve been mistreated by your financial institution. They’re pissed off, so they launch a hard-hitting online vendetta against you, centering around a new blog or website. They pull no punches, bitterly and ferociously ripping into you. They keep pushing your buttons trying to get a response. If/when thtey do get a rise out of you, they push even harder.

This kind of situation has become an increasingly common phenomenon in recent months. Standard Bank in South Africa has been contending with a former customer taking them to task in blog posts and on Twitter since July 2009. The vendetta was launched with this tweeted declaration: “We’re putting Standard Bank in the hot seat, holding them accountable for abusing customers!”

Priority One Credit Union has been under attack from an obsessive blogger since January 2009. This person (possibly a former employee) has written some 90 blog posts. That’s an average of one every four days. Some are over 2,000 words long.

Then there’s Navy FCU. Someone name “Chris” claiming to be “a happy and loyal member” before “things changed” has been hammering away on the world’s biggest credit union with his blog, navyfcusucks.com, and a Twitter account, @NavyFCUSucks.

NAVY FCU SUCKS
A blog (left) with a number of articles critical of Navy FCU bears the slogan, “Membership Counts (For Squat).” At the NavyFCUSucks Twitter stream (right), you can find almost everything negative that everyone on Twitter has said about the credit union.

And just about every major bank in the world has a “[Brand Name] Bank Sucks” fan page on Facebook. Just take a look for yourself.

Defensive Cybersquatting Doesn’t Work

These kinds of nightmare scenarios make financial institutions wonder what they can do. “Can we prevent this kind of online vendetta by cybersquatting [ourbank]sucks.com?”

No. Here’s why.

For starters, it’s impossible from a practical perspective. A scorned customer/member/former employee will be able to find some available combination of derisive terms for their blog’s URL. There’s yourbanksucks.com, yourbank-sucks.com, your-bank-sucks.com, boycott-your-bank.com, etc. There is an infinite array of options one can come up with that require only a juvenile level of creativity.

Someone can always launch a blog at a free, third-party service like Blogspot or Wordpress, using URLs like yourbanksucks.blogspot.com or yourbanksucks.wordpress.com. This is a much more likely threat, because not everyone is willing to pony up the money to pay for a domain name and hosted internet server (around $100 per year).

The problem compounds exponentially when you start looking at all the social media platforms one would have to cover: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc. It’s simply too tedious and time-consuming to run around the web cybersquatting all these names that might possibly be used against you in a future attack.

Key Question: What will people think when they perform a search at their favorite social media sites and see all these harsh and negative names?

This is precisely what concerns Jason Kincy, VP/Alternative Delivery Manager for Arvest Bank. “I don’t like squatting and allowing customers to view them in searching for your company,” he says.

Reality Check: You can’t secure all the possible combinations and cybersquat your way out of an online attack. Trying to reserve even the most basic, obvious combinations would be extremely tedious. There are just too many. You can’t cover them all.

As Brent Dixon with Filene, a credit union think tank, puts it, “That feels like an exhausting, neurotic thing for a person to do.”

Indeed, no one bent on revenge is likely to give up simply because their first choice for a URL — [yourbank]sucks.com — isn’t available.

“I would think someone motivated enough to start one of these is motivated enough to find a name you haven’t squatted,” adds Mark McSpadden, an expert in online financial technologies.

The truth is, there is no fool-proof defensive countermeasure that will thwart possible online attacks. You can provide the greatest customer service on earth, and you may still be unfortunate enough to run into someone who has the time and energy to point out your failings (real or perceived).

Reality Check: If someone wants to initiate a vendetta bashing your financial institution, there’s really nothing you can do to stop them. Someone w/a score to settle will find a way to launch their attack.

So What Can We Do?

Most experts on social media agree that you should try to reconcile differences by engaging with the upset blogger.

“Learn to be better at dealing with conflict, rather than earmuffing it and hoping ignorance will work,” advises Filene’s Dixon.

William Azaroff, head of online strategy for VanCity, a large Canadian credit union, has a number of good tips for how to best tackle angry bloggers. Read his excellent blog post about monitoring your online brand health, then check out this companion presentation, “Responding to Bloggers”:

One thing to consider is to simply invite the begrudged person to have a cup of coffee. If they are a rational, reasonable person with a real grievance, you can give it a try. If your only publicly published response on the internet is an invitation to “sit down and talk,” it will at least look like you’re trying to take the high road and make amends, even if your offer is rejected.

Remember, you’re dealing with people’s emotions. These people feel you hurt them. They probably feel unimportant and disrespected, as if they weren’t worth your time. Think about how you can address these feelings, and not just resolving the financial transaction that triggered their ire.

The good news is that if you can resolve the issue, there’s a very good chance that this person will flip from a “brand detractor” and turn into a “brand advocate.” Many times, people judge brands (just like people) by how they perform during their darkest moments. The same person who was once willing to rant about your ills yesterday may also be the same person to extol your virtues tomorrow.

As difficult as it may seem to find anything positive in these situations, just keep in mind that you may be able to turn a sour lemon into some great PR/word-of-mouth lemonade.

Reality Check: Sometimes, there is simply no way you can win.

Some people are bullies, where anything you say can (and will) be used against you. Others are plain old nutjobs, and there is nothing you can do to stop them. Don’t bother engaging with people who are downright nasty or suffer from psychosis. It’s a waste of energy.

Once a blogger has moved past their own complaint and begins adopting/echoing the grievances of others, or looks for new things to bitch about, their vendetta has taken on a life of its own and your opportunity to reach-out has probably vanished. In such cases, it may be best to just wait it out, and hopefully the blogger will someday give up or go away.

Whenever someone launches an online attack against your financial institution, you should always consider talking to your lawyers. Seek their counsel and keep them informed. If the blogger ever crosses the line with libelous comments, don’t be afraid to slap a lawsuit on them. It’s your legal right to defend your reputation when people lie about you.

