Social Web: Opening Up the Hood

CU Village recently made the plunge into the social web realm. In part we had to because we're a web company. It is expected. I also firmly believe that you have to practice what you preach. Or as I tell my staff, we have to "eat our own dog food" to gain real understanding and credibility that what we do, say and sell actually works for our clients in the way we promise.

Just as importantly, we jumped into the social web because I think there are real and meaningful ways we can use it to engage our customers. In this post and ones to come, I will be opening up the hood on our thinking about the social web and how we plan to use it. In a similar way, I'll be sharing some ideas on how I think credit unions can make use of it too. Consistent with the idea behind the social web, we welcome your input along the way.

CU Village's Definition of the Social Web
Web-based tools that enable interaction among individuals that have some common bond.
Examples include Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and YouTube.
(agree or disagree, we use Web 2.o
as a somewhat synonymous term)

The social web is not an end unto itself. It is a tool, a strategy and way to get an objective accomplished. For CU Village, that objective is customer engagement in three key ways:

• Thought Leadership
• Relationship Building
• Collaboration and Dialogue

Thought leadership is the cycle of guiding and learning. For example, CU Village has years of experience creating web sites, and we share that expertise with our clients through our web development process. However, we learn something new with every project and every client. We help our clients be better and smarter about the web, and they return the favor by helping us do the same through their divergent viewpoints and ideas. Thought leadership, then, is the process of cultivating great ideas from internal and external sources, and sharing them.

Relationship building is just as it sounds. It is the building of trust and knowledge that can be used for synergistic value and benefit. The better we know our clients and they us, the better we can anticipate need and provide the right solution. Likewise, the better our clients know us the better they know how we can best serve them.

Collaboration and dialogue is the ongoing conversation we want to have with our clients. It helps to ensure we stay on track. It also brings our customers into our product development process. Of course, we need to do our part in staying ahead of the curve, but some of our best product and service ideas come from our clients. We love that, welcome it and want more of it.

So what does all this have to do with the social web? Check back later…