Press
Social media engagement increases with video scholarship at St. Helens Community Credit Union
ST. HELENS, OR. (April 17, 2014) — St. Helens Community Credit Union has experienced a high level of social media activity on its Facebook page. The influx of Likes, Comments and Sharing began when the credit union posted the video finalists for its 2014 Video Scholarship.
In lieu of a traditional scholarship application, St. Helens Community invited graduating high school seniors to create a video that answered the question, “Why would someone join a credit union.” The video entries from each of the three finalists were then posted to the credit union’s Facebook page where they began to receive a lot of attention from parents, teachers, fellow students and the overall community.
“We decided to do something different with our scholarships this year,” states Ryann Conrad, Vice President of Marketing at St. Helens Community.
In addition to supporting youth throughout the community, the credit union wanted to increase its youth demographic engagement.
“The high school seniors who made videos demonstrated their understanding of the credit union philosophy,” says Conrad. “They get it, and made something that speaks to their peers. The adults really like it too.”
The three finalists have the chance to earn one of three college scholarships valued at $1,500, $1,000 and $500 respectively. The more Comments and Likes the students receive, the better their chances of being chosen for the higher value scholarship.
Fifty-percent of the scholarship selection criteria is based on the video submission, broken down by content relevance, creativity, overall execution, and social media attention. Each of the videos is no longer than two minutes in length and can be found on St. Helens Community’s Facebook page.
St. Helens Community Credit Union (www.shcu.org) proudly serves its members throughout Columbia, Clatsop, and Cowlitz Counties as well as Sauvie Island, Oregon as the area’s longstanding not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperative