When it comes to effective social media strategies, there's onerule to follow: Find out what's unique about you as a person orbrand, and share your story.

For the $1.5 billion Royal Credit Union in Eau Claire, Wis.,social media is viewed as a member service channel. Andrea Finn,digital marketing specialist, said that channel ties back to thecredit union's core purpose of making a positive impact on thelives touched by RCU.

“Credit unions should berock stars on social media because of their amazing stories,”said Finn, who has a retail background and joined the credit unionindustry in 2012. “I worked for a shoe company that had this hugeengagement and following for shoes. I looked at our credit union,which has these incredible daily stories of making a difference inmembers' lives and the communities we serve, so why not get thesame growth by sharing them?”

RCU monitors everything on social media, including engagement,following, growth, the types of questions being asked acrossvarious channels, timeframes to respond and resolve member issues,and what members do once they go to the RCU website. The insightsgathered are then shared in a monthly meeting with the executiveteam and top level leaders as a way to better understand members'needs and wants. Finn credits an ability to take risks by gettingout into the communities the credit union serves and leveragingthose experiences to draw members into conversations using uniquecontent, as key to RCU's social media success. In addition,embedded within every piece of content is RCU's purpose andstrategy.

One great example is The Power of an Hour initiative, where RCUstaffers put 60 minutes into 19 service projects that would benefitsome 30 non-profit organizations within its field of membership. Inaddition to chipping in funds and donating items, staffersdemonstrated what could be accomplished in just an hour, fromassembling toiletry baskets for homeless shelters, to making fleecetie dog beds for humane associations, to creating thank-you cardsfor active duty military members and packaging craft kits forafter-school programs.

RCU documented and shared the process via social media on itsFacebook, Twitter and Google+ channels in addition to the socialmedia platforms of the organizations they helped. This not onlygarnered local media coverage, but helped foster relationships inthe community and resulted in content that Finn and the RCU teamcan continue to leverage and share. Finn said she does her best tocreate content that members like enough to share with their friendsand family members on their own personal pages.

“It's okay to try new things,” she said. “Some will work, andsome won't — that's how we learn.”

Finn said to never underestimate the value of timing andrelevance, and added that when it comes to social media giveaways,sometimes the perfect $20 gift is better than a $500 item. Thispast December, RCU ran a Christmas giveaway targeting members whomight be last-minute shoppers and/or wrappers with a gift basket ofwrapping paper, tissue, bows and gift tags. Within hours, thatgiveaway post reached 14,000 people and received 330 likes, 256comments and 162 shares.

A small business profile series on Facebook has been a boon forValley First Credit Union, a division of the $10 billion First WestCredit Union in Penticton, B.C.

Recognizing that the majority of small business owners don'thave the resources, expertise or time to launch a marketing orsocial media strategy, the credit union took the opportunity tocreate a mutually beneficial partnership to better connect itsbusiness bankers, local businesses and the community.

“Before we launched our Facebook small business profile series,we'd post our business member profiles to our website and then linkto those stories through Facebook posts and tweets,” David Kropp,communications business partner at Valley First CU, said. “Reachusing this type of approach was almost nonexistent.”

Asshown to the left, Valley First Credit Union's business bankingunit staffers provided helping hands at local small businesses aspart of the credit union's small business profile series.

With the new member profile approach, which showcased itsbusiness bankers' expertise and business members, Valley First CUhas consistently achieved organic reach of 2.5 to four times itspage likes. And on Twitter, the credit union directed traffic tothe small business member profiles with @mentions and appropriatehashtags. For example, when First Valley CU profiled new breweryBad Tattoo Brewing, tweets included the #craftbeerbc and #craftbeerhashtags as well as mentioned the regional tourism office andhospitality association.

Kropp said the series was created in response to small businessowners' cries for advice, support and help in broadening theirnetworks and exposure. And rather than just create content in asilo, the marketing team worked with the business banking team,going onsite with them for small business member visits.

“We focus on content that is visually appealing, new ornewsworthy, and relevant to our audience and the season,” he said.“It's about the people, advice and stories rather than trying tosell a product or service.”

It's been a win-win for both the business' profiled and thecredit union's presence in its communities, and has increasedorganic reach without the use of Facebook's paid post boosts. Thefirst post of the series in December reached 1,400 people—threetimes the credit union's following in November—and brought pagelikes from 700 to 1,800. Research revealed that the organic reachboost was tied to content that was shared by the business' profiledand their fans, locals and employees, in addition to the creditunion.

“Our organization is different as we have a parent company,First West Credit Union, and four distinct regional brands, “ hesaid. “If something works in one region, we share that experiencewith other regional brands. It's an interactive process that'simproved our overall and individual social media strategy.”