Generations, Connections, Stories

A co-worker was seeking a speaker to fill a conference slot. The names she was considering were new to me. I did a Google search to see what their footprint would tell me about them. (What would a Google search say about you? I digress, that’s a different story.) In addition to seeing how active the individuals were in the credit union movement, I found Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. Connections were made.

Josh Allison, CUDE, was selected to fill the presentation slot. I looked forward to meeting him and having a chance to visit at the conference. Our Twitter connection already “broke the ice”.

Based on our conversations, Josh recommended a book he thought I'd be interested in. He was spot on. We discussed the book. We communicate via Facebook, Twitter, email, list serves, talk on the phone, and in person when we have the opportunity. With each connection, our relationship grows. With different knowledge, experience, and passions, we have opportunities to mentor each other.

Different Generations/Perspectives + Shared Passions = Opportunities to Make a Difference

Fast Forward…Clearing out the inbox on a Friday afternoon, I came across an email Josh sent out through the Credit Union Development Educator (CUDE) list serve. With his permission, I’m sharing his story with you:

Good afternoon DE network.

This week, I was watching a variety of www.Bizkids.com videos for an educational project we are working on. I was watching the episode on Social Entrepreneurship. As I watched, the video clips would highlight young adults who had started community nonprofits. They would share why they started their respective nonprofit organization, their socially minded business, or the cause they chose to champion. Causes that included TayBear, Richards Rwanda and Room to Read .

A reoccurring theme ran through all of these videos.

They told a story.

Not any story. Their story. They explained why they took up this cause, and what moved and impacted them. They didn’t tell me about the tax write off I would receive if I donated, who I make the check payable to, or ask how much I could spare? They simply asked for me to listen…and then passionately shared… Recently, I re-watched the powerful story from Jessica Jackley, the founder of Kiva.

Same thing.

She didn’t ask for donations, for people to join her, or to support her and Kiva…she simply shared her experience working with poverty. She shared the need she saw, the emotion she felt and the compassion that compelled her to found Kiva. And it compelled me, too. Then, I jumped on my favorite social site: Facebook. At the end of each page, Facebook politely asks me if I want to see more “stories”.

And I do.

I scan for stories, not sales pitches. Not ads. Not organizations or individuals interested in useless self-promotion. I scan and read, looking for the stories of people I know, hoping to better understand and know them deeper. We crave authenticity…

So, here’s my question: do we have an authentic story to share? I believe we do. When our members come into our credit unions, do they understand who we are, what wedid and what we do? Do they know our story?

More importantly, do we?

Are we sharing authentic stories or selling? Have we resigned ourselves to simply compete on product, price, promotion and place? I wonder, what if we stopped selling with the four P’s and started first with sharing just one: Purpose.

If you’re successfully sharing your authentic story, I’d love to hear from you!

Josh Allison, CUDE

Well said Josh!

Connecting the Dots! Innovative Email Marketing Rock Star Keynotes Marketing & Business Development Conference

What do the following have in common?

• Finalist in 2010 Maryland Small Business of the Year Awards
• Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies 
• Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award Finalist 
• Email Marketing Integration with Facebook Connect 
• Bridging the Gap Between Email Marketing and Social Media 
• Marketing and New Media Leader Chris Penn 

Greg Cangialosi, President & CEO of Blue Sky Factory! 

You might ask how Greg was identified and booked as a keynote speaker for our event. It was a matter of connecting the dots! We connected through new media (Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs), old media (reading a book, phone, email), and personal referral. 

The relationship journey began when I started following @cspenn on Twitter. Liking what Chris wrote, I began to follow his blogs. He caught my attention with his edgy, professional style. One day Chris posted a general tweet asking if we should be connected on LinkedIn? Appreciating the insights Chris provides, believing the one with the most contacts (relationships) wins at the end of the day, I connected to Chris. From there I checked Chris out on YouTube to see if he might also be a skilled presenter. Bingo! Now I wanted to know if Chris would be interested in keynoting our Marketing & Business Development Conference. 

While all of this was developing, I was reading Chris Brogan’s book Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. His description of Blue Sky Factory and how they handle business was the icing on the cake. I was sold and wanted to find a way to work with Blue Sky Factory. And yes, the book was a great read! And yes, I also follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisBrogan. 