The Financial Brand has learned of at least one situation where lawyers were called in after months of abuse from the virtual pen of a jilted former employee. The financial institution’s lawyers fired off a letter full of scary legal terms and the website was turned off — immediately. Sometimes, “engagement,” “dialogue” and “joining the conversation” aren’t the best ways to deal with big brand problems on the social web.

There is little doubt that social media is here to stay. As the list of organizations jumping on the bandwagon grows every second, the same business questions continue to arise:

• How do we execute it effectively?
• How do we justify the time and personnel expense (ROI)?
• How do we use it to support other initiatives?

To answer these questions, Callahan & Associates Internet Strategy Consortium conducted a social media survey involving over 11,000 credit union members.

Key Fact: This is the most comprehensive social media study ever conducted in the credit union industry.

The study measured members’ use of social media, including visited sites and online activities, communication preferences and desired topics on social media sites. Among the findings:

• More than 82% of credit union members ages 18-60+ use Facebook.
• About half of all members surveyed said they would read a credit union’s Facebook page periodically.
• Among credit unions with a Facebook presence, only 5-16% of their members were aware their credit union had a fan page. Most members reported learning of Facebook pages through credit union websites.
• Of Twitter users, 34% use it to follow companies with which they do business.
• Twitter’s overall familiarity among members was 14%, but only 2-7% reported being “very familiar” with the service.
• Members using Twitter expect their credit union to provide information such as fraud alerts (71%), special offers (60%), financial tips (58%), and rate specials (57%).
• Nine-in-ten online members are interested in receiving email from their credit union.
  

  

  The Callahan & Associate study including 11,000 credit union members revealed interesting differences between age groups and usage of certain social media channels.

Readers of The Financial Brand are invited to enjoy a special webinar, “Engaging Members through Social Media Challenges & Opportunities,” hosted by Callahan & Associates that presents the study’s conclusions and recommendations.

$50 Off the playback of this webinar!

Just type the promo code FinancialBrand in the
highlighted area of your shopping cart.

The webinar should provide you with a clear picture of what your organization can expect from this growing trend:

• Critical considerations as you plan your social media initiative
• How to use social media to monitor the health and stature of your brand
• Where different audiences should be engaged differently
• Who you should (or could!) be targeting
• Examples of how credit unions are leveraging social media

The Financial Brand sat down with Shari Storm, VP/CMO of Verity Credit Union, and Terrell Meek, Verity’s Marketing Manager, to talk about their latest online social media project, Verity Mom. Verity Credit Union is no stranger to the Web 2.0 world. They are credited with being the first credit union in the U.S. to launch a blog, “Verity Voices.”

Verity Mom puts a mommy twist on the internationally acclaimed Young & Free “challenge marketing” promotion from Currency Marketing. The basic formula in this strategy starts with a huge marketing push to recruit a spokesperson (or “spokester”) who will blog on behalf of the financial institution. An online contest determines the winner of this paid, part-time position. Then over the course of a year, the spokesperson uses online social networking services like blogs, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to share various perspectives about personal finance issues and the financial institution they represent.

In all the previous deployments of Young & Free, the recruited blogger has been a member of Gen-Y. The use of a mommy blogger represents the first significant variation of Young & Free.

More information is available on the Verity Mom campaign in the project’s Online Media Center, a Fact Sheet and this FAQ.

What’s the strategy behind Verity Mom?

We wanted to launch a program that increases awareness among moms. We also want to use Verity Mom as a vehicle to increase our new member numbers within our community. The account we want to introduce to this market is our Cartwheel Checking (a Rewards Checking product), designed with busy moms in mind.

Verity is phasing out Velocity Checking account, its original high-interest checking option, and is replacing it with Cartwheel Checking, which reduces the maximum balance earning a higher interest rate to $10,000. You can keep as much money as you want in Cartwheel, but only the fist $10,000 get paid the bonus rate. The interest rates on both accounts are the same.

Why moms?

Mothers control 83% of all household spending. Ironically, they have largely been overlooked in the financial industry.

Not only are mothers a powerful market in their own right, they also have tremendous influence on where their kids do their banking. Every financial institution struggles with how to attract younger members. We want to bring in more families into our credit union.

Like most other credit unions, our membership continues to age and we need a blend of members in different stages of their lives in order to balance loan and deposit growth.

Mothers are incredible sources of referrals. We love the quote, “If you can please a mom, you can please anyone.” We want to design products and services that please moms and, in turn, have them tell their networks about us.

Why a blog?

We had been watching the amazing things that Currency Marketing had been doing with Young & Free and we wanted to try something like that. When our board decided that resources were going to be spent reaching the mom market, we approached Tim and his team and asked if we could do a Young & Free, but with moms. And so Verity Mom was born.

VERITYMOM.COM BLOG & MICROSITE

How did you choose Rosemary Garner as your mommy blogger?

“Moms matter!
Verity Credit Union
wants to hear what
moms have to say,
and I’m the voice
to make that happen.”
– Rosemary Garner,
2010 Verity Mom

We used LinkedIn and Craigslist to let people know about the recruitment phase of the project. Rosemary Garner was one of the 34 applicants who submitted an online application — a 60 second video and blog post — in our 2010 Verity Mom contest. Rosemary emerged from our internal judging as one of the top three candidates. After that, she was selected based on votes from website visitors. Thousands of votes were cast.

[Note: For winning the competition and becoming the 2010 Verity Mom, Rosemary gets a $20,000 annual salary, a 13" Apple MacBook Pro notebook computer and a Flip Mino HD video camera.]

What other components are there beyond the blog?

In addition to the microsite, there is a YouTube account, a Twitter account and a Facebook page, each with content provided by Rosemary.

While Rosemary is a great writer, her talents and experience lie in video. She has been a documentary producer for many years. Video will be the most powerful component of Verity Mom.

