CU Grow is a credit union blog focused on innovation, communication and collaboration. Join the conversation, get involved and grow with us today. Click to learn more...
When I was introduced to SCMS, my first thoughts were:
I have a degree – no more school for me – “CompSci til the day I die”.
I have friends – I do not need more.
I am not good at networking – what would I say?
How will this help me and my credit union?
My first summer day of SCMS:
I met great people – yes, the first day.
I now had lots of instant friends who were in the same world as me – credit union.
We had fun while we were acclimated to more credit union business.
What I learned:
Time definitely does fly.
You are never too old to learn.
You know more than you think you know.
Your questions can help others.
Sharing is still a wonderful feeling.
You are never too old to meet new friends.
How SCMS helped me:
I was new to the credit union industry and SCMS was the orientation I needed.
I learned more than I thought was possible.
We are a small credit union but I have made contacts and never feel isolated or alone.
I know where to go for help when we need it.
And I never have to re-invent the wheel. Resources are there waiting for me.
What happened to me after SCMS:
Those instant friends are now my BFFs.
I started out as Technical Operations Administrator and am now Manager of the credit union and now confident in this new role.
When our staff turned over 75%, leaving me as the sole leader, I had no need to panic because I knew at least 10 people who had gone through this before and they became my mentors. I had and still have a great support system of people who supported me through SCMS and continue to support me in anything I need. Without my SCMS support, I would have had a major meltdown, but I did not because I knew where to go.
Guest Post - Iris R. Netters, Class of 2008 One of the "Great 08" Class Members Manager, New Mount Zion Baptist Church CU
Do you have talented staff under the age of 30? Are you looking for opportunities to hone and develop their leadership skills? The Texas Credit Union Foundation (TCUF) and Southwest CUNA Management School (SCMS) have joined forces to invest in the future of the credit union system through the SCMS C2C Scholarship – Connect to Collaborate!
The Scholarship? Up to $2,899 (tuition for 2010 SCMS summer session) – The full amount of tuition paid by the student’s credit union will be reimbursed for one student though the TCUF SCMS C2C scholarship. Odds are better than 1 in 55 to win! At the end of the 1st year session of SCMS, the student’s classmates will vote on who exhibited the most leadership on campus. Simple majority wins. In the event of a tie, the scholarship will be split. We will announce the winner during the July 21 graduation ceremonies.
Who is eligible? Credit union professionals under the age of 30 as of August 1, 2010 who are enrolled in the July 2010 first year SCMS session. The credit union must be affiliated with their state league. Enrollment closes at 55 students.
What’s in it for the student?
Connect - opportunity to network and learn side by side with current and future credit union leaders and the school's highly acclaimed faculty.
Collaborate - peer to peer mentoring.
Added value for the 1st year students under the age of 30 - a special leadership packet – top secret contents! - additional bonus opportunities are in the works, like an invite to join 2nd year faculty member, marketing and branding expert, Mark Arnold, for lunch on campus. - VIP seating with industry leaders during graduation.
What’s in it for the credit union?
Connect your rising leaders to a phenomenal credit union network.
Collaborate with your student(s) as work is done to create a strategic business plan for your credit union.
To encourage and mentor up and coming credit union leaders, SCMS C2C will also hold a casual chat for all SCMS students and alumni under the age of 30 on July 20 after the annual alumni/student auction dinner. Watch www.scms.coop additional details. Wait until you see who is coming to campus to spend time with this group!
Coming back from GAC and a total immersion into social media and Twitter, it was great to have some awesome face to face conversations. As I have discussed before, it can be very easy to get so immersed into social media, we forget about physical connections. The Crash the GAC experience was great and so worth it. As some might know, I had some travel troubles with an airline (detailed on Twitter of course) and ended up getting in late Tuesday evening.
After missing the day's events, all that was left to attend was the Crash the GAC tweet up. While I could have canceled the trip due to the airline issues, I decided to go ahead and push forward because I knew that it would be so awesome to get to meet and hang out with the future of the credit union movement.
It was so worth it and way to short as I could have hung out with the "crashers" all night. So many great people. So many great conversations. So many great ideas. And it was awesome chatting face to face.
As I get back to the office and reflect on the week's events, my tweets may slow for a bit to allow time to connect with those back at the office. Check out what Susan Fletcher has to say about social media and your personal health. Great tips indeed. Shout back and share your thoughts and comments below.