Chris Penn treasures family relationships. His brother was getting married the same time as our event. He thought it best he join the family for the ceremony, a most excellent choice I might add. Instead of ending the conversation, Chris asked if I might be interested in their CEO, Greg Cangialosi. I cyber stalked Greg to see what information I could find about him, his blogs, and again going to YouTube to check out Greg’s presentation skills. 

The journey continues. I follow a number of the Blue Sky Factory team on Twitter now. Love the passion and energy they bring to their world.

To connect with credit union professionals and hear Greg live, plan to attend the 2010 Marketing & Business Development Conference, October 6-8, at the Hyatt Regency in San Antonio, Texas. 

Greg will cover: 

The relationship between business and consumer has fundamentally changed due to key shifts in communication tools and the interactions that are now taking place between businesses and their customers and prospects. This new landscape presents both challenges and opportunities to marketers and businesses of every size. 

It can be hard to know where to focus and to find meaning when the newest “shiny object” becomes mainstream or is the all of the buzz. Whether it’s social media, email marketing or mobile, marketers are asking themselves, how can these tools be useful to me? What works and what doesn’t? How do I implement and more importantly measure the effectiveness of my marketing? 

In this session, Greg Cangialosi will discuss how to take a broader, holistic view of this new era of marketing communications. Focusing on the core themes of the shifting consumer mindset and what is important to them when it comes to interacting with a business or brand online. 

Gain knowledge and insight by as Greg shares information about: 

• current market statistics on consumer behavior. 
• examples and case studies of companies who do it right and wrong. 
• how you can implement new strategies to grow your business a glimpse into the future of marketing – what’s coming next?

Greg will also present a breakout session on email marketing.

If you’re looking for fresh ideas on ways to grow you business, come hang out with us in San Antonio. Act fast. Early bird conference and special hotel sleeping room rate end September 9.

Hoping to see you there!

Does Social Media Work for CUs? Let’s find out

A lot of credit unions are wrestling with the business case for social media. Others are adventuring out into the social media arena, looking to see what makes best sense for their business strategies.

Filene Research Institute has launched "groundbreaking research regarding the quantifiable impact of social media marketing strategies."

Can you make a commitment of about two hours over the next year to complete one survey per quarter regarding your marketing activities?

"The results of the year-long research will produce a statistically tested way to predict changes in membership and products per member (or, member share) based on social media activities."

"In plain English: If you keep wondering whether social media is just hype or an effective marketing tactic, this is your chance to find out. We want you and many other credit unions to participate because more responses make for better analysis. In return for your participation, we will provide you with the results of the research. Even if you are not using social media, we would like you to participate."

Credit unions have been built around people helping people. Working together is the best way for us to position credit unions forward. Hoping you make the commitment to be part of this timely project!

Be Strategic About Social Media: Find Your People, Join the Conversation

Social media, however you define it, is a changing environment. Regardless of what you call it, think about it, or the tools you use, it’s out there. And yes, the tools change. It’s not about the tools. It is about the people, relationships, value, authenticity, and conversation. It’s about growing your business and serving your community.

Make a strategic decision.

• If customers/members and potential customers/members are having a conversation which relates to your products and services, it’s in your best interest to be part of the conversation. Find out where the conversations are occurring. If they are at the local business club monthly meeting, show up. If they are on Facebook or Twitter, listen, share, and interact.
• If they are not talking about your credit union, products, or services online, no worries. Or not? Have you provided products and services worth bragging about? Has your competitor? Have your service levels slipped? Your products fallen behind the times? Do you want to know what people think? Look, listen, and learn. Be strategic about whether or not social media makes sense for your credit union and market.

If you make the strategic decision to incorporate social media into your marketing and business development plan, be strategic about what you do.

• Don’t set up a credit union Facebook page just because someone else did.
• Twitter is not a 140 character commercial. It’s a place to help people find connections, learn about cool stuff/resources, and know more about your credit union and what you have to offer. Select the tool or tools best suited for your team and your members.

Southwest CUNA Management School has two courses this summer with limited seats available to help you further explore and expand your knowledge about social media.

