Facebook Marketing For Credit Unions: Find Your CU Members on Facebook with Custom Audiences As many of you may already know, you can make a Custom Audience in Facebook Ads Manager with an email list, which is an excellent way to target your members online. But there are other ways to match users on Facebook and significantly increase the number of members you match with custom audiences. In some cases, we grew the audience by 20%!  Here's how to easily find your members on Facebook; then you can engage more with them, even when they are NOT inside one of your branches! 

In 2017 I attended The Financial Brand Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Forum hosted over 1500 professionals in the financial sector for a 3-day conference, of which, I attended several breakout sessions on various topics...one session in particular is top of mind for this blog.   On day 2 of the Forum, I attended a breakout session about a large national Bank ($125 Billion in assets) and how they grew their revenue using social media.  I was curious to hear their Director of Social Media speak on the subject to see what her findings were, and their overall strategy for success.  One thing that was shocking to me about her presentation, was when she said her Bank wasn't on Instagram.  When an audience member asked why, the Director of Social Media responded with "our Bank likes to take their time when deciding which social media platforms we should be on, and I'm not so sure where Instagram is going to go."  I can understand her response, but I respectfully disagree with her...and here's why:

Amazing Targeting Options for Facebook Ads - These approaches are PERFECT for Financial Institutions! One of our main goals with Credit Unions and Community Banks is to help them reach new potential members/customers with the exact information these people might already be looking for. Building relationships around mutual benefit is one of the best ways to grow an audience that might be interested in becoming a customer in the future. For this reason we are constantly working to improve our targeting options for clients, and one of the best places to do this is with Facebook Ads. Their digital ad targeting options currently remain UNMATCHED!

Guest Blog Originally Published on CUInsight: In 2017 I attended a breakout session at INBOUND17 with an Instagram guru, Peg Fitzpatrick. The title of the session was “How To Grow An Engaged Instagram Following."  In this session, Peg Fitzpatrick, social media strategist and co-author of The Art of Social Media, shared some of her engagement tips and highlighted some key metrics to pay attention to when trying to grow your Instagram account. Here are 5 tips I took away from this session that can help your Credit Union or Bank can engage and grow followers on Instagram.

One question we get over and over is 'Where can I find good social media content for our institution?' And the answer truly is more simple than you might think… JUST ASK YOUR MEMBERS/CUSTOMERS!  Example #1: Ask Simple Questions on Instagram or Facebook About Favorite Local Businesses/Restaurants Recently we ran a simple comment to win contest for Credit Union members around ‘get to know your customers’ day (which we changed to get to know your members day!). This is celebrated by businesses on the 3rd Thursday of each quarter, and we have found it’s a great excuse to learn more about your customers. 

Maybe your Credit Union or Bank has been on Instagram now for a few months, or maybe even a year... and you're ready to have your first successful Instagram contest! But often Financial Institution's staff don't know where to start. Well, we've taken care of the guess work for you, and have identified the top 3 Instagram contest ideas that work well for credit unions and community banks. We've also included a list of MUST haves in any Instagram contest rules, so read on...