The challenge is justifying the cost and the time. With Yak! Tracker, a lead generation application developed by Chatter Yak!, credit unions can create contests in conjunction with social media campaigns.

Yak! Tracker offers a responsive application, one that is intuitive and gets leads to the credit union as fast as possible. Yak! Tracker uses customizable questions to gather contact information and member financial interests. The app can also insert calculators into the process at the appropriate times.

The $303 million, Alpena, Mich.-based Alpena Alcona Area Credit Union adopted Yak! Tracker in March 2015. As a result, the credit union generated nearly 200 new loan leads and, in 2015, closed $2.2 million in loans from Yak! Tracker generated leads.

This year, the $644 million, St. Joseph, Mich.-based Honor Credit Union reportedly produced 840 loan leads in a single campaign in less than a week using Yak! Tracker and analytics. Honor's campaign, launched on March 16, led to 4,412 unique views and 3,075 contest entries.

The $258 million Gadsden, Ala.-based Alabama Teachers Credit Union recently stepped up its social media presence, which began in 2009.

"Over the last two and half years, we started to notice the total engagement of society on social media," Marketing Director Emily Mayben said.

That is why Alabama Teachers made social media a major focus.

"This is where our future customers are, this is where our existing members are, and we would be remiss not to be here," Mayben said.

The credit union uses Facebook's Insights, an analytics app, and Pages Manager, which helps monitor activity. This allowed the organization to engage members and observe member interaction more distinctly than with traditional media.

For the $535.6 million, Overland Park, Kan.-based Mazuma Credit Union, social media must revolve around content as well.

"We are Kansas City based and we live and breathe Kansas City, just as the Mazuma members do. All of our content is geared toward being engaging, interesting and local," Vice President of Growth and Brand Mark Thompson said.

Thompson explained, "We know through studies and A/B testing that social media is primarily a long-term content lead."

Mazuma worked with the Lenexa, Kan.-based marketing CUSO BYM Agency to structure its social media efforts. CU Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mazuma Credit Union, oversees the BYM Agency in addition to other entities.

Mazuma's social presence consists of a Facebook page, Twitter account, blog and a fictitious character named Mazuma Mike, who is also on Facebook.

"Each one of those social presences has a different tone and objective," BYM Creative Director and Social Marketing Specialist Jeff Birnbaum explained.

Read a full account of social media use in the April 27 print issue of Credit Union Times.