===========
A controversial study from the Institute of Biology recently reported that social networking sites such as Facebook could raise your risk of cancer, strokes, heart disease and dementia. The reason: "Increased isolation could alter the way genes work and upset immune responses, hormone levels and the function of arteries and impair mental performance." In other words, not being around other people is bad for your health.
Just to prove I'm not "down" on Facebook, there are studies that show it increases productivity at work. An Australian study found surfing the internet for fun during office hours actually increased employees productivity. The study from the University of Melbourne says "workplace internet leisure browsing, or WILB, helped to sharpen workers' concentration." It goes on to say that people need to zone out for a bit to rest their mind so they can have a higher concentration level.
But communicating with someone on Facebook does not replace human contact. When you minimize or eliminate contact with people you increase your chances of social isolation, loneliness, a negative outlook and ill health. This is true even for introverted people.
Use these Smart Moves so that Facebook doesn't make you sick:
Call someone out of the blue. Not by poking them on Facebook or sending them an email. Pick up the phone and call someone - voice to voice.
Resist the urge to answer your cell phone when you are at lunch with a coworker. The only time I interrupt a conversation to answer my cell phone is if I see the school nurse calling. A fast way to lose connection with someone is to interrupt the conversation with a call from someone else.
Words are a tiny part of communication. Experts say that 7% of human communication comes from words, while 38% is from a person's tone of the voice and a whopping 55% comes from body language. Without face-to-face interaction you are only using 7% of your capacity to communicate.
Find ways to connect. Find a reason to say thank you, offer sympathy to a bereaved friend, give a birthday wish or congratulate someone. What about a "happy belated President's Day" phone call? Even better, St. Patrick's Day is coming up - use this as your excuse to call someone!
Acknowledge people by speaking to them when they enter your presence. My Director of Client Relations, Zan Jones, is a stickler about this. It could be because she has had a career in sales and management and knows the importance of relationships. Zan says that she never passes by someone in the hallway without acknowledging them in some way - usually with a smile and a "Hi." Don't miss a day telling your coworkers, "Good morning."
Serve with someone. One of my favorite ways to connect with people is to volunteer for a project or cause. Volunteer to serve on the board of a nonprofit agency or on a church committee, answer the phones at the hospital or work at the concession stand during your kid's sporting events. By serving in the community you create a personal win-win.
Even the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, understands the importance of spending personal time with other people. In the March issue of Fast Company, he reveals that during what Facebook called its "Christmas break" he and several Facebook employees went to India for the week long family celebration and wedding of 2 Facebook staffers. Now that's a Smart Move!
Susan Fletcher, Ph.D. is a psychologist, author and speaker who specializes in helping individuals, professionals and organizations apply strategies for fast improvement. Her Smart Zone™ strategies provide ways to be a top performer at work and home. To learn more about how to be in the Smart Zone please visit her website at www.FletcherPhD.com or contact Susan at (972) 612-1188 or by email at drfletcher@fletcherphd.com
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:
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?
Aaron (aka @acm1985) just wrapped up his first live stream and was having some audio issues (comes in half way through) but wanted to post this up to give you a sneak peak at what is happening at TechMecca in Austin, TX this AM.
Be sure to check back to your credit union blog as we will be publishing TechMecca content and video interviews. You can also keep up with the latest conference info by following @acm1985 and @jennbills. Hope to see you in Austin for some fun at the state capital!
Check out who will be heading to TechMecca in the video below.
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 1st 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:
“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:
“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 asCrisis 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.
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!
A number of business professionals I work with are still questioning the value of social media. If you are one of the doubters or naysayers, take a moment to read Jeff Bulla's blog on "45 Social Media Trends and Predictions".
He gives some great food for thought as you consider the strategic implications of social media for your organization.
For those who have already embraced social media as a strategic business tool:
What have you learned from your social media journey, both positive and negative experiences. As we move forward, learning from each other helps all of us position foward faster.
How are you leveraging your social media efforts?
Are you using measurements to evaluate your social media impact? If yes, please share what they are and why you chose them a metrics.
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?
- 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!
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:
Calling all nominations for the 2009 C.U.M.A.- Credit Union Movie of the Year Award. Last year Larissa Walkiw, spokesperson for Commonwealth CU’s Young & Free campaign, won the very first C.U.M.A. with The Difference Between Banks and Credit Unions – Part One
. Who will be the winner this year? Who will take the coveted C.U.M.A. home? Blog back with the link to your nomination- to do this post a comment to this article and include a link to the video you are nominating. You can nominate any credit union film you have seen this year- it doesn't even have to be from your credit union. Feel free to nominate more than one. We will have an online vote next week. The winner will be announced Tuesday July 21 at the SCMS Alumni & Student Scholarship Auction & Networking Dinner. The deadline for nominations is July 17, 2009.
