Sometimes the best member to talk up your credit union is oneyou create.

With a field of membership of churches and Christian-basedorganizations in the Richmond, Va. area, including missionaries,Entrust Federal Credit Union found itself looking for a way tobetter communicate and connect with its members.

During summer 2009, wanting to tap into the power of socialmedia, the $70 million credit union's Marketing Director AlisonFallecker created the persona of Entrust Gary.

 “Entrust Gary has been a creative way for us to be outin Facebook, continue to promote what our credit union stands forwithout the blatant use of the word Christian while being a greatway for our members to stay connected with us and still takeadvantage of the resources available to them,”said Greta Kidd, vicepresident, marketing/member development at EntrustFCU. 

Fallecker added that with Entrust Gary as the face of its socialmedia efforts, he not only embodies member needs but has beenleveraged online and offline.

“The best form of advertising is word of mouth, andrecommendations from a friend mean more than anything you hear froma company,” said Fallecker. “So we thought why not create a memberwho talks about how easy it is to work with our credit union. He'slike an evangelist for us because he shares how we help to makebanking not be such a chore.”

In designing Gary, she simply created a complete background andhistory based on the average Entrust FCU member. So Gary is in hisearly 40s, Christian, has a wife named Barb, a son Ethan and a dognamed Dottie.

“He has this whole life, including hobbies, and a lot of peopledon't even realize he's not a real person,” said Fallecker. “Weeven had a request from a member to give Gary a single brother. Wenamed him Terry, and she even told me how she wanted him to look.And she was tagged in a photo as the person dating Gary's brother.We have a life-size cutout of Gary, and he gets requests all thetime to attend several local events and functions. During oneluncheon the sponsor even went so far as to set him a place at thetable complete with cardboard plates, silverware and food cutouts.The members absolutely love him.”

Since introducing Gary in a newsletter in 2009, he has been theembodiment of the many ways members can connect with the creditunion, from using his cell phone for mobile banking to tweetingwhile on the beach about how he's depositing checks online while onvacation.

“He's going through his daily life and just talking about themany easy ways to bank with Entrust FCU,” said Kidd. “Our strategyfrom the beginning has been that the social media aspect wouldsupport and fit into our existing marketing and awarenesscampaigns. It's snowballed into something more than we evenimagined. We've found that Gary simply talking about, say, ourvehicle loans, would get members to come into the branch or post onFacebook 'Tell me more,' That's how strongly our members feel aboutGary.”

Gary is not only popular but resonating with members, as in thefirst year the credit union experienced a 5% increase inoutstanding mortgage loan balances, vehicle loan balance increasesof 5%, a 12% increase in online deposit users and a 2% increase inmobile banking users. He also has about 174 followers on Twitterand about 261 friends on Facebook.

Thanks to the two-person marketing/business developmentdepartment, Gary chats about three times a week, representing atime commitment of roughly 30 minutes a day. Fallecker drawsinspiration for what Gary will share from water coolerconversations or even the weather.

“The updates are really important so you've got to invest thetime,” said Fallecker. “What's key is that it's never a salesypitch–Gary's conversations are always more educational, sharingfinancial resources and encouraging members to be good stewardswith their money and good money managers like him and hisfamily.”

As for what's ahead, Kidd said Gary has built such a great namefor himself and awareness of what Entrust Federal CU has to offerthat maybe in the distant future other members of the family maybegin to speak as well. For now, with very limited resources justfocusing on Gary is enough.