It's time for credit unions to start thinking like people rather than organizations when it comes to social media. That may sound simple enough to do, but it's been one of the biggest challenges for the majority of credit unions.

“Once you do that, you build a connection with people that's so true, they're willing to promote your brand and credit union for you,” Michael Ogden, founder of For3, a social media connection point between cooperatives, credit unions, local businesses and the craft beer industry, said. “It snowballs into a lot of good stuff happening.”

Ogden also advised credit unions to stop just posting rates and promotional items, and to rethink how blogs are used.

“It just doesn't work,” he said. “Take that promotional item, rate or blog post and translate it into storytelling. Tell them how this new auto loan rate is going to make your life better. Connect with them, relate to them and don't just shove rates in their faces. But sharing a really good, true story that's personal and builds those emotional connections is harder than you think.”

At the $735 million Vantage Credit Union in Bridgeton, Mo., social media has gone a long way from just being social to humanizing the credit union's brand. Helmed by Kenny DeShields, a social media specialist with a big personality, Vantage CU's social media strategy incorporates slices of real life across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. When DeShields' Honda Accord reached 223,000 miles and was still running, a blog post about whether it would outlive him resonated with members, and he continued on to share why he didn't want to have two car payments. He hasn't been afraid to talk about situations in his life, and when his family suffered through a miscarriage last year, the community rallied, supported and loved DeShields and Vantage CU through it.

“We now have a seven-month-old and I think that authenticity and transparency of sharing our struggles, joys and everything in between builds those bonds with members,” he said. “As much personality as we have at Vantage, there's still more we can do. There's a reason why it's 'social' media. If we're not sharing or having that interaction with our audiences, then we're just talking at them instead of with them.”

Keeping the audience in mind, he said, is key to being relevant. No one has all the answers, so don't be afraid to ask peers questions and keep learning from what others are doing in the social media space, he added. In Missouri, for example, #TweetUpTuesdays have fostered a social media community where local credit unions share knowledge and best practices.

“For social media to be effective, you have to be passionate about doing it, and it can't be an afterthought,” DeShields said. “Before you start to do the research, understand the role it will play in the bigger picture of the organization's overall strategic plan, and figure out if you want to invest the money and time to do it. How will you use it to connect with your members? What the purpose of each channel? Don't just throw something out there and hope it sticks. Within the strategic plan, you can absolutely experiment and almost have to take chances, but the foundation has to be there first.”

Ogden suggested credit unions run their social media strategy and posts through the “what does my business stand for” filter. He did a quick search of words associated with “credit union” over 14 days, which revealed the top five as rates, difference between banks and credit unions, job openings, weed and suing Wells Fargo. So, while the industry appears to be spreading its message, there's a fractured focus resulting in a lot of different messages being shared, he said.

“With many CU leagues merging, this would be a great time for them to get all of their credit unions to try a focused crowdsourcing campaign,” Ogden said.

By researching what members want via polls and surveys, and across social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+, credit unions can create a consistent and strong message that's crafted by real members and that all credit unions can get behind, he added.

“To me, it's about partnerships and messaging,” he said. “Why not rely on your biggest supporters to help create content that is from a non-brand perspective?”

When it comes to social media, he said what matters most is evolving existing channels rather than moving on to the next thing. However, that doesn't mean ignoring developments in the social media space or only using one channel. One to three years from now, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ will not be the same as they are today—recently, Google+ announced it is splitting its streams and photos into stand-alone products, and Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are shifting similarly, morphing to not only be relevant, but adapt to consumers' content consumption preferences.

Even Snapchat, which has been wildly popular with Millenials, now includes Discover, an editorial storytelling format complete with narratives from big brands ranging from ESPN and Comedy Central to CNN and Yahoo News. Keeping in line with Snapchat's immediacy, Discover stories are only available for 24 hours.

“I took an informal poll of my teenage kids and their friends of how many selfies they take in a day, and it's in the range of 100-110, which they share on Snapchat,” Ogden said. “My 16-year-old uses Discover all the time. Until now, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have all wanted their audiences to stay inside and play in their sandboxes. That's the next step for them.”