Rosemary posted her first video this week. She actually interviewed the lead singer of The Presidents of the United States of America, who is doing a side project on a CD for kids. The video is great and he gave a shout out to Verity. It was really fun.

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS
The Twitter account (left) has 120 followers, and the Facebook page (right) has 23 fans. The five videos uploaded to the YouTube account (below) have been collectively viewed over 2,100 times.

What are you doing to promote the initiative offline?

While we were running the contest, we placed several ads in local newspapers. We also had branch signage and floor decals. We also handed out temporary tattoos all over the place. We were fortunate to get some traditional PR as well. There were a few stories written about the contest in local newspapers, and Rosemary will be attending some community events… perhaps making a TV appearance or two.

TEMPORARY PROMOTIONAL TATTOOS

How are you measuring success? What metrics are you using?

We are looking at new member numbers in our communities as the measure of success.

How long do you plan to run the Mommy blog?

Rosemary will be our Verity Mom spokesperson for one year. Beyond that, we are taking a wait and see approach.

Shari, can you tell us a little bit about new book, “Motherhood is the New MBA.”

Thank you for asking. I recently published a book through St. Martin’s Press on how the skills you use as a parent are the same skills you need to manage people. It’s gotten some good press. It’s been in Costco Connection, HybridMom, Body & Soul, BusinessWeek online as well as Martha Stewart’s radio program, to name a few.

It can be purchased at Amazon.com, or you can get a signed copy through Elliott Bay Book Company.

It has been interesting to have this hobby of writing a book for the mom market and having that overlap so much with what we are doing at my credit union.

Reviewed and written by Jeff Stephens, CEO/Creative Brand Communications

Servus Credit Union, the third largest in Canada, has just about wrapped up its “Cash in with Your Camcorder” promotion, a make-your-own-TV-commercial contest highlighting the financial institution’s signature Young & Free Chequing Account.

The promotion is part of the credit union’s Young & Free Alberta initiative, a broad, multi-year “challenge marketing program” from Currency Marketing that has deservedly received much acclaim.

INTRODUCTORY VIDEO
An unshaven Myles Peterman, the 2009 Young & Free spokesperson, dons an undershirt while introducing the contest from his bedroom computer cam.

The Cash In With Your Camcorder contest invited residents of Alberta, Canada, between the ages of 18-25 to create 30-second video commercials about “why the Young & Free Chequing Account rocks.” Prizes included a $2,000 grand prize, and a $1,000 second place prize.

“You could buy an airport for that,” observes 2009 Young & Free spokesperson Myles Petermen says. “It would be made of Legos, but it would be an airport.”

In addition to getting cash, winners may also find their videos used in future advertising.

CONTEST ENTRY – “FINANCIAL IDOL”
This submission comes from the previous Young & Free spokester, Larissa Walkiw. The singing trio in this video uses the same stick-figure style as the video that catapulted Ms. Walkiw to international credit union fame back in 2008. With over 75,000 views, Larissa’s “The Difference Between Banks & Credit Unions” is the most-watched YouTube video in the credit union industry…worldwide. If you’re one of the few that hasn’t seen it, you should take a look.

Launched in late October, participants have been submitting their home-made commercials to the credit union. The credit union provided a “starter kit” of standard elements and other video graphics (such as logos) to help contestants with their entries.

People were able to vote for their favorite submissions on the Young & Free Alberta site through the month of November. Winners will be announced on Friday, December 4.

YOUNG & FREE ALBERTA MICROSITE
Shown here in the voting phase of the contest.

MARKETING MATERIALS

In addition to promoting Cash In With Your Camcorder on the Young & Free website, Peterman also pushed the contest on the Young & Free Facebook page (278 fans) and Twitter account (720 followers).

The Young & Free Chequing Account, available to the 17-25 year-old Alberta crowd, features free and unlimited withdrawals from network ATMs, account transfers, point-of-sale transactions, cheques, bill payments, and more. It is positioned as a simple and easy-to-understand product for those just starting to manage their own finances. The product is unique among Canadian financial institutions who seldom offer free chequing accounts.

There is an online application for the Young & Free Chequing Account integrated directly into the the credit union’s microsite that is so fantastically simple, you’ll have to see it to believe it.

Analysis

• The primary benefit of the campaign for Servus Credit Union is the super cheap marketing they get for their youth account. Giving away $3,000 in prize money is much more cost-effective than having a professional commercial made.
• The secondary benefit is increased website traffic and word of mouth, since contenders will be pushing all of their friends to visit the Young & Free Alberta site and vote. It’s highly a engaging promotion, regardless of the number of submissions.
• Contestants are in it primarily for the cash prize and the shot at getting their creative work used in real advertising. For former spokester Larissa, who is currently pursuing a degree in film, having her ad used by a company for commercial purposes would look good on her resume.

Key Takeaways:

If you’re going to hold a “make-your-own-TV-commercial contest,” there are a few things you should learn from the Cash In With Your Camcorder promo:

1. Consider defining the specific focus of the commercial, as Servus did when they asked contestants to concentrate on the credit union’s unique chequing product. If you don’t provide a range, then you better be prepared to receive entries encompassing the full spectrum of possibilities — loans, savings, checking, brand… who knows?
2. Provide your logo, slogan, colors and other creative resources to assist entrants with their submissions. This also helps create a standardized framework or “visual vocabulary” for entries.
3. Never promise the winning video will run on TV. With any kind of online vote, you can never be sure of the turnout, so don’t obligate yourself to publicly running a commercial that would make you (and your CEO) uncomfortable. You can entice contestants with the mere possibility that — if their submission is appropriate — it may actually air.

Bottom Line: All in all, Cash In With Your Camcorder is one of those smart contests where the winners benefit, but the credit union gains even more.

———————————————————————————————————————————
About the author: Jeff Stephens is founder and CEO of Creative Brand Communications (CBC), a full-service bank and credit union branding and marketing agency. CBC helps financial institutions find their story, tell it, and most importantly, prove it.

