Time to Vote for Next Read - Book Club for Professional & Personal Development

When it comes to reading for both professional and personal development, do you have good intentions but don't get anywhere? Is your schedule so crazy that meeting at the same time and day of the week is a commitment you're not ready to make? Do you need deadlines to get you started? Do you work for or love a credit union? Answer yes to any of these questions, and we're the group for you!

Our book club launched March 15, 2010 starting with Patrick Lencioni's "Getting Naked: A Business Fable." We are currently reading our second book, Seth Godin's "Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?" Please feel free to join in at anytime. That's the method to the madness for connecting on LinkedIn. If you missed the start or we are on another book, you can still jump in and add to the discussion on any book active in the group discussion site, sharing with the community.

We are about 1/3 of the way through Linchpin. It's time to start thinking about what the group will read next. On the list are:

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Everyone Communicates Few Connect by John C. Maxwell
Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeir Hansson

Vote here. When you vote, please feel free to recommend books for future consideration.

Voting closes on June 16. Simple majority rules. The book with the most votes will be our third book.

TCUL Annual Meeting - Nancy Barry Interview 2

While at the Texas Credit Union League's 2010 Annual Meeting in Grapevine, Texas, the CU GROW Team caught up Nancy Barry again following her other breakout session entitled, "Gen Y - Are They Ready for the Real World?"  Nancy Barry is a Gen Y expert and passionate about connecting people and generation gaps.  Many employers across the country say recent college graduates are not prepared for the real world.  With her expertise, Nancy covered the top 5 things that an employer needs to know when managing Gen Y employees. Check out our interview with Nancy and don't forget to shout back at us on all the ways your credit union is learning to connect generations!

TCUL Annual Meeting - Bob Prosen Interview

While at the Texas Credit Union League's Annual Meeting, the CU GROW Team caught up with Bob Prosen  following his breakout session on "Locking in Customer Loyalty." Bob is a visionary leader with a pragmatic grip on the reality of what it takes to deliver extraordinary bottom-line results. He is the president and CEO of The Prosen Center for Business Advancement, whose mission is to help business leaders execute and achieve results that count. Check out our interview with Bob below and give us a shout back on how your credit union is collaborating on ideas and unique ways to drive member loyalty.

TCUL Annual Meeting - Nancy Barry Interview

While at the Texas Credit Union League's 2010 Annual Meeting in Grapevine, Texas, the CU GROW Team caught up Nancy Barry following her breakout session entitled, "Closing the Generation Gap."  Who are these people and why can't they all get along?! For the first time in history, there are four generations in the workplace.  Nancy Barry is a Gen Y expert and author of "When Reality Hits: What Employers Want Recent College Graduates to Know."  Nancy's contagious enthusiasm, positive energy and humor make her a dynamic presenter. Check out our interview below with Nancy and don't forget to shout back at us!

TCUL Annual Meeting - Amanda Vega Interview

While at the Texas Credit Union League's 2010 Annual Meeting in Grapevine, Texas, the CU GROW Team caught up Amanda Vega following her breakout session entitled, "Comment Marketing: Where Social Media Gets Social."  Comment marketing is the most undervalued and most powerful part of any social media strategy. In this session, we will show you how easy it is to participate in all of the conversations happening on the web in your areas of interest - whether they are blogs, news sites, posts to open social networks or forums.  Check out our interview with Amanda and don't forget to shout back at us!

TCUL Annual Meeting - Bob Prosen Keynote

While at the Texas Credit Union League's Annual Meeting, the CU GROW Team caught up with Bob Prosen following his key note session on "How to Connect with your Team & Win During Tough Economic Times."  Bob provides a unique combination of inspiration and practical advice that you can use immediately to rapidly increase performance and profit.  He is a visionary leader with a pragmatic grip on the reality of what it takes to deliver extraordinary bottom-line results. Bob is president and CEO of The Prosen Center for Business Advancement, whose mission is to help business leaders execute and achieve results that count. Check out our interview with Bob below and give us a shout back on how your credit union team is working to connect and push toward your goals as a financial institution.

MAC 23rd Annual Conference

The CU GROW Team is in Cali for The MAC 23rd Annual Conference.  Follow @JennBills and @ACM1984 on Twitter to keep up with what is going on at this year's conference "Shelter From the Storm."  Make sure you check back to cugrow.com for the latest in the credit union world!

