MADISON, Wis. — Ben Rogers is giving credit union execs a lot to think about.
Rogers, whose blog has generated much discussion in the credit union community, is the driver of the Filene Research Institute's CU Tomorrow project and director of the Institute's 30 Under 30 group.
"I generally blog twice a week and try to keep it compelling by posting about whatever I find interesting or exciting and see what comments I get," said Rogers. "These days everyone has a blog so you've got to post relevant information and have something interesting to say."
Created as a clearinghouse for credit union youth strategies, CU Tomorrow publishes research and open-source business plans to help credit unions attract younger members, promising young professionals and younger board members.
Rogers is a former editor of The CEO Report and chairman of the National Directors' Convention. While he holds a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and graduated cum laude from Brigham Young University with degrees in English and philosophy, he admitted that he didn't know much about credit unions until his stint at The CEO Report.
"I am one of the late comers. It's funny. I remember there being a very big public lobbying campaign while I was in school in the late 90s, hearing about the credit union difference on the radio and tuning it out. And then I got a job covering credit unions," said Rogers. "What's interesting is that we did an informal poll of the 30 Under 30 group and not a single person actually planned a credit union career before graduating college, but they all had great stories about how they found credit unions. The issue of attracting younger members is just one facet of a larger problem which is getting young adults to intentionally choose to be a part of the credit union workforce."
He added that there is an opportunity to have an industrywide infusion of fresh perspectives and ideas if credit unions proactively recruit and attract top talent as staffers and even board members.
He said that while credit unions are making a greater effort to reach the next generation, they are still operating under a few misconceptions. For example, having a Web presence and easy-to-use tools is not the magic formula to reaching young adults, who generally get their information from many different places, according to Rogers.
"There is this overemphasis that they get all their information from the Web and an unrecognized route to young adults is through their parents," said Rogers. "They may get a lot of information from the Web, but when it comes to making serious financial decisions, 18- to 25-year-olds turn to their parents for advice."
He emphasized not to forget parents when strategically planning those young adult campaigns and target both. He also cautions against simply posting a Facebook or MySpace page and pretending that it is young adult marketing. According to Rogers, while social networking is here to stay, unless that page is an intentional gateway to more robust services and transactions, it may miss the mark.
"A quick search turned up several dozen credit unions that have pages up and the 'friends' are either other credit unions or employees," said Rogers. "A poorly designed page that's not saying much or maybe hasn't had any comments for three months reflects poorly on your brand and risks your reputation among the young. A social network page that offers more than just a Web presence but adds real value is a good place to start."
Rogers also finds the green movement provides credit unions a great opportunity to distinguish themselves.
"It is interesting the other day I went to Google 'green auto loan' and got a few sponsored links and the natural returns were all credit unions," said Rogers. "It is very encouraging because even without a national credit union campaign, credit unions around the country have tapped into the consumer awareness, and they could be at the forefront of this."
Basically, attracting Gen Y boils down to building a strong connection and that takes trust.
"There is no silver bullet but the key is to offer services they need when they are starting to use them, take into consideration they may not have that established credit but work with them and build around their needs," said Rogers. "Gen Y wants real value delivered from a credit union and will inconvenience themselves a little to get something different. If it looks like something their bank does now there's no reason to change."
–mdigiovanni@cutimes.com
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