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Sure, I liked it when Amazon started showing me what others bought based on items I have purchased, and when Pandora started picking the music in our office based on bands and musicians we prefer. But now it seems as if every site wants to profile me and make recommendations based on little more than a few clicks.
I saw a few interesting trend tidbits in my online travels lately:
Email is fading.
While annual email volume is in the trillions, 80% of it is commercial or unsolicited. Meanwhile, personal email has declined by 40% since 2003, and millions of teens do not even have email — but instead rely on cells, texting and social networks.
Quick — how many domain names does your credit union own? You probably have awesomeCU.org, but do you also have awesomeCU.com, awesomefcu.org, etc.? What about your promotional domain names, like awesomeCUloans.com, or getawesome.com? Is a consistent person or role at the credit union listed as the owner and admin contact for all your domains? Is that person’s email accessible if you need to make changes to where your web site or email is hosted?
Be honest — how many of you have web sites that show a Big Scary Lawyer Warning (BSLW) like this when a member clicks a link to another site?
OH NOES! You are leaving the ABCFCU web site! ABFCU has no control over and is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of other web sites. ABCFCU does not endorse or guarantee products, information or recommendations provided by linked sites and is not liable for failure of products or services advertised on these site. So if you click a link somewhere else and your toes fall off, don’t come running to us!
Is this REALLY necessary? I don’t think it ever was. Yes, of course you should make it clear when someone is leaving your site, but do you have to remind people that you’re not responsible for the entire internet? Besides, who’s going to read all that?
The conversation never stops online, and we expect to be able to access it when and where we want. We are used to connecting to friends, family and coworkers in short bursts, interacting and building on comments and ideas, then moving on to the next topic of interest. There is no delay, no hierarchy, and no limits on who connects to whom.
Back in the day, the only way a company knew how well received their products were was by looking at the sales numbers. Certainly news was spread via word of mouth and occasionally, if you got really mad at a company, you might write a letter and send it off to the CEO just to make yourself feel better. (For a humorous look at this lost art, check out this book, Letters from a Nut by Ted L. Nancy.)
Moms are hot.
If you want a sure-fire marketing strategy, you need to focus on one underserved market niche that has the strongest sense of affiliation, the most homogeny, and the most influence over others. According to Shari Storm, CMO of Verity Credit Union, author of Motherhood is the New MBA and speaker at the recent MAC Conference, you need to target Moms. Here’s why:
Perhaps it is the nature of Social Media that causes it to build buzz, but Facebook continues to hold the top dog spot. If you have no other SM strategy for your credit union, then you should start here.
Is the economy really improving? I guess a lot of the “numbers” say it is and for many people life probably is
looking better… but even those with a brighter outlook may still be trying to get solidly back on their feet. During this transition time, it’s important to make your members aware of the potential dangers that await them… quick fixes that may sound, well, sound, but really aren’t.
We live in a world bursting at the seams with new web sites. Each of these sites offers to transform our lives in unimaginable ways but very few maintain any lasting power after the hype has subsided.
Remember those Kraft Macaroni and Cheese commercials a while back, where kids exclaimed “It’s more cheesier”? I cringed every time I heard this phrase, and so did thousands of other writers and English majors.
People are holding onto cars for 9.4 years instead of trading them in, the highest number of people ever are carrying library cards, and DIY has picked up 30% of the home repair market. Getting value out of every purchase has made durability the latest “trend” in our cultural values.
We’ve had some interesting discussions lately on metrics for credit union web sites. How do you measure the success of a credit union web site, and how do you justify spending money on it?
To your members, a credit union web site is a tool, a way to learn something or get something done. It’s the online equivalent of a branch — a place to get some answers, conduct your business, and get on with life as efficiently as possible. While the experience should be friendly and enjoyable, it’s not entertainment or socializing.
Contrary to popular opinion, social media may not be the best way to reach young people. Consider these stats that have been published recently:
Twitter evolving into entertainment focus.
According to Nielsen, Twitter has grown 1,928% in a year, with 21 million unique visitors each month. Even though Twitter started with a tech-oriented focus, as it has become more mainstream it has followed the interests of its broadening audience, and according to Mashable.com, become more focused on entertainment. Don’t believe it? Take a look at Twitterholic, where celebrities make up the vast majority of top Twitter users & followers.