02/26/2010

All Young & Free got was a lousy T-shirt...

By Tim McAlpine

... and a bunch of exposure by social media maestro Jason Sadler and his new sidekick Evan White!

We bought another day of shirt wearing on I Wear Your Shirt on Wednesday, February 24. Young & Free received a full day of Tweetin', Facebookin', Flickrin', Ustreamin' and YouTubin' by both Jason in Florida and Evan in California. A highlight was this cool video that Jason put together!

Fun stuff and another successful day on I Wear Your Shirt! Thanks Jason and Evan.

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02/24/2010

Hey, it's Young & Free Day on I Wear Your Shirt today!

By Tim McAlpine

Last year I bought a couple of days on Jason Sadler's iwearyourshirt.com. Our November 17, 2009 day was crazy with all sorts of exposure on MSNBC and the CBS News. Well, today is day two and Jason is well underway promoting all things Young & Free! It will be tough to live up to our day one, but we are definitely looking forward to the fun.

Head over to iwearyourshirt.com to catch the live show and the craziness.

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02/19/2010

Living Young & Free Show 012: Landing a Job, Video Games on the Cheap and the Golden Rules of Haggling

By Tim McAlpine

Josh from South Carolina talks about things to avoid when job searching, Joshua from Texas takes a look at video games on the cheap and Chris from Alabama goes over the three golden rules of haggling.

You can also download all of the episode as a podcast from iTunes. 

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02/15/2010

Young & Free iPhone apps for all!

By Tim McAlpine

We've just released three Young & Free iPhone apps! Each easy-to-use and free iPhone app allows users to browse blog posts and tweets and watch the spokesperson's videos and all of the Living Young & Free Show episodes. We even have a Young & Free HQ app that has all of the regional feeds in one.

+ Download the Alabama Chris Anderso app
+ Download the Texas Josh Garrett app
+ Download the Young & Free HQ app

The plan is to release a new app each time a spokesperson is named. That means we will have new apps for the new spokespeople in Alberta, South Carolina and Tennessee within a couple of months.

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02/08/2010

Announcing the strangest credit union music video contest ever

What if we mashed up "Pants on the Ground", Move Your Money and Why Gen Y Live with the love of credit unions and the public's growing animosity against the biggest of big TARP-taking mega banks as a very strange and wonderful way to promote credit unions? Throw in an Apple iPad and this challenge could not get any more topical! Sounds like good fun huh? Watch the video to learn more.

Now head to the contest page for the complete story.

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02/08/2010

Thing 23 of 30: hire an Internet celebrity to promote your credit union

By Tim McAlpine

Last September, I attempted to write 30 articles in 30 days detailing the things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader. I got to 22 and then proceeded to be buried by work for the next few months. I hate leaving things unfinished, so I'm going to get this list done over the next little while!

Thing 23 of 30: hire an Internet celebrity to promote your credit union

The concept of a celebrity spokesperson is one of the oldest marketing concepts. The reason this marketing strategy is still around is because it works. People relate to people not companies or products.

Most credit unions likely haven't considered hiring a celebrity pitchman because of the huge talent cost and the additional high cost of placing ads on TV.

Enter the web celeb and online video. There are powerhouse personlities on YouTube with audiences that dwarf mainstream media. I'll bet you haven't heard of Fred Figglehorn, Lauren Luke, Shane Dawson, Dave Days, Esmee Denters, Jessica Lee Rose, Tay Zonday, Ryan Higa, Justin Bieber and the countless other YouTube celebs, but trust me, your kids have.

Warning: Some of the videos created by the above personalities may not be safe for work and will likely leave you scratching your head, but trust me, these and other popular video creators generate hundreds of millions of video views. And many of these folks have transitioned to promoting companies and products.

I know you are questioning my sanity, but stay with me. I first wrote about my favorite web celebs Rhett and Link almost two years ago when I discovered that they had been hired to promote Alka Seltzer. The Great American Road Trip campaign was awesome, but I think that their latest campaign is even more brilliant. It's called I Love Local Commercials. Microbilt, a technology company specializing in small business software, has hired Rhett and Link to produce free commercials for companies across the US. Read the FAQs for the low down.

Well last week, they debuted their latest creation, a 90-second web commercial for Bucks First Federal Credit Union in Pennsylvania.

After just five days, this video is now the most watched credit-union-related video of all time with more than 160,000 views. In fact, a companion behind-the-scenes video also has more than 130,000 views!

So before you dismiss this idea, why not do some research to see if there is a popular web celeb in your backyard that would be interested in helping you promote your credit union? If I were a credit union leader, I know I would! It could be a very affordable and effective way to get the word out.

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