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12/10/2008

Credit union fan and interested in testing out Twitter?

By Tim McAlpine

By now you've probably heard of Twitter and may even be actively using it. If not, here's a quick definition.

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

I first blogged about my thoughts last November. Although not nearly as big as MySpace and Facebook, Twitter is growing rapidly. I have been actively using the service for about 18 months. I really enjoy it and get far more out of the contacts and conversations that I have had there compared to Facebook or even LinkedIn.

For professional to professional or business to business, I really see value in spending time on Twitter.

There is also value for business to consumer if you are able to amass a large following. But that's the rub—people don't really like following companies. People like following and conversing with people. Companies that are having success tend to be large national brands like Starbucks, Comcast, Dell, JetBlue, Southwest Air and more. Most of these companies are treating Twitter like a help desk—listening and answering questions when they arise.

I am still skeptical of the value for credit unions, since Twitter is still pretty obscure and it is difficult to find and follow your actual credit union members. Perhaps this will change with more and more people joining and there are rumours about groups and other features coming soon. But, even if you could identify your members, its doubtful whether they will want their financial institution stalking them online!

If you are curious, I suggest setting up a personal account and trying it on for size. For the newbie, though, it can be very difficult to get started and to find like-minded people. But I can help—I just started a Credit Union Fans group on a new website called Twitter Groups. Follow the group members and start tweeting.

Also, make sure to follow me at www.twitter.com/currencytim—I'll definitely follow you back if you put something to do with credit unions in your bio!

Subscribe today + RSS + Blog by E-mail + E-newsletter + Follow me on Twitter

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09/08/2008

Are your credit union's marketing efforts worthy of comment?

By Tim McAlpine

The blog-o-sphere has been buzzing about Microsoft's new Windows Vista ad campaign that debuted last Thursday. I'm not going to add another blog post analyzing whether the first ad is good or bad or whether Windows Vista has any chance of shaking off over a year's worth of awful press and reviews. I'll leave that to the advertising and tech blogs to fight it out.

One thing is for sure though, people are talking about this ad. On and offline. I was at dinner last night at my hotel and I overheard a group of regular folks laughing their heads off, "And Jerry and Bill come out of the mall eating churros. Ha ha ha! It was hilarious."

Relevance to credit unions? I know you don't have $300 million to spend on your next campaign, but this example begs these questions. Are your credit union's marketing efforts:

Memorable?
Different?
Remarkable?

And by remarkable, I mean worthy of comment and discussion—good or bad. Now in the case of Microsoft's latest effort, most of the commentary seems to be negative.

Most credit unions play the middle ground of features and benefits advertising producing results that are not remarkable. No one is interesting in duking it out over a bullet-point list of benefits!

P.S. OK, I will give you my opinion. I'm going to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. I like the first Vista spot. It has layed the ground work for an interesting story to be told. Going head to head with the stellar Apple Mac vs. PC ads is a near impossible challenge. Vista has been publicly lambasted for more than a year. Microsoft and its agency have chosen to take a very different approach. And for that, I applaud them.

I can't wait to see the rest of the campaign play out. Bill Gates makes a great straight man, but the bigger issue for Microsoft is the negative public perception about Windows Vista. I think Vista sucks and I haven't even used it before! No 90-second spot is going to fix that.

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07/09/2008

What 'crapspeak' buzzword gets under your skin?

By Tim McAlpine

A friend of mine sent me a link to this fun article in the Globe and Mail entitled Going forward, rise up against crapspeak.

This got me thinking about words that get under my skin.

When I was in junior high, my Mom often used the word ace to try to be cool and relate to my 13-year-old friends and me. Bless her heart, but that got under my skin.

When I was in high school, Cory Gardner bought a 1974 Dodge Dart that he transformed into a pure American muscle car complete with traction bars, hood locks, fancy wheels and a bunch of chrome engine accessories. He used to say, "Let me give you a peek under the motorhood" to anybody who would listen. That got under my skin.

This was the adolescent crapspeak that is forever lodged in my head. Now, as an adult, there is a whole lexicon of crapspeak that we have to wade through everyday.

Recently, I blogged about viral videos and this set off a cavalcade of conversation on Twitter about words like, viral, cyber and virtual.

But wait there's more. What about value proposition, synergy, leverage, bleeding edge and revenue stream to name but a few.

Then there's job titles like brand evangelist and barista. Barista gets under my skin.

What crapspeak words make you want to club a co-worker over the head with a stapler (so to speak)?

P.S. Come to think of it lexicon and cavalcade sound like crapspeak. Sorry.

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06/01/2008

Semantics: savings versus saving

By Tim McAlpine

I was in Chicago last week presenting at a strategic planning meeting for Fiserv. Another presenter, Peter Tufano, the Sylvan C. Coleman Professor of Financial Management at the Harvard Business School and a Filene Institute Research Fellow, made a statement in his presentation that really stuck with me.

"People today have confused saving with savings."

This is such an interesting insight. Saving and thrift are hot topics with credit unions today as belts tighten and the R word (recession) is being batted around. Consider these statements that we all make.

"I saved $15 today at the grocery store."

"I saved more than $500 on my new plasma screen TV from Costco."

The retail industry has stolen the word 'saving' and redefined it as saving money when spending. Saving used to mean putting money away in a savings account or in a piggy bank. But, now we must spend to save.

What can credit unions do to redefine savings yet again?

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Credit union fan and interested in testing out Twitter?

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What 'crapspeak' buzzword gets under your skin?

Semantics: savings versus saving

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