Reviewed and written by Jeff Stephens, CEO of Creative Brand Communications,
with Jeffry Pilcher, Publisher of TheFinancialBrand.com.

“Visions FCU Rocks.
Where young people
do their banking.”
— Visions FCU
Facebook page

Despite having a branch near Binghamton University, home to over 14,000 students, Visions Federal Credit Union struggled attracting young adults. Over the past few months, the credit union has tried to fix that with its Vision FCU Rocks program. The initiative involves a number of traditional- and non-traditional marketing tactics designed to raise their profile in the student community.

Coinciding with the start of fall term, Visions launched a youth-oriented microsite at VISIONSfcuROCKS.org. The site is geared towards students, taking the unusual approach of promoting financial products at two specific age segments:

• For ages 13-17, the credit union offers Smart Start Loans (to $350), computer loans, auto loans and Youth Visa Credit Cards.
• For ages 18-25, Visions offers auto loans, computers loans, no-fee Mastercards, Student Visa cards and student loans.

Key Question: Why doesn’t Visions promote any checking, savings or other DDAs to either group? Why is it all about loans?

The microsite streams contemporary music tracks while visitors can learn more about the credit union’s various promotions, such as its “BFF Photo Contest.” The current promotion on the VISIONSfcuROCKS.org website invites participants to rewrite the lyrics to “The 12 Days of Christmas.”

VISIONSfcuROCKS.org

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS LYRICS CONTEST
“We’re asking you to come up with some new lyrics to this old song, ones that reflect the things that you really want! Be creative, be cute, and be crazy!”

On the surface, the microsite looks good, but a little digging reveals that it isn’t very robust. Over half of the links open to pages on the main Visions site, which is visually very different. It would be better to have all secondary pages on VISIONSfcuROCKS.org integrated into the microsite to create a more consistent and cohesive online experience.

Social Networking with Gen-Y

“Gen Y is important
to Visions Federal
Credit Union. Visions
offers Gen Y Initiatives.”
– Visions FCU website

As part of its effort to reach Gen-Y, the credit union also created a Facebook page (386 fans) and Twitter stream (182 followers). “These social networking sites are changing the way that our Gen-Y members are doing business,” the credit union says. “Visions has decided to utilize them as a way to communicate with this growing part of our membership.”

You can read the credit union’s entire Gen-Y strategy on the Visions website, where they discuss “social networking,” “financial literacy” and why “Gen-Y is important to Visions.”

A “Gen-Y Friendly Branch”

Visions also expanded with a new branch situated adjacent to University Plaza, an off-campus apartment complex for Binghamton students. The branch interior boasts a contemporary, colorful design, featuring a music café with headsets that hang from the ceiling, free WiFi, bean bag chairs, four full-service ATMs, a community bulletin board and large flat screen TVs broadcasting sports, news, and credit union marketing messages.

CONCEPTUAL RENDERINGS OF THE ‘GEN-Y FRIENDLY’ BRANCH

Visions promoted the new branch on the university’s radio station, distributed invitations in student orientation bags and mailboxes, and even printed custom t-shirts. Back in September, the credit union held a Guitar Hero Tournament at the branch to welcome back Binghamton University students returning for the new semester.

The credit union also partnered with Musicstream LIVE, a service that promotes financial literacy to young adults through live music, to hold a pair of concerts. Concerts held at the university and a local high school drew a combined total of over 1,500 students. Visions emceed the events, and hosted a booth where students could enter to win prizes and get more information about the credit union.

“This program creates awareness in the community that our credit union cares about the future of our young adults and does it in a non-traditional way,” said Jayne Searles, AVP Marketing & Business Development. “Feedback from administrators at both schools was fabulous. They thought it was a unique way to get the message out and a great way to start the school year off for their students.”

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY FEST 2009
Videos of the Visions-sponsored concerts show the credit union talking a lot about themselves and financial topics. With a strong brand presence at the event (including banners and booths with prize drawings), a one-sentence introduction might have sufficed.

Visions FCU, has over $2 billion in assets and more than 122,000 members, with 23 branches throughout Central New York and Northern Pennsylvania.

———————————————————————————————————————————
About the author: Jeff Stephens is founder and CEO of Creative Brand Communications (CBC), a full-service bank and credit union branding and marketing agency. CBC helps financial institutions find their story, tell it, and most importantly, prove it.

In the weeks leading up to the grand opening of AltaOne Federal Credit Union latest branch, the credit union sent out a street team to conduct random acts of kindness. The hitch? No one knew AltaOne was behind the good deeds. AltaOne waited to uncloak themselves until the night of the grand opening.

For four weeks, the credit union’s street team traveled a 3-mile radius around the new branch location, anonymously conducting “good deeds,” such as paying a family’s dinner bill, or surprising a local fire department with a free lunch. The only information the street team provided was a simple printed card with little more than a web address, GoodDeedsDoneDaily.com.

COMMUNITY PRESENCE
The ‘Good Deeds’ street team in uniform, and wrapped vehicle graphics.

Simon+ Associates, the marketing firm behind the AltaOne promotion believes it is imperative marketers focus less on advertising and more on creative ideas that provoke real interest.

“The promotion was designed as a viral campaign to engage the community and residents on a personal level, while generating increased interest by concealing the client’s name,” the agency said.

The promotional microsite was updated often with the street team’s latest good deeds. Visitors could read about good things the street team had done, and request a good deed for someone else in the community.

All the credit union’s marketing materials included reminders to “check back at the microsite often for the invitation to the ‘big reveal.’”

Three days prior to the grand opening, the credit union used its social media channels and created special printed pieces to invite people to the event.

The Good Deeds Done Daily campaign included a Facebook page, Twitter account under the name @DoGooders, and a YouTube channel. All accounts have been deactivated, and the microsite pulled down, which is a bit disappointing. The credit union did all these good deeds, and now there’s no public record. Even if the site only attracted a handful of visitors after the promo concluded, it feels like a missed opportunity to build goodwill and foster positive brand perceptions.

