The question I'm asked most is, “Where is the credit unionindustry going with social media?”

I'm not a fortune teller or soothsayer, but I think the industryis still a few years away from seeing the full potential of socialmedia. It's been a slow social media adoption process, butit's getting better.

I think this quote from a recent interview with Dave Fleet,senior vice president at Edelman, the world's largest publicrelations firm, gives a nice view of where social media is headedin general: “Social media as an experiment is coming to anend.”

I couldn't agree more.

I've spent more than a year building social media platforms andengagement at CUNA Mutual Group. Here's what I've learned about thepeople and organizations in credit union land: you want to dosocial media, but you're just not sure what works.

For many of you, I've become a social media therapist, guidancecounselor and even a friend. And, today I want to show you that thework we all have been doing on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, YouTube,etc. – is paying off.

Recently, our marketing research team surveyed 160 credit unionsabout their current and future plans to use social media. Yes,Facebook is wildly popular with credit unions; 94% currently investtime and money into it for their marketing strategies. Twittercomes in second at 58%. Take a look at this bit of information fromthe survey:

• 77% of credit unions are developing or enhancing their socialmedia strategies for 2013.
• 2013 new social media investments are moving toward mobileapps, Twitter, YouTube and Google+.

What does this mean? In 2012, there wasn't enough data todetermine social media investments for mobile apps and Google+. Nowin 2013, according to the survey, 74% of credit unions are devotingtime, money and people to the development of mobile apps. We'vegone from nothing to 74%? That's amazing. And 24% plan on spendingtime and money to build their Google+ presence. This wild jump inadoption rates should scream to you that the industry is ready totake social media marketing seriously.

As with all ventures into new social media waters, there comes anew set of challenges for credit unions such as updated operatingsystems, proper gadgets like HD Webcams or smartphones able toaccess all of the tools of the platform. But two challenges remainthe top issues for credit unions and social media. According to thesurvey, 83% of credit unions said insufficient staff and time arethe biggest barriers to getting more value out of social media.It's a tough issue, but from my experience, these reasons come froma flawed beginning to a social media strategy.

From my years of experience building and executing social mediastrategies, the biggest problem I've run into is people andorganizations setting up a Facebook account or Twitter feed justbecause “everyone else is doing it.” When you set up a social mediaaccount, you have to think about it as a future tool, not just athing to use today. Asking questions like, “how can we use thisthree years from now?,” can help guide how and why you execute asocial media strategy.

The entire credit union industry needs to realize that socialmedia is not going away. For example, let's look at these numbersfrom the survey of intermediate users, which are those creditunions using social media for the past one to three years:

A majority of credit unions are intermediate users and they arethe primary investors in future social media use.

95% of intermediate users use Facebook, 55% use Twitter and 41%use LinkedIn.

Now, look at the social media evolution when we see the numbersfrom our advanced users or those credit unions using social mediafor three years or more. One hundred percent are using Facebook,83% Twitter and 70% YouTube. These numbers show us the longer youuse social media, the more willing and able you are to branch outinto new social media platforms to connect with members.

How are those advanced users using social media to marketthemselves?

• 97% use social media to provide credit union news, alerts,education and information.
• 97% use social media to build credit union awareness.
• 93% use social media to promote credit union events.
• 73% use social media to communicate with members, providefeedback and respond to comments.

That 73% finding is probably the most important because customerservice and marketing are bleeding into one place – socialmedia.

Let me make one last point from our social media survey. Onepercent of credit unions surveyed are not planning to use socialmedia in 2013. While that may seem strange, think about you andyour credit union two or three years ago. Were you even in thesocial media game? I'm sure that percentage was a lot higherthan 1% in 2010. So I'm actually thrilled with these results.

From my vantage point, I believe credit unions are on the brinkof something fantastic with social media in 2013. Think about thetechnological advances we've seen with mobile and videocapabilities in social media in 2012.

So to the question, “Where is the credit union industry goingwith social media?” My honest answer is, next is education. Then,finally a comfort level with social media in theindustry.

MichaelOgden is media relations manager/new media at CUNA Mutual Group.