Social Media I: Getting Acquainted
Dr. George Low - Texas Christian University (TCU)
July 20 (1-4:30 pm) with 1st Year Students

Social-networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn have seen unprecedented growth in recent years. Consumers are creating their own content on blogs, YouTube, and are rating products and services on message boards and other sites, presenting unique challenges and opportunities for marketers to use these social media to communicate with current and potential customers, and to build lasting relationships with them. The objective of this course is to give students valuable knowledge and skills needed to take advantage of these powerful social marketing tools. Teaching/learning methods will include class discussions of current trends and issues, mini case studies, and the sharing of experiences, ideas, and best practices in using social media as part of a broader strategic, integrated, marketing communications effort in the credit union industry.

Social Media: Let’s Get Strategic
Amanda Vega – Amanda Vega Consulting
July 19 (1-4:30 pm) with 2nd Year Students

You’ve heard about social media, have been dabbling on your own, or have incorporated elements of social media at the credit union. How do you advance to the next level? It’s time to get strategic with Amanda Vega, Amanda Vega Consulting. In this open discussion that is part information and part hands-on learning, plan to explore and discuss:

• What are the challenges and successes associated with social media in the credit union industry and who ultimately owns it?
• Advanced uses and tools in social media to help you get to the next level (comment marketing anyone?).
• The executive team isn’t buying into this marketing activity or simply doesn’t “get it.” – now what? How to and ensure buy-in from the decision makers
• New research on tracking, monetization and the like (a Facebook fan is worth more than $138) and the new tools that are out there to help quantify these efforts.
• Social media compliance, regulation, and policy tips
• Taking your social media to the next level, communication as a whole, arming you with real information and engagement suggestions.

If you’re looking to develop your team or enhance your skills, plan to join us on the TCU campus (Lupton-Brown University Union). Limited seating available on a day rate. For more details, visit www.scms.coop or contact Janine McBee, SCMS Synergist & Director.

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 Union Video Contest - Vote #8

In an effort to help spread the credit union love of people helping people, I now ask for your vote in the Young & Free video contest. Watch the campaign video below then click here to watch video number #8. Furthermore, to help you out, you can join the move your money movement and the campaign with three simple steps (WATCH, VOTE, SHARE). 

=====================================================

1. WATCH - I invite you to first watch the videos that we produced for this challenge. Wanting to go above and beyond, the entire www.cuswag.com and www.ptpnewmedia.com teams came together to make something special.

We produced not one but two videos for this challenge to show our love for credit unions in addition to the microsite: www.isyourmoneyinthebank.com

Click to Watch Video #8 | Click to Watch Video #13 (the remix)

=====================================================

2. VOTE - After you have watched our videos above and see our true love and passion for credit unions, I now ask for your vote. It will take only 30 seconds to cast your vote for Video #8 - James Robert Lay.

Click Here to Vote for Video #8

=====================================================

3. SHARE - Once you have watched the video and have voted for video #8, I now ask you to help spread the word and share the credit union love with your friends, family and co-workers.   

You can share by sending emails, tweeting, Facebooking, texting or simply telling those around you to repeat the same three steps (Watch, Vote, Share).

CUNA GAC Twitter Recap & Archive - #GAC10

It was awesome getting to hang out and meet everyone at the GAC last week.  We have pulled out all the #GAC10 tweets from Twitter before the bird gets hungry and eats them all.

Take a look at all the innovation, communication and collaboration going on last week in DC. Wow!

Transparency, Authenticity, Honesty and Passion for Topics and Brands

Thanks go out to ConversationAgent by Valeria Maltoni for a little morning inspiration! Time to put your thinking caps on.

Transparency, authenticity, honesty and passion are commonly thought about and addressed as people navigate a wide variety of social media channels. If they are not being thought about, warning, do not pass go. Please slow down and give these areas serious consideration. You owe it to your customers, employees, board of directors, share or stock holders. What are the norms for your business environment? Your team?

Take a moment to hop on over to a blog referenced by a tweet from @ConversationAge:

Diva Marketing Blog - "Where Does 'Transparency' Fit In The New Social Media Marketing Model?" The post highlights insights from 39 people active in social media.

