Why Search For Social Media ROI Is Misplaced

NORCROSS, Ga.-With credit unions continually looking for social media to demonstrate ROI, one analyst says that CUs may be putting their efforts in the wrong place.

"I don't see sales being a No. 1 reason for leveraging social media for a credit union," said Nicole Fields, social media marketing manager at Fiserv. "That's going to be the after-benefit, because you're building those relationships and you're top of mind with members. Up front it's increasing customer loyalty and managing your reputation online. Those are the things where you see an immediate benefit."

In order to achieve that elusive return, however, credit unions need to be focusing their efforts on the right social media sites.

"The platform is dependent upon the strategy," said Fields. "The platform is just a method to reach that audience; each platform has a benefit over the others, whether it's community or brand awareness or search engine optimization [SEO]. Each one has its strengths-it just depends on the strategy."

One Analysis of Channels

Fields pointed to a recent article on CMO.com  that outlined the top social media channels and how they rate for customer communication, brand exposure driving traffic to a website and SEO. Out of Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Google+, only Pinterest and LinkedIn were deemed as ineffective channels for consumer communication, whereas brand exposure can be achieved across all six channels, though Fields cautioned that those channels all attract different demographics, so a CU's success will depend in part on if they're using the right channel to reach their target audience.

New platforms will emerge, said Fields, but that doesn't mean CUs need to jump from bandwagon to bandwagon. She stressed the importance of watching social media trends and having a strategy, rather than quickly joining each new platform.

"From a resource perspective, one of the things to keep an eye on is if something new comes out like Vine-a Twitter-acquired company that creates six-second videos," said Fields. "That's a new platform, but it's not up and going just yet."

Fields pointed out that whether a new platform-or any new entrant into the social media landscape-gains traction will be largely up to what consumers and marketers do with that platform.

What's most important, she said, is tailoring the message to the audience using that platform. Fields noted that Facebook analytics allows page administrators to look at the demographics of those that follow their page "so that if you're skewed more female you might talk about budgeting for a wedding," Fields said as an example. Many other sites do not yet offer their own internal analytic tools-Fields said Twitter is in the process of developing their own-but she pointed to www.knowyourfollowers.com as a tool CUs can use to better understand demographics and usage patterns of their Twitter followers.