By Frank J. Diekmann
After a long pandemic lockdown of more than a year now, all thanks to a virus, what better way to boost awareness of credit unions than to go viral?
At least that’s the objective driving a national initiative being championed by the Illinois Credit Union System that seeks to have love for credit unions trending in social media on July 30.
The folks in the Prairie State are behind a campaign called #ilovemycreditunion that it is making available free to other leagues, credit unions, CUSOs and vendors with a goal of involving both employees and members alike in the one-day promotion.
The idea for the social media blitz originated with Tom Kane, president of the Illinois CU System, who said he originally began mulling the concept when serving several years ago on a committee related to CUNA’s Open Your Eyes awareness initiative after discussion turned to how to get the word out. And even though the Eyes effort has a budget, how to do so on the cheap.
The ‘Other Way Around’
Kane said he pulled together a team at the league to talk about how to get an awareness message to go viral, with the initial thinking around using a video
“And then I said, ‘What if we did it the other way around? Instead of one video that millions of people watch, what if millions of people did their own videos?' The social media platforms are all free. We just need to get a lot of people to do this.”
The goal now is to get all those people to do just that on July 30, a date Kane said has no real significance other than it’s a Friday and people will be at work. While the campaign is primarily aimed at U.S.-based credit unions, Kane said the Illinois system has had discussions with the World Council of Credit Unions about getting CUs around the globe involved.
The ICUS has already done all the work but for some typing and hitting the send button. It has created a resource hub that offers graphic ready made for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. In addition, it offers design tools, logo formats, printable promotions, ideas for incentives for CU employees and other engagement ideas.
“The goal is pretty simple: to get people to talk about why I love my credit union,” explained Kane. “And then get them to post videos and photos on all the platforms. The goal is to try to make this one of the top trending hashtags just to get a lot of attention for credit unions. I thought this would be a simple and easy way to make an impact on awareness.”
Inspiration From Home
Kane said he found additional inspiration for the idea from his own family, noting he has four kids now out of college who are active users of the various platforms, from Facebook Messenger to Tik Tok. He noted that some of his kids have a significant number of followers.
“I was talking to my kids and I asked them if they posted something could they get their friends to repost it, and they said yes,” Kane explained.
The #ilovemycreditunion effort is initially being marketed to credit unions through their respective state league. The objective is to then have the credit unions that sign on spread the word and hashtag to their own employees, volunteers and members. All are free to use anything that’s in the resource hub in any way they would like, including everything from the social media graphics to stickers CUs can apply to deposit slips to raise member awareness.
“You don’t have to use anything we have, or you can use it all,” said Kane. “We don’t care about branding. All we care about is July 30 and using the hashtag. You can change the colors, you can use your own branding, you can call it whatever you like.”
What Won’t Fly
Kane said he recognized using a top-down approach that dictated the graphics to be used wouldn’t fly at many credit unions, regardless of how good the cause is. Besides, the only really critical piece is the #ilovemycreditunion message.
The campaign urges employees and members alike to use the platforms to tell their own individual stories. In his case, Kane said he plans to share the story of how he was able to put all four kids through college using a home equity line of credit from his credit union. A bank, said Kane, would not have done all for him that his CU did. The result? Four graduates with no student loan debt. He said he plans to post a picture of his kids when they were small to go with the story.
Other people, he said, could post stories and pictures of an automobile or a house their respective credit unions made possible. Or whatever else they want.
Kane said the feedback he has received to date has been “great,” in large part because it’s not complex.
“When trying to get people involved in anything the biggest hurdle is inertia,” Kane pointed out. “The message is really, really simple: ‘On this day, have people say this.’”
The Sign-Ups
So far, Kane said 20 of the 35 state CU leagues have signed on and others are in the queue. Sixty-five credit unions were also feeling the love and had agreed to participate within days of the initiative being launched.
As an incentive for state leagues to get involved the ICUS’ League Service Corp. has donated $25,000 that will be offered as part of a drawing open to any league that gets five or more of its credit unions to participate. The winning league will then be able to donate the funds to a Children’s Miracle Network hospital of its choice. Through the CMN, Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young has agreed to appear in a video in support of #ilovemycredit union.
While Kane is hopeful “hundreds” of credit unions will participate, at this point he says it remains to be seen.
“We really won’t know what it’s going to be like until July 31,” said Kane. “If we find out we really did move the needle on July 31, what I would really like to have is some mainstream media asking, ‘How did this happen?’ I don’t know of any organized effort on a single day like this.”
Making it Snow
Will CU folk show the love? Kane believes they will.
“Credit union people are different,” he said. “They feel very strongly, very passionately. I’m hoping for an avalanche of response.”
And should that avalanche occur, Kane said he hopes it becomes an annual event. In other words, he’s counting on credit unions to make it snow every July.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief of CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info. Mr. Diekmann is also author of a brand-new book, “The Last Lyric,” a humorous satire about a murder investigation at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in which every line of dialogue is either a classic pop/rock song title or lyric. Available on Amazon, Apple iBook, Barnes