Questions that raced through my mind:

• Should your organization have degrees of transparency?

• Is it important for your audience to know who writes copy for your communication channels?
  To know who is responding to them?

• Do you have content strategy? Communication goals? Are you having conversations and building relationships?

• How personal should your social media, public conversations be? As work and personall communication channels blurr, when are you simply yourself and when are you representing your company? Both 24/7/365? Are we ready for that?

• What lessons have you learned?

Social Media, Patience & Education - Looking Back & Reflecting Forward

Following up on two recent posts by James Robert Lay about "Credit Unions, Twitter, Service and Brand Management"...

Those who know me, know I did not embrace Twitter and Facebook until this last summer. Had enough on my plate already without adding any additional distractions or diversions from the work at hand. Many conversations, yes, real conversations, diving in, listening, learning and lots of coaching later, I now champion both tools. And, yes, I'm still learning.

As director of a leadership development school for credit union professionals, reaching my target market is crucial. The ability to develop a relationship with future students before they come to campus helps us to maximize their experience. You do become vulnerable when you put yourself out there. At the same time, you also gain strength and support as you spend the time to establish relationships and learn together. All relationships take time to develop.

As senior director of training for the Texas Credit Union League, finding new speakers and topic ideas help me to better serve our membership. When I’m looking for subject matter experts, tweets and blogs help me get a better picture about the speaker, as well as topic ideas to meet the needs of our membership.

As someone who likes to use financial services, I appreciate when I see tweets alerting me to special hours of business, challenges with websites/ATMs, financial management tips, and more. Time is precious. I like it when someone cares enough to save me time.

As a member of a various communities, it's nice to know where and when there are opportunities to serve and give back.

As the mother of a freshman college student, twitter is how I get campus wide alerts.

Some of my aha moments included:

1)     Twitter provided a no cost way to set up crisis communications when we had students on campus. (Grateful the need to use did not arise.)

2)     Twitter provided a way for me to bring subject matter experts into the classroom for brief periods of time who could not have been there otherwise.

3)     After linking Twitter to Facebook, I was finding some people were more likely to respond to tweets through Facebook. Hmm. Unproven conclusion – until social media tools and applications are sanctioned in the workplace, people are more likely to respond on personal time through Facebook (unless they have cool phones).

4)     Innovation and new ideas are important as you work to position your company forward. By strategically selecting who and what topics I follow, I’ve found solid information with minimal time.

5)     Engaging with the right people through social media grows valuable relationships. It’s always been important to reach people in the manner they wish to be communicated with. I have treasured contacts who prefer Twitter or Facebook for 1^st point of contact. From there we migrate to other forms of communication as appropriate.

6)     Sometimes you just need a little laughter to break up your day or to know that there are good news stories out there.

Before writing this, I did a little research on tweet posts over the last 24 hours from folks I follow:

1)     5 Sure-Fire Ways to Operationalize Social Media by Jay Baer

“And in 2010, we’re going to move from experimentation to methodology. It will be the year that the real-time Web and social media become operationalized.”

I agree with Jay that 2010 will see a lot of social media strategic decisions made and processes refined.

2)     As someone who loved the efficiencies of RSS feeds for storing key topics in a summarized fashion, I find myself following into the same scenario that Richard MacManus describes in:

RSS Reader Market in Disarray, Continues to Decline
December 20, 2009 - ReadWriteWeb.com

“One of the interesting trends of 2009 has been the gradual decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news and niche topics. Many of us still use them, but less than we used to. I for one still maintain a Google Reader account, however I don't check it on a daily basis. I check Twitter for news and information multiple times a day, I monitor Twitter lists, and I read a number of blogs across a set of topics of most interest to me. “

3)     @MattRhodes directed me to “Social Media as  Crisis Management Tool”
FreshNetworks - “I have a client who once said to me: “We want to use social media to attract more complaints”. This may seem an odd thing to say, all too often attracting complaints is a reason people cite for being anxious about using social media. But this client knew that one part of their service didn’t always perform as well as they might hope. They also knew that nobody ever really complained to them. They must be complaining somewhere, they thought, and we’d like them to be complaining to us.”

