As the world’s largest not-for-profit credit union operating in a regulated industry, it has historically been challenging to participate in social media trends. Knowing the social landscape and how it operates to grow our presence on video-first channels we have adapted our processes to participate in trends, engage with our community, and remain relevant to our audiences. Our objective is to connect with the younger generations and make them aware of their membership eligibility with Navy Federal Credit Union.
The credit union has struggled to attract Gen Z memberships for a myriad of factors, including the fact that active-duty enrollment in military branches is also lower amongst the younger generations. By targeting new audiences through social platforms where younger generations spend their time, we will increase awareness for our membership populations and build brand love amongst our current membership. Our field of membership extends from officers and enlisted men and women of all branches of the military, veterans, DoD members and their families
Our strategy has two main approaches. First, participate in video trends making them relevant to the credit union. Second, drive our current and prospective members to share our stories on their social media platforms unpromoted.
We’ve worked to enhance our social presence through content and experiences that are trendy, relevant, and useful to our membership. This will show younger audiences that Navy Federal Credit Union may not be hip, but is relevant and knows who the younger members are and how to solve their financial needs.
Video Trends. When selecting and creating videos to match trends, we look to ensure the video topics fit into 4 main tenants of our social content strategy. By tying trending video formats and our version’s contents, we ensure relevance to our audience, make sure we are adding value to their feeds and lives as a financial institution and not merely participating in a trend for the sake of the trend. The four areas are brand & product awareness to increase awareness for products, services and membership opportunities to members and non-members alike; financial edutainment to educate our members in a fun format; engaging and community building through tying a trend to military, active duty and veteran’s experience; and employer brand and talent acquisition, to elevate our brand presence as a first-class employer and attract strong talent to our ranks.
Our usual organic social turnaround time is 14+ days, making it difficult to create content in a timely manner. To participate in trending video, we cut the process down to a 5-day turnaround time, including reviews, to meet trends when they happen. By streamlining internal creative reviews, and cutting down on production times, we are able to produce a more authentic style of content, that performs well on these platforms. This way we’re relevant through trends, while also increasing the audience we show up to as algorithms prioritize trending content.
Surprise and Delight. In collaboration with our in-house creative agency, we developed a suite of trendy swag, featuring financial sayings and brand-tie ins to send as “Surprise and Delight” gifts to users who engage with us on social media and share their personal story about being a member. The swag was developed with a sustainable and useful lens to ensure we’re adding value to our members and prospects lives and will want to “unbox” to show off in their social media networks.
Social users are chosen through social listening to identify posts in the wild where we are mentioned. We listen for users who had a good banking experience as well as identify and reward folks on our own social posts who are sharing their experiences with us. Our social team reaches out through either clearly displayed email or comments on posts to request a users’ mailing address to send them swag in the mail. By targeting our members and those who mention us, we are working to make the “everyday” person an influencer and give them a feeling of being valued and recognized by their financial institution.
Engaging in trends and engaging our community has had tremendous positive effects for our brand. Our 6 QuickTok posts garnered 4.3 million views, and 40k+ engagements across platforms. The engagement rate on our QuickTok content was 6.5x higher than that on other organic content during the time. Participating in relevant trends, resulted in 62% increase in video views across channels, and resulted in 6k+ new followers. Since June, our 40 surprise and delight targeted posts have resulted in 15k engagements, 150k+ impressions and we have delighted 10+ members. The 2 videos from micro influencers had a combined 60k+ followers, received 300k+ views, 50k+ likes, 750+ comments. One of the users even created an unboxing video featuring their swag, resulting in 5k more views!
