SEATTLE — Search "credit union" at Facebook.com, and you'll find more than 250 groups with thousands of "fans."
The web's fastest-growing networking site has a total membership of 55 million people. Financial industry analysts are encouraging banking professionals to join Facebook, if only to understand their future workforce. Big banks like Chase are jumping on the site's new advertising system called Facebook Ads.
In November, Credit Union Journal reported how Santa Clara, Calif.-based KeyPoint CU made available to members an application that enables mobile banking directly from the Facebook site.
But credit unions are looking to Facebook for a variety of reasons.
They want to hook into Web 2.0, using free Facebook pages to network with members and peers. They want to advertise to Facebook users, many of whom represent the potential goldmine of Generation Y.
Some Just Want To Ride The Wave
"I joined Facebook only because I had so many invites," said Shari Storm, chief marketing officer at $345-million Verity CU here. "I wanted to know what it is all about so that I have a well-rounded knowledge of social media.
"I don't use Facebook for professional reasons," she continued. "I use LinkedIn and Twitter for business. With LinkedIn, I can connect with business owners who Verity would like to provide business services for." Soon, Verity may use the site to recruit employees, as well.
Facebook as CEO Connection
Joe Thomas, however, connects with fellow CEOs at Facebook. But the president of Fairfax County Federal Credit Union (FCFCU) in Fairfax, Va. also recognizes its limitations: Facebook doesn't offer a specific credit union "network," said Thomas, Instead, Facebook groups are confined to geographic, academic or work orientations.
"We're looking into establishing a credit union group or network on Facebook," he said.
The $235-million credit union also went to Facebook to promote its recent YouTube video-ad contest.
The Facebook promotions were loaded 360,000 times in October as part of Facebook's Flyer Ad Service, which allowed Fairfax County FCU to specifically target Gen Y users.
Nearly 40 people submitted videos to FCFCU, at least in part because of the Facebook promotions, Thomas said. "Gen Y is a hard group to hit. Facebook is one way you can do it."
The contest videos pushed Fairfax County FCU's Gen Y Extreme Checking, a product that emphasizes online services and is the credit union's most popular new product, according to Thomas.
"Based on the success we had with Gen Y Extreme Checking, we're currently looking into doing our own Facebook page," he explained. "We want to be perceived as anything but grandma and grandpa's credit union. Facebook could serve as word-of-mouth through an electronic environment. We think we could deliver an interactive, fun message, to which people could respond in a social atmosphere as opposed to participating in a glorified email system."
Thomas, who heard about the site from his teenaged children, chose Facebook over MySpace and other social networking sites because "there is a very quick proliferation of new accounts and positive press. Young people seem to like it more than MySpace."
Scott Baldwin first showed his face on Facebook in February 2004, when the site launched, he said. The manager of Web services at North Shore Credit Union (NSCU) in North Vancouver, British Columbia, also supervises the credit union's free business page at Facebook.
The page helps bring out members for community events and promote new products, Baldwin said. In addition, the $2-billion credit union is playing with the idea of marking site content in order to make it easier for people to find.
"We've been doing some experimentation with social-media tagging, but this has only had minor uptake," he said.
Baldwin said he thinks that Facebook isn't such a great place for NSCU to advertise. That's because Facebook users aren't NSCU's primary market, and because Facebook users don't like being marketed to, he said.
North Shore CU Facebook "fans" are comprised entirely of former and current staff members.
Still, "more and more people are interacting via Facebook daily, and where they are looking for connections, it provides an access point to our brand and exposure for the credit union," said Baldwin.
(c) 2008