He goes on to note some uses for social media in context of crisis management:

·         Keep people up-to-date

·         Represent your brand

·         Engage people talking about you

·         Communicate strategically through hub and spokes format

All this to say that conversations are happening.

1)     We have to be better about telling the good stories and turning around the bad ones. Social media tools provide opportunities to do so. It’s time to hone our skills to take advantage of these dynamic, rapidly evolving forms of communication.

2)     New information is coming at us faster than we can absorb. Social media tools help us gather data and information rapidly. However, don’t let social media be your only research source.

Be deliberate. Have a strategy. Join the community. Looking forward to exciting things in years to come as we work together to innovate forward.

Credit Unions, Twitter, Service and Brand Management - 2 of 2

As I posted a real life example and case study about how credit unions can use Twitter to provide service to members and manage their brand online yesterday (click here to read the great discussion and comments), it highlighted the dark side (cue Imperial March... sorry bad Star Wars reference) of social media. 

Today's post will highlight how one credit union was able to turn a negative situation into a positive experience for a credit union member. The ironic thing is this example was found while researching yesterday's blog post. In brief summary, @navyfcusucks also writes and maintains a blog to document his and other people's dislike and hate for Navy FCU.  Once again, this is killer to the Navy FCU brand as you can see the key words used for how people find his blog site.

However, I also found he highlighted a very positive story as well on his web site. This at the time of writing (12/20/2009) was featured on his blog site's home page with the title "An Example of How Credit Unions are SUPPOSED to Work".

The post goes on as quoted below:

"I was looking through YouTube today at some credit union stuff and I happened upon this video: LINK

Now, it isn’t the video that caught my eye, but rather a comment made by a viewer about his unpleasant experience with Bellco Credit Union. What happens next? He receives a reply IN THE YOUTUBE COMMENTS AREA from Bellco’s VP of Customer Relationship Management, with an apology and a phone number to call her personally. The next posting is by the guy who made the complaint stating that everything has been taken care of.

See for yourself:

This is what customer service looks like. This is an example of how to make members feel like being part of a credit union is something special."

Bellco Listens. Does Your Credit Union?

The interesting thing to note about this response from Bellco CU is that the video where the comment was posted was not a Bellco CU video.  It was simply a Banker Spank parody video that was posted on You Tube which also includes many other comments as well.

Bellco CU was able to use social media listening tools (Google Alerts, search.twitter.com) to hear what was being said about their brand in the social media world.  They should be applauded for not only listening, but responding and turning a negative situation into positive one.  Not only did one member learn that they are being heard, but everyone who reads the follow up from Bellco, this blog post as well as the other knows that Bellco listens to their members. 

Is your credit union listening to what is being said about your brand online? Are the tools and people is place to respond as needed without having to go through 5 layers of corporate approvals to water down a message? 

This is where the magic happens. This is where credit unions can turn members into advocates for them. Shout back and share your thoughts.  I would love to hear from you!

Credit Unions, Twitter, Service and Brand Management - 1 of 2

Editor's note: Click here to read the follow up and continue the conversation on "Credit Unions, Twitter, Service and Brand Management - 2 of 2".

This post is a follow up to my last comment about credit unions and Twitter on the CUES Skybox blog written by Christopher Stevenson.  It has been so exciting to see the way the conversation has transpired.  In brief summary, there has been a great discussion there about how credit unions can use Twitter to connect and build relationships.

I ended my last comment on a note about how credit unions can use Twitter to provide service to members.  This was prompted by some good thoughts from Jeffry Pilcher. Credit unions can and must protect their brand (brand management) through providing service resolution on Twitter and other social networks.  With social media, organizations are no longer in control what is being said about their brand (good or bad). 

To recap, my challenge to credit unions is to let their front line start tweeting/faceboooking. What are credit unions afraid of? Why are they afraid to give up control when it comes to having relevant conversations through social media?

Traditionally, credit unions don't put duck tape over the mouth of their front line staff when interacting with members face to face in the branch. What is the difference when bringing the conversations online?  As I say in my sessions when speaking around the country about social media, "Social media is not about technology. Social media is about sociology. It's about connecting people with people."

On the note of taking care of problems in public, there is one credit union that I would say has such a huge opportunity here.   Take this as free advice/strategy and I hope it helps some of you.  Consider this a living and breathing case study of brand management and service delivery on Twitter.