According to Simon+ Associates, the results of the campaign include:

• 500+ attendees at the grand opening event
• Over 6,000 Unique Hits to MicroSite
• Total new deposits of $1,214,714.24
• ROI of 809.8%

If you like AltaOne’s Good Deeds campaign, check out these other promotions. There are some similar ideas financial marketers might want to explore further:

• Umpqua Bank – “Free Ice Cream Truck”
  The truck is sent to markets where Umpqua is about to open a new branch, giving away ice cream for a few weeks prior to the grand opening. Between the promotional-, PR- and word-of-mouth value, Umpqua gets plenty of mileage out of its truck.
• TD Bank – “Random Acts of Convenience”
  Street teams called “Convenience Crews” conduct “Random Acts of Convenience” in NYC and Philadelphia to announce TD’s takeover of Commerce Bank in that area.
• Servus Credit Union – “Feel Good Ripple”
  This article looks at the recent trend of “pay it forward” promotions sweeping the credit union industry.
• Advantis Credit Union – “Grand Opening Promo”
  This campaign yielded $35 million in deposits and 800 new members. That’s 3 years’ results in 2 days.

MICROSITE
The site (above) shows the invitation to the grand opening after AltaOne revealed its involvement. The two screenshots (below) show how the site looked prior to the reveal. Notice the map showing the route of the ‘Good Deeds’ street team. Total visits: 6,000. Unique visitors: 4,000. Average time on site: about 3 minutes 30 seconds.

DIRECT MAIL
Postcards were mailed within a 2-mile radius of the branch
for four consecutive Mondays before the grand opening event.

TWITTER ACCOUNT
Cleverly named @DoGooders.

FACEBOOK PAGE

PRINT ADS
Newspaper insertions on the four consecutive Sundays before the event.
Inserts were placed in the largest circulating newspaper in the area.

GRAND OPENING EVENT
Tents set up outside the branch to handle additional extra capacity.

Reviewed and written by Tony Mannor, CEO of Andermahr & Company

I always get excited when financial institutions venture out and try something new — to shrug off the hot and itchy grey flannel suit and put on some shorts, flops and sunglasses, and relax a little. This is the environment that marketers can really make their mark and prove their differentiation. That’s why I was so excited to review EDS Credit Union’s project, “The Arrival Guide.”

I have never heard of EDS Credit Union before, so my breakdown and analysis will be entirely based on my 12 years of experience in user-interface design and internet marketing, plus 10 years’ experience in credit union marketing.

So here it is: “The Good,” “The Bad” and “The Ugly.”

The Good

Any time a credit union tries to speak to the youth category, it is a good thing. You can’t go wrong trying to open lines of communication, so the prominent display of both their Twitter and Facebook accounts is a nice touch.

The design should appeal to the target Gen-Y demographic, but will also be visually pleasing to anyone else who may visit. It’s not overwhelmed by content, so the message stands out with great impact.

The video is kind of cute, but fairly typical fare from credit unions these day. Not bad, not great. However, the use of “swagger” kind of had me rolling my eyes, but it was a solid attempt and proper use of slang.

“NO CASH, NO SWAGGER”
EDS Credit Union has a dedicated YouTube page for ‘The Arrival Guide’ with four other videos.

The “Tweetbox” on the home page is also nice, assuming you have good stuff to share. Which it seems they do. They have tweets directed to specific people (members or not). EDS corporate isn’t proof-reading every tweet, and references to local concerts and other such chatter consistent with the target is what Twitter is all about. Their Twitter account is followed by over 200 people, while EDS follows over 400 tweeters. It’s a good ratio, something that is difficult for some people to manage.

The linked Facebook fan page is doing well with almost 400 fans. That, my friends, is quite the coup for a financial institution. I don’t know if it is the content that gets updated consistently, a viral marketing effect, or the incredibly attractive young ladies in the photo stream. Whatever it is, it’s working.

FACEBOOK PAGE FOR ‘THE ARRIVAL GUIDE’

The Bad

The website doesn’t really create the sale. There are no links to “become a member” or anything. I can’t understand that.

All the momentum created on the first page comes to a screaming halt on the internal pages. The copy is kind of boring, as are the internal pages. No more videos, no more pictures — just scrolling boxes o’ text. The “Old School” scrolling text box defeats any “street cred” earned on the home page.

Once in the site, I am a little lost as to what I am supposed to do. Why am I here again? Oh, because I have “Arrived.”

The Twitter profile page caries the same design as the website. The content is solid, although it can be a little salesy at times. The big faux pas here is that it was designed for a huge screen. There are links on the bottom left that many screens (including mine) will cut off, and my screen is pretty big with the resolution set pretty high. Joe Twitter will probably never see those links.

TWITTER PAGE FOR ‘THE ARRIVAL GUIDE’

And regarding the title for the promo, has the typical member of Gen-Y ever heard the expression, “You’ve arrived?”

The Ugly

After you watch the commercial on the home page, you get the typical YouTube slide shows of other videos that are similar to the content that you’ve viewed. This is incredibly dangerous and something that I recommend financial institutions do not do.

Don’t get me wrong, “remote hosting” of video content on YouTube — like what EDS is doing here — is great. It does good things for search engine optimization and helps spread the word. But streaming it from your official, branded website? Not so good…

Here’s why. One of the links that came up for me was a Sam Kinison comedy bit. Now I think Sam is funny, and I was kind of happy to get to listen to it while on the clock. But then Sam started talking about an Asian shopkeeper, using an exaggerated accent and obscenities that was pretty much, well, racist. Not cool to be watching that while still on a credit union’s official website.

If you cannot stream the video from your own server, select a content host that limits how far a user can get from your original content. This will help keep the craziness from diluting your message, and possibly save you from a major embarrassment.

