MEDFORD, Ore.-Six years after the debut of Twitter, credit unions are still struggling to effectively use the social media service-and some of them are abandoning it all together.
A new study from the Financial Brand found that when it comes to Twitter "the overwhelming majority have enjoyed little to no success. Indeed nearly one-in-three credit unions that once had an active presence on Twitter have abandoned their accounts."
The Financial Brand's study included 350 CUs and found that of those still active, the average institution has about 400 followers, but as much as 20% of those are from inactive accounts or spambots. The typical CU Twitter account added about 100 new followers last year and has sent approximately 500 Tweets, about 200 of which were sent during 2012.
"Collectively, credit unions reach an audience on Twitter equal to 0.79% of their aggregate membership," the Financial Brand's analysis found. "A credit union on Twitter can expect an average of one follower for every $1.5 million in assets they have, or around one follower for every 126 members."
The study considered a CU's Twitter account abandoned if no tweets have been sent for 30 days or more, and in last year's study 74 CUs abandoned their accounts. That number rose to 111 in this year's study. The Financial Brand also notes that 10 credit unions it examined completely deleted their accounts, while others have quit tweeting and locked down their accounts.
The Financial Brand suggested that CUs avoid deleting their accounts, even if they're infrequently used, because they can never get those followers back. "Had they simply left the account open but dormant, they could have had the option to revive the account at some point down the road." More than 3% of CUs also revived dormant accounts, only to give up again later in the year. The Financial Brand noted that when deleting a social network, it's important to also delete all mention of it on a website.
Phony Twitter accounts also continue to plague credit unions, and The Financial Brand noted that 18.2% of all CU followers are "deadwood." The site recommended a tool (fakers.statuspeople.com) to help identify fake or inactive Twitter followers.
The average CU has 572 followers on Twitter, and those that grew their Twitter bases by the most users the fastest last year were some of the biggest names in the field, including Navy Federal, Kinecta and Spire.
