How one credit union effectively uses Pinterest

A hot marketing topic is the wide variety of social media platforms and how marketing professionals use them. We recently visited with Brenna Kowall, Digital Marketing Specialist with Firefighters Community Credit Union ($200 million assets, 27,500 members) in Cleveland, Ohio to find out more about her efforts using Pinterest.

1) How long has your credit union been involved in Pinterest and what prompted you to join?

Our credit union joined Pinterest about two years ago. We recently went through a rebranding campaign and saw Pinterest as a good way to reach out to both existing and potential members and the communities we serve. We find Pinterest, among other things, is a good outlet for improving our brand identity and also a great member engagement tool. Pinterest is not just another social media channel we have our name on. It’s an amazing marketing tool that helps us connect with our members and potential members and the community.

2) How has Pinterest helped your credit union better connect with members and potential members?

We’ve found people that use Pinterest (our Pinners) tend to take over the job of sharing information for the credit union. When we share something of interest, our Pinners take the initiative to pin, re-pin and share with their networks. You don’t usually see that kind of interaction in traditional marketing and we want to take full advantage of it.

3) What challenges have you faced using Pinterest?

The elephant in the room when it comes to Pinterest is the heavily female-skewed demographic. Honestly, if you’re looking to reach a mostly male audience, Pinterest is not the best outlet for your social media efforts. The way we look at it, though, women control the budgeting and purse-strings in many households these days, so using Pinterest to reach them makes sense.

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