When you are the "world's largest credit union", you have a lot of eyes on you (member, non-member and industry alike).  Navy FCU has a Twitter account with 801 followers but they are only following 164. Why the big disconnect here?  Why are they not following more people back?

I just checked out their twitter stream and it looks like they are doing a good job of having conversations and not just using twitter as a broadcast marketing channel (spray and pray as Denise Wymore put it above).

However, on the flip side, there is a very disgruntled Navy FCU ex-member who is also on Twitter (Does your credit union have one of these?  Maybe he is not as tech savvy but that time may come). He has 467 followers.  In brief summary, the goal of @NavyFCUSucks is to RT and spread tells of hate/disgust from people who are tweeting about how bad Navy FCU is and why they hate them as a credit union. WARNING: There may be some strong language on the twitter stream that may offend you.

This is the dark side (enter Darth Vader) of social media. Navy FCU can't control what is being said about them in the market place.  However, if I was Navy FCU, I would be following @NavyFCUSucks so that any person that gets re-tweeted on his twitter stream would be followed up with to try to rectify the situation all why managing their brand in the social media world.  I did check out the Navy FCU followers and could not find @NavyFCUSucks on there.

Navy FCU could also go a step further and set up listening tools like a search.twitter.com RSS alert that uses key words like "NFCU", "Navy FCU", "Navy FCU Sucks", "NFCU Sucks", etc.  This way, they would be notified when ever these terms are used together. (Note: when i just did a search on Twitter for "NFCU" on Sunday 12/20/2009, the first three results were negative references towards Navy FCU).

While not all issues or complaints may be valid, at the very least, the public will know that Navy FCU is listening and responding.  This interaction and engagement is a key to turning a negative experience into a positive one, and turning a member into an advocate for your credit union.

I would love to hear your thoughts and take on this.  Please do shout back below and carry on the conversation.  Feel free to also tweet a link to this post on Twitter to get others to share their thoughts and ideas as well. I would also love to hear from @NFCU as well as from @NavyFCUSucks to get their viewpoints and maybe we can get them to work out a truce as well.

Vendors Invited to Become Rock Stars through YouTube Video Contest

Are banks and credit unions in your target audience? Are you looking for new and creative ways to attract potential clients and help keep existing clients loyal ?  TechMecca has just the contest for you. Create an informative video of value to the financial industry and you are on the road to stardom. Now is the time to create some buzz and become a rock star!

Hi Mom! Live at the Mobilize.org Conference! Watch Below...

Watch a live stream from mobilize.org conference and get involved with the chat on the credit union blog.

Are you still undecided about or dismissing social media?

No matter what form of social media that comes to mind, blogs, twitter, facebook, and so on, they are simply another form of communication. In a recent conversation with Amanda Vega she described social media as being similar to conversations at a cocktail party. Some conversations are more engaging than others. And yes, some conversations may send you desperately running away in search of more interesting people to be around. There are even times when you have no real interest in any conversation at the party and you flee from the event.

As with any communication medium, there are those who prefer one form or another. As you weigh the value of social media, ask yourself  “how do people I want to serve, sell to, or have relationships with, communicate?” If no one in your world tweets or spends time on Facebook, by all means, you don’t need to go there. In today's competitive market place, identifying how people prefer to communicate is a solid strategy to position your business forward.

A big part of who I am is built around developing relationships with credit union professionals, speakers, and service providers.

A younger credit union COO I know probably won’t answer a phone call unless you are already listed as “OK” when your phone number pops up, doesn’t care to read paper based mail, and prefers not to use email. I had to make a decision. Is he important enough for me to want to have a conversation with? Absolutely! Because I do value the relationship, I choose to communicate the way he prefers - via Twitter. Does that mean we don’t email, talk on the phone, or visit in person? No. However, we have established a way to stay connected and strengthen our relationship through Twitter and Facebook. Because of the relationship, many more channels of communication and business opportunities become open.

Another of our CEOS just wants a phone call. He said if I called him he'd send me a student every year. Easy enough. I'm happy to place the call to keep the relationship and build the business. And yes, I learned this through good old fashioned face to face communication and asking for the business.

