Salesforce recently released its third State of Marketingreport. Four thousand marketers from around theworld, across diverse industries, participated in theresearch.

A key finding jumped out.

Eight-two percent of marketers believe social media marketingis core to their business. Seventy-five percent reportedmeasuring ROI from the channel.

What a change in perception - not just over past years, but inthe last year alone.

Last year, the report found 27% of marketers felt social mediawould eventually generate ROI with only 28%noting it already producing a result.

This rapid turn around boils down to three things:

• Better strategic planning by marketers;
• Better use of the platforms themselves; and
• More robust paid media capabilities.

Still, credit unions and financial institutions struggle toembrace, adopt and realize the value of social media. Whenwell executed, social media goes beyond tweeting rates or wonderingif anyone out there is even listening. Social media can be apowerful acquisition tool, a tremendous means of member engagementand a powerful force for community outreach.

Here are six signs of a strong social media strategy that willget your credit union firing on all social cylinders.

1. You have aplan

Nothing just happens. Social media magic is at thetop of that list. Your credit union must plan its work and work itsplan. If your credit union can’t answer the question, “Why are weon social media (or why do we want to be)?” then back up.

Doing social media because everyone else is or someone went to asession at a conference isn’t a plan.

Social media must align to a business goal and supportthat. If you’re just going to post some links and do itbecause it’s a necessary evil, don’t bother. Seriously. You won’tget any value out of it and it will consume precious time from acolleague’s already busy schedule.

But, if your credit union has goals of driving loan or membergrowth, or wants to enhance its brand or position in the community,then read on.

2. Your metrics arerelevant

With a plan in place, you know what you’re trying to achieve.When you know what you’re trying to achieve, you know what you wantto measure.

The result? A decrease in measuring vanity metrics and anincrease in measuring ROI metrics as measured by your goal.

Vanity metrics do nothing other then stroke an ego. While it’sgreat to boast a high fan count, numbers can lie.

Get laser focused on measuring things that matter as relevant toyour goal. Tie referral traffic from social to your website foracquisition objectives.

For awareness and member growth, look at interaction,specifically the viral lift of your content on social networks. Howfar is your message and brand reaching into the social networks ofyour immediate following? These are the people you want to reachfirst. They are lookalikes, people with similar demographics andpsychographics to your existing members. I call these high valuesocial followers.

3. Your engagement ishigh

If a mention happens and no one responds, did ithappen?

If you’re venturing into social media, be prepared toengage, for better or worse. The premise behind social media isthat there is a channel open between members, community and creditunions.

This conversation is rewarded by growth of the social community.If your engagement is lackluster, the health of the community willsuffer and the other benefits of social media will benonexistent.

Make sure you have the resources to engage or engage a resourceto make it happen. If you start a snowball, and no one is around topick it up and start building a snowman, it’s just going to rolldown the hill, hit a tree and crush into pieces, right?

It's the same with social media. If you start the process ofreaching out and people actually start to engage you, but you don’tengage back, it will all fall apart fast.

Bonus tip: Enlist the rest of your credit union. Tap some expertresources in house to join in as your efforts grow. With a strongsocial media policy, the right training and the right tools forapprovals and controls, you’ll be churning out greatengagement.

4. You’re platformfrugal

Having 20 social media icons in the footer of your site is onlyforward thinking if you’re active on each one. Credit unions thatare the most successful are frugal about picking the networks thatmatter to their plan, goals and members.

Just because a social network exists does not mean you have tobe on it. Lesss is often more. Period.

5. You leverage paid

There are many reasons why leveraging paid media via social is asign of a strong social media strategy.

Regardless of what your objectives are on social media, a smallpaid budget is one way to ensure that your content 1) reaches yourfollowing and 2) reaches lookalike audiences, those similar tofollowers who already engage with you.

If you have an email list, this is also a quick way to give yoursocial media following a quality follower count boost leveragingcustom audiences.

Custom audiences let you engage with your email list via socialmedia ads and create another touch point for the super savvy,modern, always on credit union that you are.

Go you!

For credit unions looking to leverage social media for member orloan growth, the opportunities are even larger. Remember my column last month about marketingdata outsideyour core system? This is one big areawhere, cha ching, you can make an impact.

6. You appreciate platformnuances

The final sign of a strong social media strategy is when youunderstand each platform. Have you ever wondered why people have somany profiles? Because each platform is unique and creates anexperience of its own. The best credit union social mediastrategies take their plans and execute tactics leveraging platformnuances: Facebook live videos, Twitter chats, Swarm check in tips,etc. Blanket messages across platforms will work for a while, butthe major impact comes from unique experiences that leverageplatform nuances.

The reality is that the most successful credit union socialmedia strategies boil down from the six pillars above into threecore elements: Planning, consistency and measurement.

• Plan your work and work your plan.
• Be consistent in your use and engagement.
• Measure and optimize your efforts.

The difference between lack luster social media performance andachieving your goals isn’t as far as you think.

Ryan Ruud is the founder and CEO of Credit Union ConsultingGroup and Lake One Digital. He can be reached at 612-799-0803or [email protected].