A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hearing Gabrielle de Papp, Vice President of Corporate Public Relations for Neiman Marcus, speak about emerging trends in her industry and how Neiman Marcus is working to connect with a new generation of shoppers.

Sometimes I feel as if branches were designed with the intent to confuse. When you walk in, you see several cubicles, offices and of course, the dreaded "rope line." Usually there are a few employees milling about who seem to have no specific purpose. TD Bank created a humorous series of videos that showcase the inefficiency of modern branches.

Retailer Anthropologie came under fire earlier this week for selling a candlestick that many deemed offensive. Several blogs and websites called for them to remove the candlestick from their site, and they did. However, their response when it came to addressing the issue on social media left a lot to be desired.

Since we have safely arrived to this new year (sans a Mayan apocalypse or Justin Biber becoming president) I feel obliged to tell you that if you are currently composing tweets like the one in the headline for your credit union's Twitter account, you should cease immediately.

Last month the website Forward Banker hosted a webinar about the decline of physical banking branches. During the interactive event, they received several comments from those watching. The first one, "If I didn't work at a bank, I would never visit a branch."

Despite my attempts to keep my life (financial and otherwise) organized, I often find myself scrambling at the cash register—do I have enough money to splurge on a drink with coworkers? Did my check get deposited? Mobile banking is one way of reaching out to your member's that is going to become increasingly important in the coming years—heck, for me it's important right now. Here's a few reasons why I (and several of my peers) use mobile banking, sometimes even more than online banking.