How do you make a billion dollars in 18 months? Create a photo-sharing app that people are addicted to and have the world’s largest social network buy it. Sounds simple enough – right, Instagram?

Well, this scenario is quite the anomaly in the business world, but it sure makes a great news story – and photo-sharing site/app Instagram (130 million users) pulled it off with what seemed to be relative ease. Actually, it was just a stellar, “why-didn’t-I-think-of-that” idea with some slick engineering at a great time in our online era. Timing with talent is gold.

So what does the recent Instagram acquisition by Facebook mean for credit unions? A lot – if you’re active on Facebook. With the social media world becoming more and more visual, it will be important to share your credit union’s story in a visual medium through photos and video. And, as luck would have it, Instagram does both of those wonderfully – all connected to its gazillion users.

Everybody loves a good picture or a compelling video. It’s that simple. And Instagram is one of the best apps around to share them with your friends, family, peers, and prospects. Even the company’s Founder Kevin Systrom calls it “visual crack”. (See Fast Company story in the July/August 2013 issue.) These visuals are a fantastic way to boost more life into your credit union’s Facebook page with new comments, likes, and shares. Who doesn’t want that?

If you’re a credit union marketers looking to enhance your visuals, here are a few reasons to employ Instagram:

1.     Facebook integration – As previously mentioned, most credit unions participating in social media are on Facebook to connect with their members and reach out to prospective members in a social and educational manner. Great move. Creating compelling 15-second Instagram videos and those uber-cool, Polaroid-filtered pics ups your credit union’s cred in a big way on Facebook – especially to the generations coming up that are thoroughly addicted to Instagram (ahem, my 12-year-old daughter). So think ahead credit union marketers. Not only is Instagram tops in photo-sharing (and now videos), there’s a cool factor with younger generations who get it. And if you adopt Instagram to your marketing tools, you just might get them.

2.     Show a product or service demo – Let’s face it, not everybody knows how to use remote deposit capture. So why not leverage Instagram’s new video capabilities to show members how easy it is with a narrated, step-by-step demo. Or, if you’re really bold, create a bit where you show real-life scenarios with actors or CU employees in which remote deposit capture can be used. Make them entertaining and fun. You can do this with any product or service at your credit union cost-effectively as well. Plus, they’re fun to produce and post.

3.     Member success stories – You can use the video or photo features of Instagram for these powerful pieces. Take pics or shoot video of members getting approved for home or auto loans – perhaps in front of their home or with their new wheels. These types of testimonials make very powerful pieces for peer-type stories that are easily relatable and hopefully infectious.

4.     Highlight special product offers, events, and promotions – Creating a cool photo or compelling 15-second Instagram photo to convey your credit union’s special offers, events, and other promotions is waaaaaay better than just text. You can even add hashtags (#RDClaunch or #MainStBranchOpens or #AcmeCUMobileLaunch or #AcmeCUdonates) to track the conversation sparked by the video or photo.

5.     Invite members to submit their Instagram photos/videos – A productive way to garner audience participation is including them in your outreach efforts. Segueing from #3, member testimonials are because of their objectivity. This is where Instagram’s 15-second video capability can be of great use. Or if you want to use a pic with a short caption, that will work, as well. Create member contests for best Instagram photo or video related to an event or product at your credit union works really, well, too. Contests not only garner huge participation, but they increase interest from prospective consumers as well when they get wind of it. And, again, don’t forget about incorporating the hashtags so you can follow the conversation as well as everybody else.

6.     Humanize your credit union – Ever since social media hit us in the face like a fire hose on full a few years ago, all the pundits have been talking how it “humanizes” your brand. Very true, as it creates a conversation with the masses like no medium has before. But nothing personalizes or humanizes you, your credit union, like a photo or a video that tells a beneficial story. My first thought is create a “behind the scenes” or a “day in the life of” series for your credit union so your members can have a greater bond with not just your brand but your staff. Even producing some quick “how to” videos are most beneficial to position you as a trusted resource. Hard to lose here. And no other app can do it better than Instagram.

