o SaaS tool lets members link e-newsletter articles to theirFacebook, other social networking sites.

o Credit union combines in-house, vendor-produced copy on timelyfinancial topics.

o E-newsletter replaces print version, saving more than $100,000a year.

o Trackable activity expected to lead to enhanced targetingopportunities.

Northwest Community Credit Union members can now use theirfavorite social networking sites to share such nuggets ofinformation as financial advice and what's up with the creditunion's bicycle-powered blenders.

The blenders are used to make smoothies at festivals while theeducational articles are courtesy of the Oregon credit union's newelectronic newsletter, which now allows members to send content totheir friends and colleagues on sites like Facebook, MySpace,Twitter and LinkedIn.

“We're kind of famous for our bicycle-powered blenders atcommunity events and we're also very active bloggers on a varietyof topics, and now we have a new way of building on those commoninterests to help get articles and other relevant financialinformation to members, and potential new members, in a way thatreaches a lot of people across demographics we can really target,”said Matthew Purvis, vice president of marketing at the $640million Northwest Community CU, a 15-branch operation based inSpringfield.

The technology company here is IMN, a Waltham, Mass., providerof content-driven e-communications through theSoftware-as-a-Service channel to a client list of 3,000 thatincludes names like MetLife, Eaton Vance and New York Life.

Content produced both by the credit union and by IMN is packagedin an electronic newsletter and made accessible to the varioussocial networking sites through a new tool called Credit Union On,which displays a “bookmark and share” icon next to newslettercontent, inviting readers to click and copy the link to theirsocial networking sites.

Purvis said Northwest Community encountered “no pushback frommembers at all” when it eliminated its quarterly print newsletter,saving the credit union more than $100,000 a year now that it nolonger has to print and mail the newsletter after producing itcompletely in-house.

On the other hand, the electronic newsletter, sent out at leastmonthly, offers financial topics meant to inform members whilebuilding on the credit union's “That's So Northwest” marketing andbranding effort, Purvis said.

It's also trackable. Website traffic has gone up noticeablysince the recent launch, and 50 of the credit union's 68,000 or somembers subscribed to the Facebook feed through the radio button onthe most recent e-newsletter, Purvis said.

“That's really not bad at all when you consider that our creditunion comes out of the timber industry and that our membership isnot particularly made up of high-tech early adopters,” headded.

And those 50 reach an estimated 6,500 people on Facebook, basedon the friends-per-individual rate of 130 to one.

“The exposure is significant even with small rates of customersposting e-newsletter content to their personal profile pages,” saidCraig Capp, a vice president at IMN.

“The increasing popularity of social media has added a totallynew dynamic to online member engagement, and we address this changeby providing credit unions with an efficient and effective means ofengaging members and prospects through e-mail and social medianetworks with content that educates readers on personal financebest practices.”

Purvis said the ability to track who accesses what will alsoenable the credit union to offer members more precisely targetedinformation over time.

“This is all a part of putting a face and our many personalitiesin front of the public through these tools that augment all that wedo in the physical world to amplify awareness of what we are andwhat we do,” he said.

“Unlike a printed piece of material, this thing has legs. Youcan really connect to and allow people to connect to what they findinteresting.”

Purvis also said he thinks such tools are particularlywell-suited to a credit union like his that's still moving from itsSEG history into the community charter realm.

“That's been one of the challenges facing our industry and Ireally don't think a lot of us have done a great job of changingstrategies,” he said. “Tools like these are really helpful inreaching out to a broader community to increase awareness of whatwe do as a credit union, in what we've found to be a world wheremost people don't understand credit unions very well.”

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