When I began my career in banking in the 1980s, financial institutions in the metro New York City market were targeting a new demographic: young professionals. They offered a relationship product (combined checking, savings and credit accounts) and waived minimum balance requirements for several months and extended lines of credit to recent graduates. The idea was simple: attract young customers with compelling offers and keep them for life.

Fast forward 20 plus years. Today, Generation Y is of age. This generation's preferred modes of communication are unlike those of previous generations, including instant messages, Facebook and Twitter. Almost all have mobile phones but using them for making telephone calls is a secondary function. They watch YouTube regularly but view less television than previous generations. Just as important, they do not trust advertising and are skeptical of marketing claims, preferring instead to rely on the wikis of their peers, often strangers, for their buying decisions. They expect 24/7 access and do not understand the concept of banking hours. Some day this demographic will have substantial assets, so how do we bring them to our financial institutions before we lose them for good?

How do you reach someone whose primary method of communicating is sending thousands of text messages a month? Chances are that your current online banking website is not the answer. Also, reformatting your site to fit smartphone screens and calling it your mobile strategy most likely will not work for Gen Y. Credit unions, like all financial institutions, will need to embrace, in earnest, Gen Y's preferred channels, such as YouTube, Facebook, mobile phones and perhaps virtual world websites. Your credit union's presence in their world must be edgy, informative, collaborative and cool, and not a standard corporate advertisement or online billboard. Credit unions, which have traditionally focused on developing more personal relationships with their customers, have an important head start in connecting with this generation.