As we go forward and wrestle with various forms of communication, it's not as easy as what form will I choose. It is all about strategy. No matter the form of communication, or how many channels you feel are appropriate for your business, spend some time assessing the form, style, value, and direction for each. Take a tip from Seth Goodin as he compares social media to a hammer, "The best way to find the right tool for the job is to learn to be good at switching hammers."

Ask yourself where are the conversations occurring that are important to me and my company? Be deliberate. Form the relationships and join in the conversation by both listening and speaking. Bring value to the conversation and be real.

If you have already embraced social media, what are you doing to enlighten others about the business value of the medium?

Lessons Learned Thru Twitter - Twitter, Customer Service and Good Brand Management

- Building the Business Case for 140 Precious Characters

Checking this morning's tweets, I came across @ConversationAge Twitter, Customer Service and Good Brand Management http://ow.ly/yz2H.

She got my attention and I followed her link. For those of you serious about brand management and customer service, I recommend spending some thought time reading Valeria Maltoni's post. She addresses how those 140 character twitter messages have the potential to directly impact your brand and can function as a customer service tool.

She gives great tools about how to track tweets about your company. Maltoni goes further, nothing that "online monitoring is broader than Twitter", as she mentions additional web monitoring sites.

Keep exploring and learning as online communication channels grow and develop. Join the conversation, develop the relationships, and keep positioning forward!

Tweet on my friends.

Video - Credit Unions can Educate and Build Relationships with Email, Text and Twitter

We caught up with James Robert Lay (on Twitter: jrwlay) again at the TCUL Leadership Conference and Exploration Expo following his session on how credit unions can build relationships with text, Twitter and email marketing.  Most people now spend more time reading their emails than they do surfing the web. Email is one of the most powerful communication channels that credit unions can use to communicate with members.  However, email marketing has been tainted with activities such as SPAM and phishing.  A credit union can still effectively build relationships with members through email education.  Furthermore, text messaging is another growing communication channel when done properly.  Finally, James Robert discussed different ways credit unions can use Twitter to listen, learn and engage members in a real and authentic way. 

Check out the video below as we chat with James Robert and don't forget to give us a shout on the effective ways your credit union is working to communicate and connect with your members!

Helping People Understand Twitter and Other Social Media

When reviewing the weekly update from one of my LinkedIn groups, I came across the following post from David Pittman (Sr. Director, Marketing Communications, Initiate Systems, Inc.). I found his approach insightful and have his permission to share…

My company recently jumped headlong into social media, becoming active on Twitter, Facebook, and, LinkedIn, with soon-to-roll plans for other social media outlets. As the marketing communications director, I'm responsible for getting all this action rolling. That means I also field a huge range of questions from co-workers.

The most frequent type of question I get is "How is [X] different from [Y]?", especially "How is Twitter different from Facebook?" To help my colleagues understand the different social networks, I borrowed from my product marketing friends and created personas for each network. Each persona is the name of a fellow well-known employee, so everyone can quickly picture the personality of each social network and the 'feel' we will try to give to each in our communications.

Below are the personas I wrote, with the names changed to protect the guilty.

• Our blog is like Tom C: authoritative but with a humorous edge. Invites other opinions.
• Twitter is like Bill F: clever, witty and fun; easily interacts with other people; not afraid to ask thought-provoking questions.
• The website is like Ginger K: organized, has everything you need. Isn’t as outgoing as other media, but is always ready to interact with you.
• Flickr is like Emily G: has all the images, pictures and graphics you could want. (One person added, “And is easy to use.”)
• YouTube is like Dr. Robert H: has depth and technical knowledge, but also has a funny personal side.
• LinkedIn is like Alexandra T: knows everybody; exudes a professional demeanor; isn’t afraid to reach out and make connections.
• Facebook is like Ted P: cheerful, congratulatory and social. Reaches out to other people, encourages interaction among different people, has lots of friends; is able to integrate personal and professional.

What do you think of the characterizations he applied to each social network? What changes would you make?

