Read More to read my take on it and watch the presentation.

Some Social Media Sites

You’ve heard about Social Media. You may even understand what it is. Even still, this presentation is a good introduction to why you should care. Like the presentation says, the Social Media train is already boarding and leaving with or without you and your brand.

Why You Should Care

You need to get new blood into your membership. Traditional advertising is not going to reach this audience. From the article “only 14% of people trust advertisements versus 78% trust the recommendation of a friend.” So, how do you get into this conversation? The answer is Social Media.

Fundamental Change

Social Media is fundamental change in the way we participate on the web. Its not a brochure-ware world anymore. Sure you need the marketing collateral, but you really need to engage your membership. You need to get in on the discussion and the conversation.

How do you start, you ask?

Just do it. Get your feet wet by trying a Social Media site. Lurk for a while. See how it operates. Every Social Media site makes it easy to get in and get involved. Once you are in and involved you will see how you can use these tools to market. The key is to be honest, be direct.

Presentation

Here’s the presentation. Again, its a little racey, but edited. Please check it out. Then contact us. Web Services Team Members are active in a variety of different Social Media sites. Talk to us, lets get in the conversation together.

Thanks Matt Davis for the tip.

I like how Chris simplifies the spectrum from hands off banner ads — maybe they click maybe they don’t — all the way through full relationship marketing with individualized communications.

Banner ads — small groups — content marketing — relationship marketing.

How engaged are you? Are you using social networking to communicate with your members? SiteControl blogs? Facebook? Member Reach?

In today’s post he outlines 50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing.

There are tons of great tips in here:

Some of them you can do with little effort — like #8. Check out Twitter as a way to show a company’s personality. (Don’t fabricate this).

Twitter is ridiculously simple to use (when its working.) Sign up your credit union. Get a simple desktop client like Twhirl. Start sending micro-messages about what’s happening in your Credit Union. Rate changes, promotions, people. Its simple. You’re limited to 140 characters, so they are always going to be short and sweet.

Take it a step further, and if you are using SiteControl, there are twitter plugins to put your ‘tweets’ (what you write in twitter) right on your website too.

Others were doing for you. Look at #3. For every video project purchased, ensure there’s an embeddable web version for improved sharing.

How many of you have put the Owners Are Coming Video on your website?