PR Insight: Creating a conversation
How to develop and share your credit union’s best stories with the community.
Credit unions have a lot on their plates, from helping members succeed financially to managing branches and introducing new technologies. However, the frequent emergence of shiny new tools doesn’t mean your CU’s marketing team should ignore the important art of storytelling. As community organizations with the philosophy of people helping people, it’s important for credit unions to connect with those people. Sharing authentic stories in meaningful ways can help strengthen member relationships, collaborate with other organizations and grow.
Credit unions have many stories to tell, which presents a significant opportunity as well as a challenge. Endless options and angles can make deciding which story to share difficult. People typically enjoy feel-good stories with thought-provoking takeaways—and luckily, the credit union industry is filled with them.
Taking a step back from daily operations and looking at the credit union from a high-level perspective can help identify the stories most worth telling. I’ve had conversations with CU employees and executives who overlook unique situations, news or offerings, because to them, these things are just business as usual. For instance, a credit union that operates a student-run branch at the local high school to promote financial education for younger generations; or the institution that has several strong female executives driving digital strategy; or the credit union that provides tech-forward solutions for a specific demographic in a rural or underbanked area are all examples of stories that could be valuable to share with members and the community.
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