Now that’s insightful! By far the best comment I’ve read yet in this thread!

If informal and “social” interactions with Members and others is not a significant part of your planned or desired “face” to your market – and after 30 years of interacting with some of you, I can certainly understand why that might be the case (that’s a joke, folks) – then of course NONE of the various and wildly popular social networking channels is worth your time.

If, on the other hand, your Member demographics, business strategies, desired growth direction, etc., etc., call for focus on younger and/or more tech-savvy Members or potential Members, then of course you must at least be up to speed on (and probably have some level of visibility in) whatever is the current “big deal” from THEIR perspective.

It’s probably worthwhile to also note the “Future Shock”-type consideration – new and innovative interaction/communications channels come and go pretty darn fast in the 21st century, so there are going to be times where we must cut first and measure second if we hope to have some relevance to our future Members.

I’ve said it elsewhere; most of the people actually using Twitter regularly today would probably find this conversation hilarious (at best) and a perfect example of why “banks” (yeah, they lump us all together, get over it) will never be more than “a necessary evil” in their life.

Anecdotally, I don’t think many financial institutions utilize Facebook very well, but I wouldn’t rush to dismiss it. To your point though, Facebook (like Twitter) is not a critical priority.

As I’ve often said (it’s in my Twitter report), if you have 5-10 hours to spend on Twitter, you have to ask yourself: “Isn’t there something better I can be doing?” Honestly? There probably is. If you do indeed have the human bandwidth available in your organization, then you should feel encouraged to experiment. Just please don’t be boring.

I was just being flip with my post for Conan’s bit on Twitter. However, some appear to think that there is inherent value to credit unions in these mindless tweets since they can strengthen the business relationship by providing personal insights and familiarity. I personally do not see it.

I read the posts on your site about Twitter and agree that if you tweet you better make your tweets count, but as stated in my earlier posts I still contend that the potential value of Twitter is limited and often grossly overstated by some as critical for credit unions.

Just my opinion.

The problem isn’t who tweets. The problem is what gets tweeted. No one wants to read boring shit, whether that’s from a credit union or a celebrity.

Chuck, my guess is that you think Twitter is stupid for credit unions because you’ve only seen (or can only imagine) boring shit from them.

Did you see this?
http://thefinancialbrand.com/2009/06/11/10-mistakes-when-tweeting/

The bigger problem is that most financial institutions are boring, not just what they tweet.

I use Twitter every day and see the value that I mentioned in my post. In fact, our 7.5 offering will have components that leverage the messaging management capabilities of Twitter and its 3rd-party tools.

I also see lots of value in using Twitter to networking. However I do not see value in credit unions using it beyond sending and possibly receiving short notifications.

Sorry, but I believe comparing responding to emails and responding to tweets to be just as laughable. In addition, in order of critical priorities, I have a hard time believing credit unions or their members would put credit unions monitoring and responding to tweets high on that list.

Time will tell, but I will take that bet any day.

“As was done in the recent CU Times article: Drawing comparisons that CUs turning their back on twitter is like a teller not responding to a member in the branch or a credit union not picking up the phone is absolutely laughable.”

I flashed back to the 1990s – the same was said about responding to members emails and NEEDING a website. Many dismissed it early on. But today, if you’re not in it (social media) – you’re toast.

I don’t know that I’d be laughing too hard just yet – I think maybe the name “Twitter” puts people off. It is hard to hear a politician refer to a Tweet they just made…..but I’m getting used to it.

Social media – it’s a conversation that’s been going on for years now (Twitter is just the latest device). Markets are conversations today- and these markets are getting smarter, faster…..you should try Twitter.