Visible Networking

Social Networking & Blogging in the Banking Industry

In March 2007, I created a new blog on Banking & Web 2.0: www.Visible-Banking.com.
I cover topics such as social networking, blogging, RSS feeds applied to online banking and mobile banking.

Please find below recent social networking & blogging initiatives in the banking industry.

BLOGGING
* Wordpress grows beyond 1 million blogs - 24 May 2007
* New CU Blogs: Midwest Financial, Old Hickory, and Secure One Credit Unions - 21 May 2007
* First Look: Verity CU's New Blog - 18 May 2007
* Here's a Financial Institution Blogger that Does it Right - 07 May 2007
* 7 Online Banking Success Stories - 06 May 2007
* Blogs Bring Negative Publicity to Overdraft Charges - 30 April 2007
* New Blog: Comala Connection from Comala Credit Union - 25 April 2007
* iKobo and Nationwide Insurance Use Website Videos, with Very Different Results - 24 April 2007
* Blog sighting: Member Connect from Piedmont Credit Union - 24 April 2007

SOCIAL NETWORKING
* Facebook | will people share their pictures, thoughts and information with commercial interests? - 26 May 2007
* Social Networking to infinity and beyond - 25 May 2007
* Could FaceBook risk becoming another AOL? - 25 May 2007
* Social Network ad spending predicted to grow (eMarketer) - 24 May 2007
* Community ROI - a sensible view - 24 May 2007
* A sense of community - 23 May 2007
* Germany's Wirecard Bank opens in Second Life - 18 May 2007
* Money Games / Trends Virtual Currencies - May 2007
* WoW Visa Card introduced - 10 May 2007
* The power of social networks and banking is only now becoming clear - 01 May 2007
* Launch Day at Our Virtual Holland! (ING Bank) - 30 April 2007
* Schwab Does Social Networking, Sponsors Gather.com - 25 April 2007
* Europeans most active in Second Life - 05 May 2007

NET - The Social Networking Week #2 (January 2007)

Here you are: the second issue of NET - The Social Networking Week!

The Social Networking Week #2 (08/01/07 - 14/01/07)
I decided to regroup the news by categories. I also decided to add some older articles/posts I found this week. Please get back to me with your comments!

My plan is to add more analysis and share my comments, but I don't have the time to do it now.
Please note that most of those articles come from the excellent blog on Social Networking by Pete Cashmore, Mashable!

LAUNCH
* YSN.com Launching a Social Network for Annoyingly Ambitious Kids
* Olivia Connect Launches Lesbian Social Network
* Shoutfit To Launch A Fashionable Social Network
* Facebook Mobile Coming Together
* MySpace France Launches This Week

PARTNERSHIPS
* Moob Makes a Move (with Sanity Digital)
* Google-Friendster Partnership Revealed

FINANCE
* ShoutCentral Sells for $13,800
* Confirmed: eBay Buying StubHub for $310 Million
 
NEWS
* Mashable Roundup (New Beboer, Ikbis, MyRacer, PediaX, CrowdSpirit, FlyingCart, Zpeech, Shuzak)
* Mashable Roundup (AOL-Napster, Sidekiq, Mapwing, Helphee)
* Mashable Roundup (1Up.com, MommyClub, IndiePad, JustRhymes, Wambo, Dai.sy)
* Mashable Roundup (YouTube TV, Meez, Capessa, Imity, Mobango, InChorus, HyperComics, CitizenImage, Terapad and More)

ARTICLE & ANALYSIS
* MySpace: Google’s Frienemy?
* Top Ten Feature Requests for LinkedIn Answers

INITIATIVES
* Typepad promotes Linkedin (Banner+Widget)
* LinkedIn promotes Guy Kawasaki's blog

VIDEO
* Dovetail.tv to Pay Filmmakers $0.10 per Download
* YouTube Campaigns: MyCadillacStory and Real Housewives
* Flikzor - Video Comments for MySpace

RESOURCES
Mashable (Pete Cashmore), LinkedIntelligence (Scott Allen), OnlineMediaDaily
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Technorati: socialnetworking, businessnetworking, blogging, video, linkedin

BLG - WordPress Video Tutorial

I am a fan of Typepad. WordPress has the reputation to be the best free blogging platform.

I didn't have the chance to watch the entire video, but I was impressed by the length of the WordPress.com tutorial created by Chris Abraham.
Good initiative Chris!


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Technorati: blogging, weblogs, wordpress

NET - Interview with Guillaume Thevenot (Hotel-Blogs.com)

I have just come back from Luxor. Egypt: what a great Past, and what a fascinating culture!

