Hello, and welcome to the Theory of Marketing Relativity Podcast. I'm Jess Burton, a Marketing Specialist here at Epic Marketing Consultants Corporation. Let's talk all things marketing and merchandising with our Epic team. Today we are here with AllSouth Vice President of Marketing, Connie Hernandez Vizitei. Thank you for joining us today Connie.
Connie:Oh, thank you. I'm very excited. I love Epic.
Jess:Yeah. We love you guys. You can you guys are located AllSouth is located where?
Connie:South Carolina, particularly Columbia, South Carolina.
Jess:I always get, this is so terrible, like my family vacations in the Carolinas, and I feel like North and South like I don't know which cities are in which Carolina. And I'm like, my elementary school geography teacher would be so mad at me because I'm like, where's Charleston? Where's this place? I don't know.
Connie:Charleston, definitely South Carolina. But we are we are located in South Carolina in an area where they call the Midlands. So it sounds exactly what it means, in the middle of South Carolina.
Jess:Amazing. That's an easy way to remember it. In the middle of South Carolina. So I have you here today to kind of talk to us not just about credit unions, but more specifically about content pillars, and what they are, and how credit unions can kind of how they should be using content pillars because I know not everybody does because credit unions come in all kinds of sizes. So let's get started with what is a content pillar?
Connie:Well, first, I have to explain this all back up and talk about our strategy. So credit unions as a financial cooperative, we not only provide financial services, but we really do try to educate our members. So and when we say that it's more financial education, and making sure that we're looking out for the financial, health and well being of the people that we serve. So when we look at content pillars, they really need to match what our overall strategy is. And that's where we start. And then we use content pillars for social media, and that's where you guys really helped us out. I started with AllSouth two years ago, and we were really just taking a look at trying to improve our social media presence. And, you know, a lot of folks, whether you're just starting into the social media space, or you've been around for a little while, you want to change up or refresh your strategy. The big question is, where do we start? And content pillars give you that guidance. And what they are basically exactly what they sound like. They're more buckets, okay, in areas of focus that you're going to have social media messaging around. We have financial education as I just spoke about is one of our main key content pillars that we use for social media. And so we know that if we're going to post something around there on any one of our social media platforms, that it has to have a purpose. And it has to make sure that we're engaging with our audience. And it has to make sure that it's following our strategy. You know, everybody loves cute puppies, but are they going to engage your audience and are they serving a purpose for your overall brand? So content pillars really is the place to start whenever you're trying to figure out, okay, what are we going to do with our social media strategy? So Epic, whenever we really were looking at everything - it was in 2018, and yes, it's 2020 now - we wanted to take a more purposeful approach to our social media. But we also wanted to make sure we were engaging with our audience. And so before you develop your content pillars, you really need to define who your audience is, and develop your personas, right. So who you're you have today, who you're reaching today, and then who you want to engage with. So who's one of your target audiences, right. And so that's where we started, and then we developed the content pillars. You know, it's it took a little while because it took us a couple months back and forth with you guys helping us. Like, no, maybe you should try this, and then just making sure that we're having a conversation. I think some businesses and sometimes credit unions aren't necessarily good about promoting themselves whenever it comes to telling your brand story. And social media provides such a lovely platform because you're able to have a conversation with your audience. You're not just putting out a standard direct mail piece. It's not salesy, but you're able to tell more story about who you are, who your employees are, what you're all about. And so, developing these types of content pillars allows you to do that.
Jess:Absolutely. I know, you guys always did such a good job of, you know, featuring your different employees. We always tell people, and the one of the things when we onboard new people is we always tell them that the things that people love to see is people they know, or people that they've seen. I know like I've told some of our other credit union clients that like, you know, do like a Teller Tuesday or something where like you highlight one of you know, the people in your bank branch, in your credit union branches, because they're walking in and they're seeing Susan behind the counter. They're seeing, you know, Michael at the desk, when they're filing for them when they're like working on their mortgage forms. They'll connect with you more if there's if they start to recognize people. And I always say that social media is a great way to make things more approachable. I like yesterday had to go to like the unknown, new doctor's office. And I was like, freaking out in the parking lot because I was like, where's the entrance? Where's suites like 3C? I don't know where I'm going and I thought about it and I was like, okay, find a map and look where you're going. And I think like, especially now with all of us being home, and like having to stay at home more, we're not we're kind of becoming, I don't want to say socially inept, but like going new places isn't what we're doing every day. So I think it's a great opportunity for people to really put a put an actual face to their credit union even when people can't come into a branch.