TCUL Annual Meeting - Amanda Vega Keynote

While at the Texas Credit Union League's 2010 Annual Meeting, the CU GROW Team caught up with Amanda Vega (on Twitter:@AmandaVega) following her key note session on "Social Media: How the Web Connects People."  Amanda is the CEO of Amanda Vega Consulting, technically the oldest social media management company with engagements in the industry dating 10 years, a published author of “PR in a Jar” and contributor to the bestselling book “The Social Media Bible.” Check out our interview with Amanda below and give us a shout back on how your credit union is connect with members via social media. 

VIdeo - TCUL Annual Meeting Day 2 Recap

The CU GROW Team attended the Texas Credit Union League Annual Meeting, in Grapevine, Texas.  Check out the video below of Day 2!

Image Provides Insight into Ideal Candidates

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If you are planning a career in the credit union movement, professional development and networking are key to your success. As a leader, it is also important to have a plan to ensure that your team has a clear plan for developing their skills and network. Southwest CUNA Management School is designed to challenge you, your team, and your credit union forward.

 

If your find yourself or members of your team identified in the word picture to the left, you have a match for the profile of a future leader and SCMS student…enroll today!

 

Visit www.wordle.net to create your own "word cloud". It's a great tool to see if something you're writing has the emphasis where you want it to be.

MACQUEE Finalists: Tips for Effective Marketing Campaigns

In less than two weeks, CU Grow will be heading to the 2010 MAC Conference in California. We wanted to get the inside info on the 2010 MACQUEE Finalists, so we caught up with Sarah Cecchin, the moderator for the Finalists Session. Sarah is the Assistant Vice President of Marketing for Pacific Service Credit Union and the topic for this session is Essential Elements of an Effective Marketing Campaign.

Sarah pointed out several key strategies implemented by the MACQUEE Finalists that other credit unions can use for their marketing campaigns:

• Finalists implemented campaigns that used word of mouth marketing as their primary method to generate buzz.
• To keep overall costs down, these campaigns were extremely targeted toward a specific group as well as clever and catchy.
• Credit unions can show authenticity by going out into the community as opposed to asking people to come into their branches for the promotion.

To hear more useful tips from Sarah, check out the podcast below.

Thanks for checking out this podcast about the 2010 MACQUEE Finalists and the driving factors for a successful campaign. Feel free to shout back with your thoughts on innovative campaign ideas.

CUAC Annual Meeting 2010 - Dr. Michael Hudson Interview

At the Credit Union Association of Colorado's Annual Meeting, we caught up with Dr. Michael Hudson.  Dr. Hudson lead a keynote session entitled "Collaboration is the Key To Your Future Success."  Dr.Hudson helps entrepreneurs, growing business leaders, and independent professionals build successful businesses by leveraging the power of their ideas. He is known for his information-rich anecdotes, real world examples, and his practical, easy-to-use approaches.  Check out our interview with Dr. Hudson below and make sure you give us a shout back with ways your credit union uses collaboration successfully.

Juntos Avanzamos Award for Beacon FCU

Beacon FCU was awarded the Juntos Avanzamos Award.  This an award given to credit unions who connect with the Hispanic community beyond a brochure or website in Spanish.  Credit unions like Beacon FCU help Hispanics build financial wealth and achieve financial success, through services in Spanish and financial education.  This award is focused on the idea of people helping people beyond what is easy or convenient.  Beacon FCU saw a need and decided to meet that need with the Hispanic community!  Check out the video below and give us a shout back on ways your credit union is working to reach non-English speaking people in your community!

Heads Up! FTC Guides & Some Risk Factors to Look Out For

Guest post by Nadine Boisnier, Compliance Officer, Amanda Vega Consulting

The recent revisions to the FTC guides concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials has posed some questions as to what people can expect from the changes and how this affects active participants in social media. As you begin to build deeper relationships with your Credit Union customers online, here are some guidelines on what the new FTC guidelines mean for you.

 

The basic FTC changes came into effect due to the emergence, popularity and increased growth of social media. (The guidelines were last updated in 1980). The regulations were updated due to the notion that the lines have been blurred between what an advertisement is and the motives behind the use of social media. There were instances of non-disclosure from companies using bloggers to post positive reviews while receiving cash or gifts as incentives. Regulators do not agree that these types of postings are unbiased reviews. Their goal is to inform the public to understand the difference and to make sure there is full transparency.

