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CU Village recently developed the Web site for Water and Power Community Credit Union in both English and Spanish using our Content Management System. Take a look at the Spanish site by clicking on the image above!
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Social Networking: Blogging Effectively and Professionally
Last month we discussed the “whys” of participating in a colleague’s blog—sharing best practices, collaborating on projects, and networking with other credit union professionals.
Now it’s time to create your own blog.
Where to Begin
You might want to start by using your blog to network and communicate with your peers. This is a natural extension of participating in a colleague’s blog. Perhaps you can begin by focusing on best practices at your credit union. Discuss issues such as member service, including trying to “sell” members on new products when they come in for a specific transaction. Or discuss the hurdles you face in hiring and maintaining a quality team of employees.
From there you can begin using your blog to communicate with members. Go beyond the information that’s on your Web site or featured in your newsletter. Add a personal touch to issues that face members; this will open the forum for your members to respond and share their experiences. Not only will your members be learning from you’ll, they’ll be learning from each other. Consider blogging about topics such as ID theft, including how to prevent it and what to do if it happens to you.
Of course, when you blog, keep in mind that certain rules of etiquette and ethics apply, just as they do in any other business setting.
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A Blogger’s Code of Ethics
Blogging has become a hugely popular form of publishing, but with it comes responsibility. To best represent yourself and your credit union, and to ensure a high standard of quality in the information we make available to each other, consider adopting this list of ethical best practices:
- I will tell the truth.
- I will write deliberately and with accuracy.
- I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly.
- I will preserve original posts, using notations to show where I have made changes so as to maintain the integrity of my publishing.
- I will never delete a post.
- I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic.
- I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so promptly.
- I will strive for high quality with every post, including basic spellchecking.
- I will stay on topic.
- I will disagree with other opinions respectfully.
- I will link to online references and original source materials directly.
- I will disclose conflicts of interest.
- I will keep private issues and topics private, since discussing private issues would jeopardize my personal and work relationships.
Blogging and Legal Liability
When you choose to go public with your opinions via a blog, you are legally responsible for your commentary. Individual bloggers can be held personally liable for any commentary deemed to be defamatory, obscene (via the legal definition of “obscene”), proprietary, or libelous (whether pertaining to your credit union, individuals, or any other company for that matter). For these reasons, you should exercise caution with regard to exaggeration, colorful language, guesswork, obscenity, copyrighted materials, legal conclusions, and derogatory remarks or characterizations. In essence, you blog (or post on the blogs of others) at your own risk. Outside parties can pursue legal action against you for postings.
Tips for Creating a Great Blog
- Avoid the Marketing Blog. Making your blog into a blatant marketing campaign is a bad idea. Readers are looking for real answers and honest opinions. Use the blog for what it's for, transparency. This is an opportunity to make a real connection with others. Don't ruin it by filling it with empty advertising and self promotion.
- A blog is not a press release, it's an informal conversation.
- Respond to comments and keep the conversation going.
- For long posts, it's best to compose offline. This enables you to use text editors with grammar and spell checking and reduces the risk of losing your connection—and everything you’ve just written! Pare down content before posting, and consider running long posts by a second pair of eyes.
- Have fun doing it! Your enjoyment is contagious. Readers will be more likely to interact with you if you can help bring joy, not just knowledge, to what we do.
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Anchors: Get Your Visitors There and Back
So, you’ve built this wonderful Web page. The only problem is that it’s l o n g. People will have to scroll. There are no two ways about it; no information can be cut, and it makes no sense to create two pages.
What to do? Use anchors.
Anchors accomplish a couple of things: they get people where they want to be on the page—and they get them back to the top of the page. The NCUA uses anchors on its site map page. After all, it doesn’t make sense to put an index on several pages; however, it does make sense to help people navigate more easily!
How to Use Anchors
If you have a long page, you can use anchors to direct visitors to the exact topic they need. When you use anchors on a page, you typically include a short bulleted list at the top of the page. Each item on the list is “anchored” via link to some text a little further down the page. The short list at the top lets visitors see at a glance what information they’ll find on the page, and the anchor gets them to the topic that interests them.
Then, with the use of an anchor that’s usually labeled “Top” you can take your visitors back to the top of the page.
Tips for Using Anchors
- Use specific anchor names. Use a name that applies to the text that you’re anchoring to rather than numbering your anchors. In a couple of days or weeks, will you remember that “#1” links to the article about loans? Instead, use a short name, such as loans.
- Delete spaces. If you need to use more than one word for the name of your anchor, don’t use a space between the words. For instance, if your anchor is “auto loans” simply run the two words together (autoloans). Otherwise, your anchor won’t work properly.
- Avoid characters. Some characters have different meanings in programming code, and other characters simply don’t “play nice” with all Internet browsers. Make your job easier; avoid using characters such as @, *, or %.
Anchors are a great way to get visitors to the information they need—and do so quickly. And if you use our Content Management System, it’s a quick and simple process.
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Youth Sites Revamped
Our Growing Members youth sites have been redesigned! The new sites will launch in the fourth quarter of 2007. The Growing Members youth sites from CU Village.com help you teach your younger members necessary financial skills—while reinforcing the benefits of membership at your credit union! Growing Members, a package of 3 youth sites, is designed specifically to help your members aged 6-18 learn to:
- Budget
- Borrow money—and pay it back
- Earn money
- Save money
- Spend money—including how to use checks
The same concepts are covered on each site, but at a level appropriate for each age group (elementary, middle, and high school). After all, a 7-year-old just needs to know that a check represents money, whereas a 17-year-old should know how to complete a check, endorse it—and then reconcile their account.
The sites are designed to grow with your members as they grow and always keep them as part of your credit union. To help even more, we also provide quarterly newsletters to help you keep in touch with this important market segment
For information about any of our products and services, contact your CU Village.com business consultant.
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October 2007
