Immersion18, the first conference for the Trellance team under their new brand, incorporated the same insightful, educational and informative information as in the previous twenty-six years, but with a lot more collaboration and fun.

Tom Davis, President and CEO, kicked off this year’s annual conference stating “We have to be independent to be your best advocate.” Tom went on to explain that “While Trellance provides many of the same services it offered before, such as card processing; three words will drive its future: Independent, unbiased advocate.” Tom gave the four key factors toward credit union success: Hiring top talent, collaboration, having vision, and using data analytics. Bill Lehman, SVP of consulting services, spoke next, introducing some of the 17 new services offered by Trellance.

Act Small to Gain Trust

[Editor's Note: This article was previously published in Credit Union Times, and has been modified.]

There is no doubt that the credit union industry has been and still is going through quite a bit of change.  From mergers and acquisitions, to regulatory changes, to incorporating technology and attracting younger demographics. Overall, despite the shrinking number of credit unions; membership, loans and share numbers are up. According to Callahan’s Trendwatch Year-End 2017, The Annual Report for the Industry data, total credit union membership reached 112.9 million, up from 108.2 million at the end of 2016. While new auto loans (13.2%), used auto loans (10.3%), first mortgages (10.2%) and credit cards (9.2%) lead the way in annual growth among loans outstanding, and year-over-year growth in share drafts (10.0%), regular shares (7.1%) and share certificates (6.3%) outpace the rest of the portfolio. However, after being somewhat of the “anti-bank”, many argue that credit unions today are beginning to minimize the fact that they are credit unions and changing their profiles to look and feel more like retail banks in order to compete with their financial counterparts. Many have also been incorporating as many banking lingos in their messaging as they can. However, this may not be a good strategy.

5 Best Practices for Building Your Brand Online

[Editor's Note: This article was previously published in CUES Skybox, and has been modified.]

“Are you using social media?” Often when a credit union’s management is asked this question the answer is almost always a resounding yes! However, for some, this ‘yes’ just confirms that the credit union has established a Twitter account, or that a Facebook page exists. It doesn’t mean that the credit union is engaged or actively participating in the social media space – meaning posting relevant, value-added content consistently; responding to comments from your members timely and/or garnering qualified leads from your social media presence. More importantly, having a Facebook/Instagram/Twitter page doesn’t mean that you are a part of the online conversation; if your social content is static, your credit union’s products and services are probably not being mentioned in any of the threads. Also, your brand does not show up in relevant searches by prospective or existing members or in any online reviews that inform potential members.

5 Steps to Take During a Social Media Crisis

[Editor's Note: This article was previously published on “Anthem”, the online News & Info site of the Northwest Credit Union Association, and has been modified.]

Today, the consensus is that it is integral for you to have a strong online presence if you want to build a strong brand. With so much information being consumed online, it is almost impossible to build a brand without incorporating social media, a blog and/or a website into your content marketing strategy. According to a blog post on matchsticksocial.com, statistics show that “53% of Americans who follow brands on social media are more loyal to those brands; 71% of consumers who have a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others and 33% of people prefer to contact a company through social media as opposed to by phone.”

In keeping with the tradition started last year, where we scored how well we did on the previous year’s predictions, here is a look at what we thought was going to happen in 2017, versus what really did.