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04/27/2007

Is your credit union embracing blogging and social networking yet?

By Tim McAlpine

From the research I've done, very few credit unions are participating in and taking advantage of all of the Web 2.0 tools available to them. For a Wikipedia definition of Web 2.0 click here.

Sure, most every credit union has a website and online banking, but does your credit union communicate with your members in an open, two-way conversation? Are you aware that your members are talking about your service or lack thereof online for everyone to read? I doubt it. Credit unions need to get smart and savvy and pay attention to the new Web reality. Here's a quote from the cover article from last's month's issue of Wired Magazine.

Get naked and rule the world

Smart companies are sharing secrets with rivals, blogging about products in their pipeline, even admitting to their failures. The name of this new game is RADICAL TRANSPARENCY, and it's sweeping boardrooms across the nation. Even those Office drones at Dunder Mifflin get it. So strip down and learn how to have it all by baring it all.

Here are some examples of credit unions opening up

+ Vancity's Change Everything site and CEO blog This is a phenomenal social network site with absolutely no marketing speak. All credit unions should be studying this example—it is truly authentic and perfectly aligned with Vancity's brand. This is the model of the future. The link given is CEO Dave Mowat's blog. With Dave's recent announcement that he is leaving for ATB in Alberta, this was a great forum to allow his members to speak out about his decision. From what I can tell, this appears to be the only CEO blog in the Canadian credit union system. If I am wrong, please leave a comment with a link to others. I feel other CEOs need to be consistently blogging.

+ Aware Teens by Forum Credit Union Forum Credit Union, located in Indianapolis, IN has set up an interesting forum for teens. They ask a question each month like, "what summer job would you like to have?" and "what is your favourite winter activity?" Today's youth are so savvy with computers and technology; they are tapped into MySpace, Facebook, Digg and other social networks. Kids' expectations of blogs, forums and social networks is extremely high, so if you do try to engage them, you better not go only half way. The Forum Aware Teen blog is fairly new and a little light and fluffy which might explain why the questions get less than 10 answers each, but it's a start. I believe that all credit unions need to be talking to the up-and-coming youth. Their bank competitors definitely are.

+ Verity Credit Union Verity Credit Union, headquartered in Seattle, WA totally gets it. A dozen staff members contribute regularly and the topics are fresh and well-written. They engage members and are really trying to improve communication by talking about tough topics. You can tell that this blog is not going through multiple edits and public relations polish. It is active and there is great dialogue gong on. This is a great example to follow. It is what a credit union blog should look and feel like. The grammar experts out there might find the occasional typo that I spotted offensive, but I think it actually adds to the authenticity. Well done Verity!

+ Service One Credit Union Brown Knows CU Blog I am not sure if the name of this blog was intentionally meant to be funny or not, but the name of Valerie Brown's CEO blog has a double meaning that she might not be aware of! Growing up, I knew a different definition for brown nose! (click here). Joking aside, this is a good example of a CEO regularly writing to members. However it's disappointing that you cannot leave comments. To her defense there is an e-mail option. There is an expectation in the blogosphere (here's another Wikipedia definition for you) that a blog should be a two-way conversation. When a blog doesn't have a comment mechanism that posts automatically, it makes you feel like the author is afraid of what might be said.

A closing word from the wise

Ron Shevlin, a VP from Epsilon, a leading interactive marketing firm in the US has a clever blog that often touches on the banking and credit union world. Here is a wonderful diagram of how your credit union should be communicating online!

What are you waiting for? Open and start engaging your members and potential members online!

P.S. I finally got our blog setup in Technorati. Here is my Technorati Profile

UPDATE: The comments on this post have really sparked a heated debate on the definition of social networking. Click here for Ron Shevlin's blog and here for Gene Blishen's blog to read more.

Comments

1) Shari Storm @ Apr 29, 2007

Hey! Thanks much for the shout out.

We are actually upgrading our blog (getting off blogger, adding photos, etc) next week. Stop by and take a look.

Have a fabulous weekend.

- Shari Storm (Verity CU)

2) Gene Blishen @ Apr 29, 2007

Interesting Tim. One does have to remember that social networking takes on different forms. One is the web, the other is talking to members, regularly, all the time, everyday. At the AGM on Thursday night there were probably only 5 people we didn't know. The technology is great but the face to face conversation is something that should be considered the best. Sometimes my Saturday is spent just talking to the members that come in the branch.

- Gene (Mount Lehman Credit Union)

3) Tim McAlpine @ Apr 29, 2007

Good point Gene! Actual conversation is the ultimate social networking. Your point makes me wonder what is the exact size of membership where it becomes necessary to engage members collectively instead of one to one? I am guessing it is somewhere around 10,000 members.

With the size of your single-branch credit union it is actually possible to have a relationship with every member, whereas, it is impossible for Dave Mowat at Vancity to even know the names of 1% of his 340,000 members!

We deal with a number of credit unions in the 70,000 to 100,000 member range. I'll bet your AGM drew about the same numbers as these credit unions!

The other aspect of social networking is the member attraction side. I think that a blog really gives a potential member a taste of what to expect. It is a great way for a credit union to get it's point of view and personality across.

- Tim

4) Ron Shevlin @ Apr 29, 2007

First off, thanks for the link to my site, Tim.

Second, while it may be true that "very few credit unions are participating in and taking advantage of Web 2.0 tools", it would still appear that, compared to banks, a lot more CUs are at leat doing something. In the scheme of things, Web 2.0 tools are pretty new -- we can't expect everyone to jump in all at once.

And Gene makes an interesting point that (sorry, Gene) I feel could be detrimental to the adoption of Web 2.0 tools and more importantly, the adoption of new techniques to interact and communicate with customers/members. The term "social networking" has come to denote the use of Web tools. But when we start applying the term to things we've done all the time in the past ("talking to members, all the time, everyday") in could serve to dilute the term's meaning. This could just lead some senior execs to become confused about we're talking about when we say "social networking" because they can't distinguish it from a million other things.

There's some history here. Over the past 15 years or so, the terms "reengineering" and "knowledge management" have both suffered the same fate. They became all things to all people and acquired bad reputations (undeservedly). If "social networking" is going to be applied to every form of communicating with members, it may suffer the same fate.

- Ron

5) William Azarof @ Apr 29, 2007

Hi Tim. Thanks for the great comments and discussion.

Ron makes an outstanding point. As a CU, we do a lot to engage our members, but web 2.0 offers us a unique forum to do this, not just with our members but with the community at large.

I think this is exactly why CUs have jumped in on this more than banks. We're used to being more open and transparent as member-owned institutions than the banks.

William (Vancity)

6) Colin @ Apr 30, 2007

Nice summary Tim. Don't be too hard on CU's because they are leading the charge in Social Banking 2.0 (for want of a better moniker). There are others including UFirst (boardcast.typepad.com), and I applaud CU's for recognising the alignment with their natural community focus.

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Is your credit union embracing blogging and social networking yet?

Get naked and rule the world

Here are some examples of credit unions opening up

A closing word from the wise

Comments

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