The only rules are:
The video is no longer than 5 minutes.
It must have premiered between July 2008 and now
It promotes the credit union industry in a positive way
It is uploaded to a public viewing site: Such as YouTube or a public credit union website.
Summer is officially upon us. The 4th of July has passed and it is getting hot in Texas. What’s next on the list for a lot of us is summer vacation. Where are you going? What do you have planned? Shout back and let us know.
However, when it comes to summer and social media, we are faced with a big dilemma. To stay connected or not… that is the question. And a good one at that. A question that Brad Garland has podcasted about here. Mind you that this was done without a laptop which from a technology stand point is pretty freekin’ cool.
When it comes to technology and staying connected, this has always been a tough and tricky issue between my wife and I. I am uber connected during the week on multiple channels as you know. From email, to Twitter to text to voice.
Southwest CUNA Management School Grad School - Social Media Lab: Credit Unions Get Down & Dirty
It’s time to stop talking about social media, roll up your sleeves, and experience some of the tools first hand. James Robert Lay, Brad Garland, and Kent Sugg team up to divide you up. Attendees will divide into work teams to create various social media elements. You’ll discover that with some strategic thinking, nominal investment, and time, you can effectively take advantage of opportunities afforded you through blogging, polling, podcast, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and more.
Unlike other events where you or your staff attend and get excited about the potential of social media, only to return and hit a dead end because you have no idea where to start, you’ll be in real life scenarios to help you better understand and work with social media when you return home.
Visit the school site for the full Grad School curriculum, schedule and related details.
Open Invite to Credit Union Professionals to Attend the SCMS Fireside Chatwith Robert Gallman and Susan Mitchell - no charge to take advantage of this event and experience the excitement of SCMS!
Swing for a cause - the development of credit union leaders! The 21st Annual SCMS Scholarship Golf Classic is open to all.
It's not too late to enroll as a 1st year student! Plan now to connect with tomorrow's leaders. Enroll today!
Enjoy this fun little flick about Twitter. Sorry for the late post but enjoy Friday, over the weekend or even on Monday morning when you get this in your RSS feed. What better way to get your week started.
1. Listen - if you are just getting into Twitter, listen first. Set up an account then sit back and observe the conversation and see how Twitter really works. Like the video above shows, there is a big misconception that Twitter is a waste of time. Twitter has grown to more than just people spouting off random and pointless tweets about their lives.
3. Discover - as you begin to listen to the conversation on Twitter, you will begin to discover new things. Maybe someone is tweeting about an experience at your credit union. You can even discover new and innovative ways that other credit unions are using Twitter to communicate with their members.
2. Engage - just don't jump into Twitter because it is cool and
everyone else is doing it. Find your purpose and reason for wanting to
use Twitter. I recommend using Twitter as a communication tool and not
a marketing tool.
You may feel overwhelmed at first but start slow. I'll be honest that I have laid off Twitter for the past two weeks after Twittering for two straight weeks at credit union conferences. I needed to disconnect and take a break.
However, as I get caught up on the day to day, I will slowly get back into Twittering more again. Feel free to follow along here: www.twitter.com/jrwlay
Shout back and let us know if and how you are using Twitter at your credit union.
It’s time to rethink strategies and find innovative solutions to today’s challenges. Seeking ways to maximize the return on how time and money are spent is crucial. Southwest CUNA Management School (SCMS) is an environment where applied knowledge and networking are structured to help students find innovative and sound strategies to help position their credit unions forward.
This is the year to seriously consider enrolling yourself or key staff in SCMS — the place to connect with professionals dedicated to the future, an industry think tank.
Two innovative credit union communication tools students initiated over the last year:
YouTube Video (Bank vs. CU Novella) - Kudos Alex Rascon, (SCMS Class of 2010 president, GECU)
This blog, CU Grow - Thank you James Robert Lay and Natasha Melugin (SCMS Cl of 2009) for your vision, commitment, heart and passion!
- Opportunity to be part of shaping the future of credit unions!
The school is intense. Less than 80% of a first year class make it to graduation. Successful completion of the school is something to take pride in. A three-year commitment, this summer's session is from July 12-22.
