It’s becoming one of the more frequently asked questions in my conversations with credit union leaders: Should we have a blog for our credit union?
My answer is emphatic and to the point: “Yes, every credit union should be blogging.”
Sometimes that response is met with a barrage of pushback…everything from “We really don’t have time” to “Who’s going to write the posts” to “What should e be talking about” to “Is anyone really going to read it” to “How often would we have to post new information” to various other concerns and curiosities that arise when folks consider stepping into a new and unfamiliar realm.
Don’t get me wrong…the questions are relevant, and there is a lot of merit in the concerns, because like anything else, if you are going to do it, you want to do it right. But it really doesn’t have to be that hard–it’s really all a matter of how you look at it.
A blog is really nothing more than an organized collection of messages that you are posting in a single location for ease of reference by an interested audience. In the case of your credit union, the audience would be your members, and possibly your staff.
So when you think about what you would write about, think about the questions and concerns that your members (and employees) have. Also consider the messages that you need and want them to hear.
Stories about member successes, employee accomplishments, credit union milestones, and so forth make great blog posts. You can also use your blog as a forum for delivering quick tips and useful information to your members, and for inviting them to learn more about financial management.
And you don’t just have to post written articles. You can very easily upload videos, downloadable worksheets, PDF documents and other types of content onto the blog to make them easily accessible to members. And if you want your members to weigh in with their opinions on something you are doing or considering doing, you can always pop up a poll on your blog to get some quick and useful feedback.
Perhaps best of all, a blog gives your members a place to easily communicate with you about the information you have posted. Their comments will be insightful and will often lead you to the next post as you respond to their concerns and questions.
ACTION ADVICE: The bottom line is that a blog provides you with an easy way to push information out to your members in a way that allows them to respond to share their feedback, to ask for more information, and to let you know what they need and want. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s effective…why wouldn’t you want to start one today?
PLEASE SHARE YOUR BLOG: We’d love to see your credit union’s blog and share it with our readers. Post your link in the comments section for this post and share your experiences…what’s worked, what hasn’t worked, and what will you do next?
