We’ve all been duped by the latest myth in technology at some point in our lives:

• Polaroids develop faster when you shake them (nope)
• Blowing air into Nintendo cartridges help them load (no, but as a kid it sometimes seemed like magic)

Read more on Do you believe the #hashtag myth?…

Blogs are still cutting edge technology, right?

Well, yes and no. By having a blog you’ve definitely joined the 21^st century, but that’s no great feat thanks to sites like WordPress. Nowadays it’s not about whether or not you have a blog, but instead how you use it.

Read more on Ask Sam: What’s your take on blogs?…

Ask Sam: So how important is social media involvement anyway? Do people your age really care whether your CU/bank tweets regularly?

This is a complicated question. I don’t have to tell anyone that advertising through social media is both new and ambiguous. You can spend more time than you can imagine trying to find the balance between posting too much and not posting enough in an effort to reach your desired audience. Even then you’re eventually going to ask yourself, “is it worth it?”

Read more on Ask Sam: How important is social media?…

When it comes to social sites, what do you think? Do consumers follow brands to be part of the online community or are they just looking for a “deal”?

If you answered deal, you’re right, according to Patrick Spenne on Forbes.com, who was citing a study by the IBM Institute for Business Value. The IBMIBV (who comes up with these acronyms, anyway?) found that while 60-65% of business leaders believed it was all about the community, only 25-30% of consumers agreed with them. Everyone else seemed to be there for the potential savings, not the conversation.

Read more on “I’m here for the community” v. “I’m here for the discount”…

Meet Sam
Fresh from a semester in Barcelona Spain, Kent and Janet’s son Sam is sitting in with iDiz for a couple of months until heading back to Indiana University in the fall to finish degrees in English and Spanish. As a multilingual 21 year old college student, Sam is a fine specimen of a demographic lots of credit union marketers are eager to reach. Since we’ll have him in captivity for a little while, we’ve asked Sam to blog about what he and his generation want and need from financial services and the world in general.

If there’s anything you’d like to ask Sam, or if you have ideas for blog topics you’d like to see Sam take on, just post a comment or email sam@idizinc.com .

Read more on Five things credit unions need to know about my generation…

There’s no getting away from moms – fortunately we’re here to stay, speak out, lead the way and well, rule. In our homes. In workplaces. In the world of social media.

Read more on Moms continue to rule the digital universe…

I know way too much about some of my friends’ opinions on politics, sports, and cute kittens – all because of Facebook.

And pretty soon I may not be able to escape their thoughts on any topic.

Read more on And you thought your friends already over-shared….

I’m going to be very, very blunt here. Way too many credit unions have terrible web sites, and frankly, I’m tired of it.

I’m not talking about subtle things only geeks care about — I’m talking about some real train wrecks that make the credit unions look like amateur operations.

Read more on First, fix your web site…

Actors, athletes and politicians aren’t the only people that should be careful with what they tweet.

IBM is taking every public tweet since Twitter’s inception in March 2006, mapping it to Wikipedia, tagging it with sentiment  (saying something good v. something negative), then digitally archiving it in the Library of Congress.

Read more on Your tweets may go down in history…

Somebody at McDonald’s just learned how tough Tweets can be.

According to this post on psfk.com, MickeyD decided to share stories on Twitter about the staff and goings-on at the restaurant, and encouraged people to share their own stories. Their first tweets were “Meet some of the hard-working people dedicated to providing McDs with quality food every day #McDStories” and “When u make something w/pride, people can taste it.”

Read more on #McFail…

Just as your branch is your brand, it’s important to remember your web site serves the same function for many of your members. In fact, a large portion of your members hardly ever visit a branch in person, but use your web site almost daily.

Read more on Your web site is your brand, too…

Sally comments on Facebook that her car is in the repair shop, again, and she can’t wait to get a new car when she gets her tax refund. ABC Credit Union’s ad touting a 90 Day Payment Vacation pops up when she logs in the next day. Jim googles ideas for a new deck, and ABC CU’s heloc ad pops up right next to Jim’s search results. As a marketer, this sounds like a perfect fit – right? People get information relevant to their lives, and advertisers gain access to people ready for their product; a win-win.

Read more on Privacy matters…

A few tasty tidbits seen lately:

When Microsoft is trying to get everyone  off of IE 6, then maybe it is finally time to stop worrying about your web site’s compatibility. The software giant has launched a new website, The Internet Explorer 6 Countdown, that starts off with: “10 years ago a browser was born. …It’s time to say goodbye.” With less than 2.9% of the US population using IE 6, don’t you think you can stop worrying about it for your site? Unless of course you happen to have a branch in China, where 34.5% of users are still on 6.

Read more on Tasty tech tidbits you may have missed…

Most of us can’t imagine life without the internet, though of course anyone born before 1985 did know life without it. Our children are the ones who have no idea what it was like living without instantaneous access to just about everything.

Read more on Life as we knew it…

You’re probably tired of all of the trendy technology talk that promises to revolutionize how you approach marketing — especially all the buzz in recent years surrounding the mysterious term “SEO”. What the heck does that mean, anyway?

Read more on SeO what…