Summary

Okay, I shot some arrows at this thing, some of which may seem a little harsh. But all-in-all it was a great effort by the folks at EDS, and the primary microsite is solid.

I’m guessing there’s a lot more to The Arrival Guide campaign than what we can see on the web. I get the feeling from some photos on their Flickr page that there is some serious marketing out in the real world — as there should be. (What is that in the photo? Is that a postcard? Or a real, printed guide? And are those Dum Dum pops in the background?) This is where you are going to really create buzz. A website is just a part of that real world effort.

These types of promotional microsites and various social media tools aren’t “silver bullets,” or “golden keys,” or whatever you want to call them. They should be just a part of a larger marketing campaign. Online social media is just a tool, and if you are going to build an entire house, you need more than just a hammer. You need a variety of tools that all do something specific to achieve the desired results. And it helps to know how- and when to use each tool.

——————————

Tony Mannor is CEO of Andermahr & Company — The Credit Union Marketing Agency. Tony is the chief blogger at CUHype.com and a regular writer and speaker on topics of technology, Internet marketing and credit union marketing. Andermahr & Company has been providing award winning marketing and design to credit unions for over 27 years.

The Financial Brand sat down with Tim McAlpine, president and creative director of Currency Marketing, to talk about integrated social media marketing for financial institutions.

As one of the financial industry’s most accomplished and well-respected social media marketers, Tim’s firm has developed a number of successful programs targeting niche groups, including the renowned Young & Free Spokester Challenge and, most recently, the Mommy Blogger Challenge. Currency’s programs are customized, fully-managed, and licensed to non-competing credit unions throughout North America. You can find our more information on Currency’s “Challenge Marketing” by clicking here.

Although Currency works exclusively with credit unions, Tim offers great advice for all financial institutions looking to attract new customers in non-traditional ways. You can find Tim on LinkedIn and Twitter, and check out his blog.

Note: Where Tim has responded with members and credit unions, The Financial Brand has replaced with customers and financial institutions to make the answers relevant to both banks and credit unions.

Social media is all the buzz in business marketing right now.
Is the buzz warranted?

Yes and no.

Social media advocates will tell you that traditional media is dead. They will have you believe that TV, radio and print can be completely replaced with social media and word-of-mouth marketing. The promise of Web 2.0 will conquer all. To perpetuate the myth, financial marketers are being bombarded at industry conferences and in trade publications with the notion that all they need to do is start a blog, a Twitter profile, a Facebook fan page or a YouTube channel and the millions (if not billions) of people online will find and flock to their lovable institutions.

While I agree that the social web is extremely exciting and presents an opportunity to connect like never before, I do not agree that social media is a replacement for all other forms of marketing. What’s missing from all of the buzz is the notion that social media is a great addition to other mediums that marketers have at their disposal. The real power lies in integrated social media marketing. There is a huge opportunity to marry many different marketing approaches.

What’s the business case or ROI for an
integrated social media marketing program?

Social media as an island-unto-itself offers little ROI. There is definitely a paradox at play. Unless you are selling product through your social media efforts, it is very difficult to justify the expenditure. But to-date, financial institutions that have entered the social web have primarily concentrated on listening to customers. It is widely believed that social media is only to be used to listen and to connect with customers and potential customers; by being open, transparent and conversational this will demonstrate that your organization cares about its customers and this display of caring will compel people to do business with your financial institution.

While this approach has merit, it’s extremely passive and will not satisfy your CEO, CFO and board of directors’ who want to see a return on investment. I strongly believe in listening and learning from your customers online, but let’s be honest, everyone who is online representing a company ultimately has something to sell. Why should we feel bad about that? I don’t believe that marketing and sales are off-limits.

A legitimate business case can be made when you combine “listening + engagement” executed with “care + conviction” in an open and honest way, set against the backdrop of a really relevant product offer and a really compelling social media “challenge.” Within this framework, customers and non-customers will be receptive to your marketing and sales messages. You can actually measure your campaigns by counting up the total products sold and the total deposits, loans or investments made.

What do you mean by a “social media challenge?”

You need to ignite a following and create real excitement. The basic premise of a social media “challenge” is to draw considerable attention to your financial institution by throwing down a unique challenge stoked with significant rewards, and by encouraging people to creatively participate, compete and connect.

In the case of our Young & Free Spokester Challenge, “the challenge” is to compete for a dream job with a great salary, great gear and total freedom to be creative online. This gets young people fired up and really moves the campaign beyond passive contesting and throw-away promotions.

Your “challenge” should drive a select group of people to action. Ideally, it should grow naturally from your financial institution’s focus and brand while aligning with your financial institution’s goals and objectives.

Why are you a big advocate of dedicated microsites?

It really comes down to features and functionality. To successfully host an integrated social media program, the site needs to do a lot. Your site must have the ability to embed videos, podcasts and other widgets from various web services. Your layout must incorporate various ways to reveal all of the great content within your site.

If your program will include a public vote, you site will need to allow for quick layout changes between phases and you will need to design a voting system that is easy to use and completely secure. In addition, your site will need to include prominent links to mainstream social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others. And finally, a blog with an RSS feed is a must.

If you can do all of that on your corporate website, go for it. However, corporate IT departments prefer to keep their networks as closed as possible. Your IT department would probably not be very open to embedding third-party code from YouTube, providing direct links to Twitter, Facebook or MySpace or allowing site visitors to leave comments on your primary corporate website.

Even though the security risks for doing so are low, most IT departments are intentionally conservative when it comes to Web 2.0. I completely understand this position, as IT’s first priority is to keep your network up and running and to make sure that your customers have uninterrupted access to your online banking system.

What are the biggest mistakes financial marketers make
when launching an integrated social media program?

There are four big mistakes that I see.