Luxor, Egypt
We spent a week in Egypt with two of our very good friends: Carine and Guillaume. We had a great time visiting temples, swimming in "the infinite swimming pool" on Crocodile Island, and enjoying card games every day! No technology, networking or blogging there! ;)

a few pictures

 

Please check all the pictures on flickr.
 
Video interview: Guillaume Thevenot, Founder of Hotel-Blogs.com
Luxor, with view on the Nile: what an ideal (and unusual) place for an interview! ;)



Guillaume Thevenot
Guillaume is one of my best friends. He is a French professional who works in the Hospitality industry, in the hotel space in particular. He is passionate by new technologies such as Internet, blogging and the Web 2.0... anything which could improve the way people book their trip! He has been living in London for over 6 years.

Hotel-Blogs.com
Guillaume created Hotel-Blogs.com in December 2005 to share his expertise and his passion for the hotel/"e-travel" industry. He has done a great job: everyday faithful readers, from all over the world, visit his blog and leave their comments. Well done my friend!
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Technorati: blogging, weblogs, businessnetworking, socialnetworking

BLG - Geriatric1927 on YouTube

The oldest member on YouTube?

In the last 2 weeks, one old fellow became very popular in the UK... and in the whole world!
That is another example the visibility Internet gives you, and in that case the "channel" used is the excellent YouTube!

Metro, the popular free newspaper distributed in the London tube, devoted almost a full page to him 2 weeks ago: he was already popular on YouTube, but it helped to dramatically increase his extraordinaire figures in terms of visits and subscribers!

Video on YouTube: geriatric1927
Please find below one video about one of the most famous grandpa in the world: geriatric1927!

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Technorati: blogging, weblogs, buzz, videoblogging, video, YouTube, geriatric1927

BLG - Hands-on on Vox

For those who can't wait for October, you could find more info about Vox, the new Six Apart service, on Rafe's blog: Hands-on with Vox.
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Technorati: blogging, weblogs, socialnetworking, vox, typepad

BLG - The Corporate Blogging Book... and Blog!

I haven't read it yet, but I like the topic and the approach: The Corporate Blogging Book... and blog!
Debbie Weil uses her blog to promote her book.

Viral/buzz marketing
This became a commonly used strategy for books on topics linked to the Internet such as blogging or networking. The writers use buzz marketing and word and mouth: blogging is a very efficient way to "spread the word"!
   
Books & Blogs: social & business networking
Another very famous example is the Virtual Handshake from David Teten and Scott Allen. In France, Alain Lefebvre promotes its book Les Reseaux Sociaux on his blog (in French).
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Technorati: blogging, weblogs, socialnetworking, businessnetworking, buzz

BLG - Comments on BlogHer 2006

Interesting article from Christopher about BlogHer 2006: Mr. Rivera, Tear Down This Wall!. Chris also attended and commented the first BlogHer conference in 2005.

I invite you to check Guy Kawasaki's blog: Guy wrote an article about BlogHer, where he shares his comments and his favourite pictures from the successful event.
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Technorati: blogging, weblogs, blogher

BLG - Interview Sixapart about Typepad & Vox

Interview: Mena Trott & Andrew Anker of Six Apart

Mena and Andrew were in Chicago pitching their newest project, Vox, a free personal blogging service.
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Technorati: blogs, blogging, weblogs, typepad, vox

BLG - Widgetbox & MajikWidget

What's brilliant with blogging is the simplicity of it: you don't have to be a HTML coder, just use the interface provided by companies such as Typepad of WorldPress, and concentrate on the articles!

if you want a more interactive blog, you can add some widgets: the idea is to add small pieces of code to add dynamic features to your blog.

Some blogging platform providers provide their own gallery of widgets, usually in partnering with third parties and sharing revenues. Typepad offers a good number of widgets in its widget gallery.

 


Widgetbox is a new utility (still in closed beta; it should open in mid-August) that makes it easy for a blogger to add functionality to a blog without having to touch code. Based on Rafe's article, the Widgetbox is about 75 widgets strong right now.




MajikWidget is another webiste which offer widgets to enhance your blog. More than a month ago, I found out about the MajikWidgets (MW) service when I was browsing Guy Kawasaki's blog. He was already using their "article rating" feature... And he does more than that: he is endorsing/promoting the service to his readers! Another good example of how to leverage your visibility: well done Guy!

On Tuesday, I received an email from MW introducing their new MajikWidget 2.0 interface. The new features are:
* an improved user control panel
* a new library browser
* three new widgets
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Technorati: blogging, weblogs, widgetbox, majikwidget, widgets, typepad