Connie:Right. Well, and before the year that 2020 has been, we have really wanted to make sure that we highlight and we kind of have that personal connection. Because again, like I said, social media, I truly believe is a place where you can engage your audience. It gives you a very unique platform. And no one really on social media wants to know all the features of your checking account. They want to know, okay, who is it like you said, who's at the branch whenever I walk in. And so what we do is one of our content pillars is featuring our employees, right. And so we have a monthly blog post. We call them our AllSouth All-Stars. And we will pick and sometimes they'll be front facing so there'll be someone that's recognizable within the branch or within a certain community but then sometimes they're actually in our back office. It's that voice or that person that folks interact with on the phone or via chat, but they've actually never met, and it kind of brings them to the forefront. And so that's something that with our social media we're looking at that. Those types of posts whenever we can feature someone and our location, they always, always have way more engagement then six tips for a budget, right? Because no one really wants to read that. Albeit it is very important that we know that information, but it's just not as interesting or it's not as engaging. And so that's something that we try to balance. And that is one of our key things is that we want to make sure that we're connecting with folks and that we're here for them when we want to make sure that we're telling our brand that this is AllSouth, and this is the people behind the brand.
Jess:Absolutely. I think for a lot of credit unions financial education is a big one of those content pillars. I think that I always tell them right, like when we're onboarding new clients, I always tell them, you don't want to just have promotional stuff and you don't just want to have like fun fluff stuff. You also want to build your credibility and part of that for you guys is that financial education. So I always tell everybody, I'm like, everybody wants to look at things in tiny little bite-sized pieces. I was like think of it as like a like snack. Like you don't want to have like a big steak for a snack, but you're gonna have like, and it's just because I have Cheez-Its right here, you're gonna have a couple of Cheez-Its and like throw them in your mouth. So like six tips for you know saving for retirement. Or six tips for saving for college. That stuff is that like snack-sized stuff that you should put in your content, and you should have on social media because there might be someone that clicks on it and says, like, oh, they really do know their stuff over there. But yeah, I think that like, financial education is a big one.
Connie:Well, and then whenever, you know, getting back onto the subject with content pillars, whenever we really started to be very purposeful, and what you're talking about when you onboard new clients is when we started with content pillars and really had our strategy going, I pulled our 2019 numbers. So after we really got a chance to work with Epic for a little while, we had a 350% increase on Twitter and engagement. That is, you know, that's something that, okay, we can do the work, we can develop content pillars, but is it really working? And so we're constantly measuring. Now, our 2020 numbers could be a little interesting this year. We haven't pulled them yet. We've had way more engagement just because like you said people are at home. And the conversation has just been a little bit different. Plus, with our credit union, we've gone through a couple different things. So I'm curious to see what that is. But whenever we did start with really focusing and using content pillars and saying, okay, we're going to feature Lauren who is in our branch, and she's at our Newberry location - just using that as an example - and we want to feature her. This is how we're going to do it. That has been way more successful. Now, you know, we do have our blog posts for financial education. We have an entire blog that we really have cultivated and worked on over the past a year and a half now. And so that has been one of our big foundations of our social media content. It's been one of our drivers. So it's been really good.
Jess:Absolutely. And I think when I the thing that I always tell, like some, like we hired a couple new marketing specialists to do some social I always tell them just because it's one blog doesn't mean that it is just one post. You can turn one blog into it's original post. And then each of those tips in it is another post. You can make it into an Instagram story. You can make it you can have someone go live on Facebook to talk about it. So I think like, knowing your, I always, the picture that always comes into my head when I think of like content pillars is that like, it's not a pillar, it's a bucket. And you're like scooping the information out of the bucket with like a measuring cup. And you're trying to see how far you can get it to like stretch across your brand and across your branding. Because I think that's super important, as well as sticking to what your goals are for your quarter or your even your entire year.
