Social Media Use by Alabama Credit Unions

I work for a credit union and part of my duties include managing our social media accounts. Credit Union awareness in Alabama is growing and it’s no coincidence that social media use by Alabama credit unions is on the rise.

But how much is social media being used? I recently attempted to identify our peers (other credit unions) that are using social media within their marketing strategies.

I started by obtaining a list Alabama credit unions that are federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). This list identified 123 such credit unions and provided the number of full-time for each institution. The number of full-time employees that a credit union boasts can be viewed as a good indicator of its online presence.

QUICK FACTS: 

• 27% of Alabama Credit Unions do not have a website. These credit unions typically have fewer than 5 full-time staff members and do not have the manpower to devote to online marketing.
• 90 credit unions based in Alabama have websites but only 39 of those pages feature badges that are linked their respective social media profiles.
• According to the NCUA report, there are only two credit unions in Alabama that have more than 300 full-time employees. Both of those credit unions only have 2 social media badges featured on their website.

The following table breaks down the social media presence of Alabama credit unions:

Social Media Use by Alabama Credit Unions
No. of Credit Unions that Use 1 Social Media Account	14
No. of Credit Unions that Use 2 Social Media Accounts	12
No. of Credit Unions that Use 3 or more Social Media Accounts	13

*Even though I pulled this information in December of 2014, the most recent data available from the NCUA was from 2012.

I plan on reviewing this information frequently over the next few years and noting any changes. It will be interesting to see how the institutions without websites react to the general public’s increasing demand for information about credit unions.