Social media can get monotonous for the people producing the content. Drafting all those quick Facebook and Instagram captions. Brainstorming funny lines of 180 characters or less for a tweet. Developing concepts for a TikTok video, recruiting tellers to participate and working out the best angles for filming it at a local branch.
What helps keep marketers jazzed through it all are the wins along the way: the posts that spark a lot of engagement and let them know people are paying attention.
For the marketing team at Horizon Credit Union in Spokane, Wash., rolling out the annual Pet Pawsee contest is one of the highlights of the year. People who post photos of their pets on social media using the contest hashtag get a chance to win prizes, including a Chewy gift card and a $1,000 donation to an animal shelter of their choosing.
The campaign, which ran on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter from June 8 to July 2, attracts a lot of attention, particularly on Facebook. This year, the Facebook post announcing the winners of the pet contest had 16 shares, 12 comments and more than 50 likes in its first week.
Voting to choose the cutest pet from among the 10 finalists closed a few weeks before that, and the Facebook post about the polls closing picked up well over 450 comments and 125 shares.
All the engagement attracted spammers to the credit union’s social media pages, says Jessica Leonard, Horizon’s social media supervisor. The spammers posted messages in the comment section telling contestants they won as a way to trick them into clicking on a link. But the Horizon team moved quickly to rectify the problem, deleting comments, blocking the spam accounts, and reminding contestants how the credit union would officially notify them about the final results.
Despite the hiccup, the campaign wrapped up smoothly, Leonard says. Any type of pet is eligible, but the voters have selected dogs as the winners for four years running.
Other marketers also had unique stories to share when asked about their favorite social media posts for their institution. One highlighted a campaign that focused on favorite customers and another called out a post targeting small business owners. Here’s what we learned.
A Pet Contest Has a Long Tail of Goodwill in Social Media
Jessica Leonard
Social Media Supervisor
Horizon Credit Union
Spokane, Wash.
Asset Size: $2 billion
Of all the social media posts from Horizon so far this year, which is your favorite?
As a social media team, our favorite post so far is “Vote for your Top Ten Favorite Pets.” The pets are voted in by our members and followers on social media for our annual Pet Pawsee contest (#HZCUPetPawsee). It creates a lot of engagement for our platforms, and we enjoy seeing our members and followers get involved in friendly competition for a great cause.
This is one of the credit union’s larger social media campaigns. What went into the planning process for the campaign?
When planning this event, our team always picks a unique item as a giveaway. This year was a light-up bone tag for pet owners to pick up from one of the branches. Participants must go into one of our branches to receive the limited-edition “pet-themed” item. Then they place the item on their pet and take a photo. Next they post it on social media and use our unique hashtag to be entered for a chance to win a $1,000 donation for the shelter of their choosing, a gift card to Chewy and a one-year subscription to Bark Box.
During this campaign, we also feature pets in local shelters that are having a harder time finding a home through a feature we call #ShelterShoutout. This allows members and followers to see the shelters in our community and their impact on all the animals. This contest is very special to many of our members and followers, and it is something they look forward to each year.
What kind of feedback did the credit union get?
The voting for the top ten always generates a lot of positive feedback and encourages those with finalists in the pet contest to share the post with their friends to generate even more comments. Seeing the volume of comments and the overall engagement we receive during this time is truly amazing. People sure love their pets!
Were there any pivots that you made in developing this? If so, what was it in response to?
We have been hosting this contest for several years, and each year has unique challenges. Our team is always quick to pivot to find solutions that satisfy the challenge the current year’s campaign may bring. This year, our biggest challenge was dealing with a fraudulent account that tried to message our voters in the comment section of our campaign posts. What we had to do as a team was remain calm, triage the comments, block the users, inform those impacted about the dangers of clicking links in comments, and then repost details about how we reach our winners and mention that we spotted a fake account.
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Humanizing the Brand with ‘Good Feel’ Social Media Posts
Jessica Suggs
Social Media Manager
Anderson Brothers Bank
Mullins, S.C.
Asset Size: $1.6 billion
Of all the social media posts from Anderson Brothers Bank so far this year, which is your favorite?
In honor of #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay, employees bankwide were asked to share a customer experience that they will never forget and why. To humanize the brand. To show people that we are more than just a financial institution.
The post is part of the larger social media campaign for #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay. What went into the planning process for the campaign?
Narrowing down specific employees from different departments and areas within the bank to capture heartfelt customer experiences.
What kind of feedback did the bank get?
It is very new and still ongoing, but showing amazing feedback and engagement. I received a phone call from my boss last night to tell me what a wonderful idea it was and that our president and CEO loved it.
Were there any pivots that you made in developing this? If so, what was it in response to?
People want to see people on social media. They do not want to see posts about your products and services that … yeah, they already know you have! People love to read about good things going on and connect on a deeper level when there are “good feel” posts as I call them.
What banks and credit unions are the leaders on social media? Check out our top 100 rankings to find out!
Small Business Campaign Shows Text-Based Posts Can Shine on Instagram
Kevin Clarke
Digital and Social Media Manager
JN Bank
Kingston, Jamaica
Asset Size: $236.5 million
Of all the social media posts from JN Bank so far this year, which is your favorite?
One that we created about how to register a business in Jamaica. It did particularly well on Instagram and got a lot of saves. It seemed basic, but the reaction was incredible because users want digestible, easy-to-reference information at their fingertips. The fact that it was copy based and not a graphic also ran counter to what we know about video content. The right education information presented using text-based graphics can work.
Is it a part of any larger social media campaign?
We used it as supplementary content to support a wider small business loan campaign.
What went into the planning process for the campaign?
The planning for the campaign saw us putting out above-the-line elements that highlighted the products and their features, while the supplementary content sought to position the bank as a resource for all things business related with information that would appeal to entrepreneurs and potential customers within the segment.
What kind of feedback did the bank get?
We received a few comments regarding our business loan offerings and other queries. But mostly we noted the high ratio of saves and likes.
Were there any pivots that you made in developing this? If so, what was it in response to?
Yes, for a while we were sticking to a video-only and photo-only mantra. However, we realized that there was still space for educational content in bite-size formats that could be of interest to our audiences. This has resulted in us creating a lot more graphical listicles for social.