SCMS offers professional and personal development opportunity, providing a strong base for credit union leadership. Take the challenge. Make the commitment. Enroll today!
Challenges are here, both in the economy and in the workplace. As we deal with challenges and seek solutions, opportunities often present themselves. Now, more than ever, it's important for us to creatively connect both inside and outside of the credit union movement. Together we can find and capitalize on opportunities. I have just the place for you to connect with professionals dedicated to the future.
To help position your credit union forward and develop leaders, consider enrolling yourself and key management team members in Southwest CUNA Management School (SCMS). The SCMS curriculum has been celebrated for years. The growing list of professional credit union leaders to have emerged from the three-year school continue to shape and develop the credit union movement in innovative and positive ways.
To maximize both your personal and professional ROI for this intense school, students should arrive on campus with a strong determination to focus on:
Being ready to capitalize on the broad networking opportunities. Students and alumni represent a wide range of credit union expertise.
Planning to take advantage of the vast expertise offered by faculty. Many bring international experience to the classroom, challenging students with crucial topics. Faculty also encourage students to pursue innovative concepts.
Arriving prepared to actively participate, incubating ideas and contributing to the overall educational experience by offering their own unique perspectives.
Being a part of creating and shaping the future of the credit union movement.
When students arrive determined to take advantage of all SCMS has to offer, the rewards both personally and professionally extend well beyond the year of graduation. Shape the future and make a positive change in the credit union by enrolling in SCMS today. Enrollment is limited to the first 50 students. Seats have been going fast. Only 26 1st year student slots remain.
Students and alumni are encouraged to take full advantage of networking options by also utilizing the SCMS groups in LinkedIn and on Facebook.
Watch for information about the SCMS Grad School on July 22. One of this year's sessions will feature a hands-on workshop about how to create various social media forms of communication.
Very interesting video on change and where the world is going. Now that you do know, how does this affect your credit union? Do you know? Blog back and tell us how!
Lately I have been getting a lot of questions about Twitter. What is it? How does it work? How can it help my credit union. A great conversation follows and lights begin to click. Below is a short video breaking down the basics of Twitter from the people at Common Craft (watch below).
This is freekin' awesome and can deliver such a unique member experience!
Will your credit union be first to market with it? Or will your credit union take the wait and see approach before going this direction. I am not saying this is the end all be all but will surely create a buzz with your members and in your community. Remember the iPhone?
It’s critical we learn how to
maximize our communication options, informing members/customers about valuable
products and services, providing ways for those same members to share their
knowledge/experiences and connect in a “safe”
community. We need to be a trusted resource that they keep coming back to, or
are attracted to, because we add value. We care about their well-being and
success.
As a movement, credit unions have
been built, and continue to thrive, upon the
philosophy of “People Helping People”. With hectic schedules, often crazy
commutes, project overloads, lean staffing and more, it’s even more important
we not only maintain our network, but grow a base of contacts to share
challenges and successes with.
There is an online tool to help! It’s simple, easy to use,
can be updated immediately and best of all: it’s free!
Is LinkedIn something you have just heard about? A place where you
set up your profile (information) a couple of years ago, but haven’t really
thought about since then?
If you haven’t visited LinkedIn in the last three or so
months, I recommend you take a moment to visit and explore this social media
communication and networking tool.
Treat- Carve your own digital pumpkin at The Worlds Online Halloween, and send it you your friends and family!
Trick- Try it, and you will understand the tricky part.
So the Texas Credit Union League Leadership Conference totally rocked! There were so many great sessions, speakers and just plain cool CU people there. It was awesome getting to meet a lot of new friends while reconnecting with old ones.
CU Grow received great response from those at the conference. Everyone saw the power of the blog, communication, and community. Plus they, were super stoked that they would be able to catch some of the breakout sessions that they missed.
One question that was asked over and over again was “how can we keep up with CU Grow”. RSS was the response and then the confused looks like I had tree limbs growing out of my ears started. If you are new to social media, RSS may be a hard concept to grasp at first. No worries though as we have an answer for all your RSS questions in this nice video put together by Commoncraft, "RSS in Plain English".
While we have posted a few sessions below, we will be posting two videos tomorrow and more throughout the week. They videos have just taken a bit longer to prepare. Plus... at the conference... we only got 15 minute between sessions to breakdown the camera/portable podcast studio and move to the next room.
Shout back if you have any thoughts or questions about RSS. We want to hear from you!
authors
spread the word
shout back
rss feed
home page
So the 
powered by ptp new media