1. The belief that you can just launch a website on its own. You need to use traditional and non-traditional marketing to jump start and sustain your program.
2. Thinking it’s a three-month campaign versus an on-going program. An integrated social media marketing program has the potential to last for years. It can either be year-round or it can be an annual 3-4 month promotion. Because the creativity comes from participation, the story will constantly evolve and take your program in new directions.
3. Believing that the social web is just for young people. People of all ages are participating online in niche communities. We recently launched Verity Mom. We’ve had moms from the age of 23-47 actively participating in this very unique challenge to become a paid blogger for Seattle’s Verity Credit Union.
4. The lack of a long-term, content-creation strategy. You can have a great concept, a great product offer and a fabulous reward. You can promote your initiative with your staff, your customers and your potential customers. You can have a memorable URL and a great website with plenty of ways to interact. You can have all these things, but if you do not have great content and lots of it, you can’t sustain momentum over time.

Creating a steady stream of interesting, entertaining and educational content is key, but it is sorely lacking from so many of the campaigns that I follow.

Do you have some tips for creating content?

Some social media experts will advise that you should only publish a blog post when the feeling hits you. I can agree with this advice for a personal blog, but I cannot agree with this advice for a major marketing initiative for a business. If you are investing time and money in an integrated social media marketing program with the expectation that you will attract new customers who will want your products and services, you have to be very disciplined. I would recommend approaching blogging like publishing a newspaper.

1. Establish a very regular publishing schedule with hard deadlines. Publishing regularly and often is critical to making a return on your investment.
2. Institute quality standards. Boring, uninspired content doesn’t get any better with quantity. Everything that you post to your site should meet a minimum quality standard that you are comfortable with. This definition of quality is up to you and what you feel your audience will connect with. Your site should have a consistent tone of voice and personality regardless of whether there is one author or 10.
3. Include artwork or photos within your posts from time to time. Text posts can get pretty repetitive—especially if you are cranking out new posts everyday. Including imagery will help your posts grab attention and get read, especially within an RSS reader, where all content looks the same.
4. Throw some video into the mix. You can either embed existing video from YouTube or create your own. You don’t need a professional video crew or expensive equipment. For as little as $150, you can get a Flip digital camcorder with built-in video editing software and you are in business. And with free video hosting at sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv and Viddler, there is no excuse not to produce your own videos from time to time.

All of this sounds great, but it also sounds expensive. What advice do you have for financial marketers who want to jump in during the current economic meltdown?

You can’t sit on your hands and hope for new customers. The current unrest in the economy actually presents a great opportunity for financial institutions with a good reputation to tap into integrated social media marketing.

Create a simple business case that outlines a realistic annual budget and goals. Once you start to itemize all of the elements that you will need and the resources necessary to back your program, you will soon realize that the scope and scale of an integrated social media marketing program is much bigger than launching a corporate blog. However, when done well, an integrated social media marketing program has a much higher chance of driving an actual return on your investment.

I highly recommend introducing a new market-leading product that is directly tied into your program. You need to aim to recover the costs by attracting new customers to your financial institution that will utilize your products and services.

9 questions in 90 seconds

Facebook? I’m not entirely sold on fan pages, but I would highly recommend targeted pay-per-click advertising within Facebook to drive traffic to your microsite.

SecondLife? With two kids and a busy business, I don’t even have time for my FirstLife! From a marketer’s point of view, I wouldn’t bother. SecondLife’s 280,000 monthly visitors is paltry compared to Facebook’s 150,000,000 monthly visitors.

MySpace? Not dead yet. Rather than having your own page or paying for advertising, banks and credit unions should figure out other ways to tap into this community. Music is huge on MySpace. Our recent Young & Free SC Last Band Standing contest attracted 24 bands, all of which had MySpace pages with thousands of friend. The bands aggressively promoted their entries within MySpace and we saw huge traffic numbers coming from MySpace.

Twitter? I’ve been tweeting for close to three years and things have certainly changed in that time. My advice for banks and credit unions: be real, be helpful, be conversational and feature your employees faces. I like what Wells Fargo has done with their avatar and Twitter page. People relate to people, not corporate logos.

Podcasts vs. Videocasts? I listen to more podcasts than I watch, but both have tremendous merit. For financial institutions contemplating podcasting, make sure that it’s entertaining first and educational second.

Mobile Banking? Next big thing. Invest in mobile banking solutions before you build that next branch.

Branches? Not going away, but online banking is so much more efficient than tellers for transactions. The branch environment should be more about consultation and personal knowledge exchange.

Blogs? They are almost retro-chic now! <chuckles> People are coming to the realization that the 140 character limits of Twitter don’t allow for much deep thinking. Plus, owning your own blog gives you total control of the content that you create.

YouTube? Online video is huge and will only become more popular over time. I recommend that financial institutions have a YouTube Channel and start producing video content.

“Some parents will talk to their sons and daughters about the birds and the bees…but not the bills.”
– GTE FCU’s U22 Account

GTE Federal Credit Union’s U22 account, designed specifically for ages 12 to 22, includes parents as a segment of the target audience. The core features of the account include:

• Earn points on debit card purchases to “get cool stuff”
• Once-a-month forgiveness for a debit card overdraft fee
• Unlimited check writing and branch visits
• Free online, mobile and telephone banking
• Free online bill pay and e-statements
• No minimum balance requirement or direct deposit requirement
• PayPass debit card to allow faster check out at the register (coming soon)

There’s a goal-based savings account available, as well as a credit card with a $250-$1,000 limit.

The U22 microsite has two tools that will contribute greatly to GTE’s results: one is a instant online chat, and the other is a link to an online account-opening site.
U22 features specifically for parents include:

• View your son or daughter’s account activity online
• Set up alerts to let you know when balances are low
• Set up a daily spending limit
• Add funds automatically through regular transfers or manually
• Use our online resources to help you teach your child or teen good spending habits by visiting GiveMe20.com or having them take the Guides to Independence online courses

Key Questions: Is this an account that looks cool to mom and dad so they open one for their kid? Or is this an account young people want and open themselves (or have opened for them)? And how do kids feel about having mom and dad spying on their account activity?