Connie:Right, right. And really our our number one focus has been engagement whenever it came to social media. I mean, engagement and brand awareness. And you have to start somewhere. And then it can just be so intimidating, because you know how, whenever your, or we plan our posts out, I think a month in advance - and by the way, whenever I see we, I do maybe, maybe 1% of the work - I have an amazing team that does the rest, so I cannot take all the credit. But we kind of at times can get in a little bit of a creativity block, and you're struggling about what to post or what we're going to do. And this is where your content pillars can really help you and really help drive that narrative. So if we've had, you know, a couple that have posted a lot for financial education, and we really haven't done anything for community, for example, then we know okay, well, maybe we should post something about community. We're volunteering at our local homeless shelter so let's post something about that. So it kind of helps keep us focused, but then also helps us whenever we're kind of in one of those crunches or creative blocks. It just helps guide us. Well, we have four main content pillars that really drive everything. So corporate culture - showing our employees, community - whenever we're out in the community, and also we partner with a lot of folks around the Midlands, and so we like to highlight them and their events as well, especially for sponsoring something. And then financial education which everyone knows about. And then of course, advertising but advertising is really not one of the top. It's more informing people about what products and services we offer. We really do not like to take a salesy tone. It's more because social media really can't do that, or, or you'll lose the engagement very quickly. And so it's more having a conversation about did you know we also have this five tips on how to get a mortgage. Different things like that. So while we do advertising, it is not, you know, come get our major sale on auto loans, 1.99%, right because that's not going to get engagement. And we've tried it, you know. And we have posts that we, okay, we thought this was gonna work well. For example, we had certain posts on tips and they weren't necessarily performing as well as posting the full blog article. And so we we did a shift there. But then we did testimonies about, you know, what it's like to go through the mortgage process with our institution, but from the perspective of a member that went through that. And that to us is advertising, but it's a conversation. And so it works so well and the engagement on it is so high that we haven't, I mean, we've been really, really pleased with the content pillars that you helped our team setup. So thank you.
Jess:That is great to hear. I know it can be tough to kind of I know, like for me, especially like sometimes it can be kind of tough to be like, oh, that idea didn't work. And now we have to reformat it or revaluate what we're doing. But I think like that is super important that like, okay, this didn't work, this did work. It's seriously crazy that you guys had so much Twitter engagement last year. I like keep laughing but like the metrics for this year should only count January through March 15. And everything else from like, I keep saying like April and May should just be like blank months, because I think we were all kind of figuring out, as I feel like everybody's been calling it, the pivot. And I feel like now like after like April, May, we all kind of like figured it out. And like I've been working on getting everybody on a more consistent basis. Because for a while there, it was very like touch and go and very, like what is happening here.
Connie:Right, and you don't want to in times like that, you don't want to put out a post it is tone deaf. So you have to be very careful about the timing and there are things when okay, we're just not going to post this week, because we are not the most important thing going on right now. And so that's the position that we have taken. But, you know, over all, you know, our engagement has been, you know, we have been very happy. But it all comes from that place of purpose. And making sure that your social media strategy, it's just an extension of your overall marketing strategy. And I think a lot of folks kind of take, while it has to be different, you're obviously not going to do the same thing as you would email marketing strategy, right. But it all has to come from the same place. And it all has to have purpose.
Jess:Absolutely. 100%. Connie, I thank you so much for joining us. I think we had a great conversation about content pillars. Because I don't want you to like give away the farm. I feel like sometimes people start talking and I'm like don't give away all your secrets.
Connie:I was wondering like, because I could go and we could talk for hours on development.
Jess:You would definitely then appreciate Nancy's 400 page Excel, Google document on like marketing strategy. For I literally we looked at it and I was like, you're gonna need an inhaler before we approach this document.
Connie:Or a lot of caffeine.
Jess:Yeah. Either or. Just both actually would probably be helpful.
Connie:Well yeah. Oh.
Jess:Yeah. She's like this has been living in my brain. I'm like, how? Well thank you so much for joining me.
Connie:Yeah. And thank you, and thank you to Epic Marketing. You ladies have done a lot of help and you guys do a lot of work. And anyone that is listening, if you haven't solicited Epic to help you with your social media strategy, I highly recommend them. Because you guys are awesome.
Jess:Thank you. And now if people are in South Carolina in the Midlands or if they're interested in what you're talking about, where can they find you digitally?
Connie:They can find me on LinkedIn.
Jess:Awesome. And can you give them your LinkedIn name since I think I pronounced it correctly, but it probably wouldn't hurt to spell it.
Connie:I'm still under Connie Hernandez on LinkedIn.
Jess:Thank you all for tuning in this week. We hope this theory is relative to your marketing needs. Make sure you subscribe to get notified of our latest episodes.