7.     Gen Y and Millennials – A slight repeat of #1:These guys are all over Instagram. For obvious reasons, so should you.

With Instagram’s massive and growing following – coupled with Facebook’s world domination in the social arena, the possibilities for credit unions are huge. Has your credit union created any Instagram photo or video campaigns? If so, what and what results did you see?

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Originally published on CUES Inside Marketing July 18, 2013.

I keep hearing at industry conferences, in trade publications, during webinars and such that credit unions are the "best kept secret" in their towns. Initially, this viewpoint is taken in a negative light as most of us want to be mainstream -- not flying under the radar so to speak. But is being a "best kept secret" all that bad"?  For now, I don't think so.

There are many companies/industries that are and have been kind of a secret. I remember years ago out here in San Diego before Price Club merged with rival Costco in 1993, it was the best kept secret in town. If you could get a membership, you were one of the few, the proud that could go buy stuff in bulk. So cool it was at the time.

Today, just about anybody and their pet can be a member of a Costco and buy bulk goods. No longer a secret. For a while there, it was a semi-exclusive outlet that people were talking and talking about. There was quite a buzz about the Price Club back in the day before it became Costco and became the behemoth Starbucks of buying palettes of toilet paper, shampoo, and beef jerky. Turned out Ok for those guys.

There has to be some study somewhere that I am too lazy to research that displays consumer's behavior when it comes to exclusivity or membership creating more demand.  Again, being a member of the Price Club at the time was fairly exclusive -- which in turn created interest and, thus, demand. Everybody wanted to load up the back of their SUV with a case of pork and beans, 300 Pepsi's, and three new office chairs. Americans love their stuff and Costco delivers the goods -- in bulk!

During college when we would plan our surf trips to Mexico, anybody who was a member of the Price Club at the time was more than welcome to join our weekly weekend adventures to Baja for some uncrowded waves. We could then hijack their membership and buy tons of food and other goods for our trips. I remember thinking that I had to tell my parents about this place.  Sure enough, they already knew through talking with their friends and had joined. I now had visions of hubcap-sized cheesecakes dancing in my head. Point here is word spread about this “exclusive” place like the free samples of cocktail weenies on the corner of the frozen food section.

Pardon my digression.

Instead of repelling this notion of being a "secret", I think credit unions should embrace it. They can create an air of exclusivity (aka: membership), which, like Price Club and other membership entities, promote its own, self-induced buzz. Members talk about their experiences and the rates at credit unions and people become curious as to what this thing called a credit union is -- and how they can get in on this action.

Based on the latest growth numbers the industry has experienced since Bank Transfer Day (800,000 new members in Q1 2013), people are already curious. They are looking for options and ever-slowly noticing credit unions as a fantastic option that not too many people know about. "Cool," may be their thinking, "I just scored a killer rate on my new car and saving a ton of cash each month -- and I can still deposit my check and pay my bills from my iPhone. I've gotta tell my friends and family about this."

There's something appealing about this "score" or "scoop" and not having very many people know about it. It's like telling a new joke and the latest news to your friends. You got the inside info. Now you're a trusted resource. But little do you know that your friends and family are telling their friends and family about your credit union scoop -- which is the best advertising of all.

So by being the best kept secret in town, credit unions, in theory, can create a word-of-mouth buzz much like other membership, club-like organizations. People want to know what goes on at these places. But they have to be different to get people to talk. Just having great rates and a mobile app ain't going to do it because King Kong Bank on the corner will most likely have close to the same thing.

For credit unions, being member-owned is huge. But not a lot of people care about that initially. What does that mean for them? With a bit more education, they ultimately realize that have a say in how their FI is run and they can get a little something back for their business, much like the outdoors store REI. I think this would be so appealing to Gen Y and Millennials.

What I am ultimately getting at here is that being the best kept secret is not a negative. I like it. Right now, leverage it because people gravitate toward that exclusivity feeling like they're among the few that know -- even though there are more than 96 million members in the know, as well. And who really can keep a secret when it's this good, anyway?

What are your thoughts on credit unions being the best kept secret as a marketing strategy  -- for now?

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