Tampa Bay Rays’ third baseman Evan Longoria is the official spokesman for the Florida credit union’s U22 initiative. Those who open a U22 account by September 5, 2009, will receive two Rays tickets and a chance to meet Longoria before the game.

GTE FCU added two other faces to its spokesteam as U22: Caroline Kudelko, a 12-year-old local musician, and Alex Perez, college student and aspiring actor.

ALEX ON YOUTUBE
Alex isn’t afraid to make fun of himself. In front of the camera, he comes across as likable, charismatic…and hammy.

Perez was chosen from 125 youths who auditioned to represent U22 at a casting call coordinated by the credit union and partner agency CEA Marketing in June. GTE also accepted video auditions on YouTube.

CASTING CALL

Entrants were supplied a script for the auditions, which constrained their creativity and self-expression. This method of screening placed a premium on the entrant’s acting abilities, so it’s no surprise that an aspiring actor won the job.

Caroline and Alex will be keeping U22 account holders and the public updated on their activities and pursuit of their financial goals via blogs, videos and website updates at www.u224u.com.

A fictional mom named Kathy rounds out the cast of characters. Kathy shares smart money-management tips for parents and kids at a blog embedded in the U22 microsite.

GTE SPOKESTEAM
Four different spokespeople, including a celebrity, child prodigy, college actor and fictional mom. It’s an unusual strategy because usually a spokesperson — especially a paid celebrity like Longoria — is chosen to be the solitary face of representing a company or campaign.

The U22 initiative includes a presence on MySpace, Flickr and Twitter. The credit union currently has a refer-a-friend promotion for its MySpace page. A drawing will be held for a number of prizes, including two tickets to see the band Blink 182. The credit union also has a corporate fan page on Facebook.

U22 ads featuring Alex began running last week on Tampa Bay-area radio and TV stations, and on billboards.

GTE Federal Credit Union has 200,000 members, 38 branches and almost $2 billion in assets.

MYSPACE PAGE

TWITTER STREAM

Agency: CEA Marketing

Eastern Bank is asking high school football teams in eastern and central Massachusetts “What makes your team special?”

Entries, submitted via email, can be videos, photos, audio recordings and essays. All submissions will be posted online at the promotion’s blog for the public to view.

A select number of teams will be invited to send several players to a TV “casting call” in August. One lucky team will be chosen to star in a TV commercial from Eastern Bank this fall, along with a $5,000 grant to support the school’s athletics department. Eastern Bank will also award $500 prizes to support athletics departments in every team invited to the casting call.

The winning team will be selected based on:

• Players’ “camera performance”
• Passion and interest shown by the team, coach and school
• The original response to the question, “What makes your team special?”
• Special consideration will be given to teams that have an Eastern Bank or Eastern Insurance location in their town

Finalists for the casting call, as well as the ultimate winning team, will be determined solely by the bank. There will be no public voting on the entries.

This is the first orchestrated use of social media for Eastern Bank.

Any team serious about winning just needs to look at the bank’s press release to get a clue about what theme a successful entry should stress (hint: “teamwork”):

“At Eastern Bank, our team is focused on working together. We’ve decided to illustrate this by featuring a high school football team, which needs offense, defense and special teams to be successful.”

The URL for the press release includes the word “teamwork,” and a special blog the bank created for the promo is hosted at www.easternbank.com/teamwork.

The winner must be willing to allow the videotaping of two practices in late August. The team’s coach and the head of the team’s school must approve the entry, and each participant in the commercial must provide Eastern Bank with a full release.

Entries are due by August 7.

You can view the entry form along with the complete contest rules at Eastern Bank’s Facebook page.

Eastern’s ad agency, Conover Tuttle Pace, assisted with the project.

Eastern Financial has around $7.0 billion in assets and 83 branches.

In an effort to get savers and spenders to look at a bigger financial picture, Beneficial Bank is asking people “What would you do if you knew where your money was going?”

Beneficial is offering Intuit’s FinanceWorks free to all customers. The application provides online viewing and analysis of financial data from all (not just Beneficial) accounts. It’s similar to other online personal finance solutions like Mint, Wesabe and Jwaala.

FinanceWorks, powered by Quicken, helps consumers manage their information and accounts across more than 7,000 financial institutions and credit card sites, ensure bills are paid on time (regardless of the method they use to pay them), see where their money is going (including future transactions), and receive a variety of alerts about their financial status via e-mail.

Advertising emphasiszes how FinanceWorks can help you “Spot spending trends. Set budgets. Save more.” FinanceWorks tools let you analyze spending, set savings goals and create reminders for bills.

The campaign’s intended takeaway is that, in money matters, “knowledge is power.”

Beneficial timed the launch of new accounts at both Twitter and Facebook to coincide with the FinanceWorks campaign. The two initiatives represent the first use of social media by Beneficial.

Beneficial defines the campaign’s target audience as married, college-educated adults, age 35-44, who have high online usage and a household income of $100K+.

Ads will run in Philadelphia newspapers, on news and public radio stations, and on various online channels. You can listen to the radio spot by clicking here, or by clicking on the headphone icon (right).

A “Where’s My Money?” game booth will be appearing at jazz and rock music festivals throughout the summer. Players spin a wheel and answer trivia questions as they try to win a Dell Netbbook.

The campaign is the latest installment in Beneficial’s ongoing corporate positioning, “Starting Now,” (introduced last fall soon after the financial meltdown) in which the bank proclaims, “Every day is a chance to do the right thing financially.”

FinanceWorks is available through Digital Insight, a division of Intuit.

The campaign, including print, event, online and social media elements, were developed by Beneficial’s agency, LevLane.

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BENEFICIAL’S ONLINE DEMO OF FINANCEWORKS