 

Some important points to remember: Any conflicts of interest must be disclosed in postings including Twitter tweets and profiles. Be upfront with any connections or relationships you have with the company or Credit Union branch you are writing on behalf of. Other updates to the regulations include the disclosure of any company-sponsored research, stricter liability for celebrity endorsements, no more ³safe harbor² for testimonials; meaning, the term ³results may vary² is no longer sufficient when making broad claims, and disclosing results that consumers can generally expect. Remember most importantly to be straightforward and transparent.

 

In addition to these guidelines, Credit Unions should be cognizant of additional risks that can affect their outreach to the public. Make sure your employees do not improperly use social media tools. For example, impulse messaging can be dangerous, so stop and think about the repercussions of your post or tweet. From a Credit Union perspective, employees can be a threat if they post information that could impact negatively on their brand.

 

As you are building a sense of community online, make sure to include customer care in the process. You must be careful how you do this since you may deal with disgruntled customers who use Twitter to discuss a negative experience. You should avoid a back and forth match with an unhappy customer and take the conversation offline. Be sure to offer them traditional customer care channels. Other basic rules include, accessing the urls in tweets with care. Do not click on links from people you are unfamiliar with.

Also, look out for people who use stalking techniques to try to social engineering information. Most importantly, make sure proprietary business and customer information is protected. Having a strong policy in place for employees to follow is key. Every organization should have a strong policy in place that clearly states the guidelines of how it should be used by employees.

Credit Union Twitter Risks

Guest post by Amanda Vega, Amanda Vega Consulting

So what are the risks and what can organizations and users do to limit such risk?

• Data leaks of confidential or proprietary information: The information that could be leaked includes identity theft, credit card fraud, business plans, confidential data, information about internal operations of the company and availability of personnel or their schedules.

• Malware and viruses: The use of abbreviated URLs makes it easy for the bad guys to mask links to infected sites and to redirect users to websites that they would think twice about visiting. The setting up of fake services could be used to collect credentials and information from that user.

• Improper use: From a corporate perspective, employees can be a threat if they post information that could impact negatively on the business and hurt its integrity. A wrong post picked up by such a wide audience could become a PR nightmare for that business.

• Impulse messaging can be dangerous especially if the user is irate and doesn’t stop to think about the repercussions of his or her tweet. Sending inappropriate tweets is not recommended.

• It is what the end-user does with Twitter that counts. Tweeters need to pay attention to what they are doing, listen carefully and do not trust every single follower who sends them a message. Humans are the weakest link the security chain.

• Customer care: Businesses need to be careful how they deal with disgruntled customers who may use Twitter to discuss a negative experience they had. With only 140 characters at its disposal, a business should avoid getting into a back and forth match with an unhappy customer on Twitter and encourage the client to use traditional customer care channels. Take the conversation offline.

How to counter risk:

• Every business that uses Twitter or any other social media or networking site should have a strong policy in place (and enforced) that clearly states how it should be used by employees. Warn about possible disciplinary action if the policy is violated.

• Emphasize that online conduct must not violate the anti-discrimination policy or other codes of conduct. Warn that the policy must be read in conjunction with the existing Employee Handbook.

• Include a provision prohibiting any conduct that violates federal, state, or local law.

• Direct employees to bring all questions related to the policy or permissible conduct to management.

• Off Duty Conduct - Employers may have broad discretion in disciplining employees where the employer can show that the off-duty conduct has damaged the business, hurt the employer's interests, or is otherwise inconsistent with the employer's business needs.

Some basic rules:

• Think twice before posting. Employees need to think compliance, integrity, security, then post.

• Access URLs in tweets with care. If there is no real need to check out the site, leave it.

• Show employees what to look out for. How to notice when someone is stalking or attempting to social engineer information.

• Avoid confrontation on Twitter. It is a great tool for customer feedback but may not be appropriate for resolving complex issues.

FTC FINAL GUIDES GOVERNING ENDORSEMENTS, TESTIMONIALS

• Definition of an advertisement has been blurred by the use of social media.

• Advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. No more safe harbor – disclosure “results not typical.”

• Material Connections – sometimes payments or free products between advertisers and endorsers, connections that consumers would not expect, must be disclosed. The post of a blogger who received cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement.

• To limit liability look for authenticity – real experiences from real customers/consumers.

• Any endorsement, like any other advertisement, is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

• Company sponsored research – if company refers to findings of research organization, the advertisement must disclose connection between the advertiser and the research organization.

