Guest post written by Steve Richman, sales trainer and national spokesperson forGenworth Mortgage Insurance.
Social media has been embracedby consumers — your membersand potential members.Your employees are engaged insocial media activities, whether they areactive on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest,Twitter, and other sites or active bloggersthemselves. In fact, social media hasbecome more mainstream, with growingparticipation in all age groups and incomelevels. The question for credit unions haschanged from “Should we or shouldn’twe?” to “How do we?” Here are threesteps to consider, whether you’re alreadyusing social media or are just gettingstarted.
1. Identify a Senior LeaderChampion.
The first step in making social mediawork for your credit union is to have a senior leader to champion the idea. Thisinitiative is not going to bubble up fromwithin the organization — it needs achampion from high atop the hierarchy.That champion needs to create a teamto institute a social media initiative. Theteam should include an attorney. If theattorney is involved in the creation process,with a directive from senior managementto make it work, you can pave theway to easier implementation.
2. Distribute the Social MediaPolicy.
Developing a practical social media policyis a must — with emphasis on ”practical.”Rather than writing a social mediapolicy that tells employees what not to do,complete with threats of termination forinappropriate usage, you should includewhat would be considered acceptableposts. Show employees the types of commentsyou deem proper and effective, andtrain your employees on the social mediapolicy as a part of the distribution plan.One way to ease the entry into socialmedia is to create a weekly post of contentthat is both legally permissible andrelevant to the member. Distribute thispost to team members so they can use itin their own LinkedIn, Facebook and/orTwitter feeds.