Building the Business Case for Social Media - Come on in, the water's fine

My venture into social media began a little over a year ago as a result of a conversation with two young men before they were about to do a presentation at Southwest CUNA Management School (SCMS) for alumni and students. The students had arranged for the presentation about the basics of social media. At the time this was all new to me and I wasn't ready to embrace any of it. However, James Robert Lay and Brad Garland impressed me. They were young, professional, passionate, and communicated well. It wasn't even the presentation that got my attention. It was how they approached business. Since then they have both become treasured friends and mentors.

One of the lessons I was reminded of when visiting with James Robert and Brad was to invest time in getting to know professionals outside of your own generation and beyond existing customer/member and vendor relationships. As relationships grow and new ones are formed, when we are looking for them, there are numerous opportunities to learn from each other. Collaborations can be a driving force to help position forward.

James Robert coached me through basics of blogging, eventually opening the door for me to blog on this site. As with most social media tools, the advice was to observe first. See how the media is used. Find blogs that interest you. Participate by commenting. Submit guest blogs. Learn how to stand up. Walk. Run. You decide each step of the way how quickly you want to progress.

I was introduced to RSS feeds. Cool. They saved me time by organizing blogs with information that was of interest to me directly into files in my Outlook. Now, when I have time, I can quickly review information, looking for new ideas and innovative approaches. To position forward we need to be finding new ways to do business.

LinkedIn is still my favorite, though this one seems to be more difficult to get folks to "buy into". To me it's more professional. One of the challenges is for folks who ventured into LinkedIn when it was primarily a HR recruiting/job hunting communication tool. They tend to think, been there, done that, tool has no value. It has evolved beyond it's HR/Job function, though it still has elements related to that. I like the ease of sharing news and starting/following discussions. I much prefer following a discussion here as opposed to weeding through email or twitter strings.

Facebook. Twitter. Waiste of time? Why bother? To maintain and grow market share, as well as position forward, we need to reach people beyond our traditional market(s) and contacts.

Before SCMS began this summer, I had just started to explore Twitter as a communication tool. During some idea generating sessions we used Twitter for live comments. As the process evolved, we realized that Twitter had power to bring expertise immediately into the conversation or to share "back home". No travel. No expense. Real time.  We had strategic "experts" join our classroom conversation from New York, Washington D.C., and California. The experts gained new ideas. Credit union employees were able to be part of the conversation, gaining insights, without leaving the office. All players won.

Recently Brad posted a twitter offering to help on projects. I took him up on his offer with a simple request for him, but something that would have taken me time to figure out. I wanted to sync twitter with facebook and had not spent the time to figure out how to do it. He made it happen with a few key strokes and I was off and running.

This morning I posted on Twitter that I was looking for ways to help folks see the business case for social media. Darrell Bahr picked up my message on facebook, sending me the following reply:

"Need case studies/examples. CU people are largely numbers people, so they need something tangible and proven/tested before they will try something so "radical". A few places to look:

Link 1

 

Link 2

 

Yes, I could keep going on. This just scratches the surface. But another lesson learned, you have to manage time. My other duties are screaming at me. 

 

Care to share ways to show the business value of various social media tools? I'm all eyes and ears - shout back.

Credit Union Twitter Idea - Will Tweet for Food

How far is your credit union willing to take Twitter? Are you ready to move past tweeting regurgitating marketing messages. The latest rates, loan promotions, and press releases?  Think outside the bird and start doing some crazy things.  Get people engaged and talking.

We have developed some pretty cool offline word of mouth campaigns and are working on one that involves Twitter as a key player but not as you might traditionally think of a credit union using Twitter.

To help nspire you (shout out to @jaduplant), check out how Twitter is being used on the East Coast and West Coast with the two videos below:

Props to @mrjlay for shooting this video over to me.

Is your credit union using Twitter? How are you guys using it? Are you just "talking" or are you listening and conversing? Is the conversation one way or two ways. What has the response been?

A word of warning, we are finding through our research and focus group that Twitter is NOT a key communication channel at this time for the traditional Gen Y credit union member.  This is not to say that Twitter can not be an effective communication channel for your credit union but it is important to note and set clear expectations.

Shout back and share your credit union Twitter experience or tweet me up here: @jrwlay

Either way, I look forward to your thoughts and ideas so that we can all can innovate, communicate and collaborate together.