Amanda recently presented for TCUL Annual Meeting& Expo (Grapevine, Texas). She is teaching a new course this summer for Southwest CUNA Management School (Fort Worth, Texas) – “Social Media II: Let’s Be Strategic”.

Credit Unions: New Voices, New Visions - Live in Mississippi

The crew is in Mississippi for the Mississippi Credit Union Association's Annual Meeting & Convention.  We have a lot of great things lined up over the next two days and will be tweeting the sessions as always so feel free to shout out and get involved.

Just following along with James Robert, Jonathan, Aaron and Sarah.

In the meantime, you can watch the quick hello and video update.

Measurement and Marketing: Achieving Real Results

This month, CU Grow will be heading to the MAC Conference in California. We had a chance to chat with one of the session speakers, Anne Legg, VP of Marketing for Cabrillo Credit Union. Anne along with Neil Goldman, President of Member Research, will be discussing the importance of marketing research to achieve better results. Here are a few key points that Anne suggests that credit unions implement to improve engagement with members:

• Analyze member responses from an email campaign and compare to current products that they have with your CU to determine what they might be interested in.
• For Gen Y engagement, take the time to know who and what before developing marketing tactics to reach your specific target market instead of only relying on generalized Gen Y research.
• Email marketing can provide better in-depth knowledge of your members than direct mail for specific campaigns. Understanding more about your members leads to better engagement.

To hear more useful tips from Anne, check out the podcast below:

Thanks for checking out this podcast for useful research tips. If you have a marketing research tip for CUs, shout back and let us know.

CUAC Annual Meeting 2010 - Senator Harvey Interview

While at the Credit Union Association of Colorado's 2010 Annual Meeting, the CU GROW Team caught up with Ted Harvey, Republican Colorado State Senator.  For the past seven years, Senator Harvey has been honored to represent Douglas County in the Colorado House and Senate. He has fought tirelessly for the conservative principles such as: personal and economic freedom, protection of our Constitutional rights, and limited, locally controlled government. Check out our interview below with Senator Harvey and shout back at us!

CUAC Annual Meeting 2010 - Chris Kemm Interview

While at the Credit Union Association of Colorado's Annual Meeting, the CU GROW Team caught up with Chris Kemm, Manager of Grassroots Advocacy at CUAC.  During our interview, Chris discusses how credit unions can get involved in the political game and strategies they can use to facilitate their involvement.  Check out our interview with Chris below and give us a shout back!

CUAC Annual Meeting 2010 - James Robert Lay Interview

While at the Credit Union Association of Colorado's 2010 Annual Meeting, the CU GROW Team had a chat with James Robert Lay following his session on "Building Member Relationships On-line."  James Robert (on Twitter:jrwlay) is the founder of PTP NEW MEDIA.  James Robert has found a home in the credit union movement through helping credit unions grow relationships with members online with interactive web, viral, and social marketing.  Check out our interview with James Robert and don't forget to give us a shout back with innovative ways your CU is working to build member relationships online. 

CUAC Annual Meeting 2010 - Shelly Vils Interview

While at the Credit Union Association of Colorado's Annual Meeting, the CU GROW Team caught up with Shelly Vils after her session on "Lending to Gen Y: Preparing for the Passing of the Torch."  Shelly is the Senior Manager of Credit Union Training at the CUNA Mutual Group. She is responsible for delivering facilitation and coaching expertise as well as design and development tools in order for Credit Union Training Learning Consultants to execute at the highest possible level for their Credit Union Customers. Her team provides training and education to Credit Union staff all over the country. Check out our interview with Shelly below and give us a shout on how your CU is lending to Gen-Yers!

CUAC Annual Meeting 2010 - Ben Rogers Interview

While at the Credit Union Association of Colorado's Annual Meeting, the CU GROW Team caught up with Ben Rogers, who just wrapped up his session on "The Burning Platform: How Collaboration Can Save Credit Unions."  Ben Rogers is the research director of the Filene Research Institute,where he manages and edits a large pipeline of economic, behavioral,and policy research related to the consumer finance industry. He has authored nearly twenty Filene reports, including the Institute's recent young adult research, recruiting studies, and upcoming consumer financial protection and cooperative management reports.  Check out our interview with Ben below and make sure you shout back with ideas and ways your CU is staying current with consumer and young adult research!