My Net.Finance results.

Net.Finance reflections

This year's Net.Finance conference was the best yet. This was my third annual Net.Finance (not including their Online Innovations conference this past January).

The first year, I was new to financial services, and it was a great opportunity to learn about the industry from some of our leading thinkers and doers. The second year was great for networking, but the presentations were somewhat hit and miss. This year many of the presentations were strong, and the people I met were incredible. It was a great experience, professionally and socially.

The main takeaway I have from this year is that the online part of the financial services sector is at a healthy, natural plateau. Many of the things we've been exploring are now in place, and it's time to execute, learn and improve. This includes metrics and analytics, optimization (A/B testing and multivariate), search engine marketing & optimization, website usability and core online banking functionality. We've gone from a period of doubt and experimentation to a period of adoption and execution.

I sense many of my peers are getting the respect they deserve within their organizations, and have roadmaps in front of them to follow. All the while they're keeping an eye on some of the upcoming innovations, including social lending, personal financial management and mobile banking. I was amazed and heartened by how many more people were open to the Prosper and Wesabe models. A year ago, it was all so foreign, and many people I met at other FIs just didn't have it on their radar. Not any more.

If you want to catch up on great blog coverage of the conference, my peer at Westminster Savings Credit Union, Ed Brett, captured it all on his new and valuable blog, Small FI Blog. Check it out.

Labels: banking, conference, credit union, netfinance

posted on Saturday, April 19, 2008

Hitting 500.

I'd like to thank James Anderson from Michigan First Credit Union for becoming my 500th LinkedIn connection. Glad it was a fellow CUer...

Labels: credit union, LinkedIn, netfinance

posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Day 1 at Net.Finance.

Today was a good day. I'm too tired to write much. I was extremely pleased with the way my presentation went. The hard work paid off.

If you're looking for good Net.Finance coverage, my peer at Westminster Savings Credit Union is partially live-blogging. Meet the fantastic Ed Brett and his Small FI Blog.

Oh, and how did I miss that Michigan First Credit Union started a blog? It's all about their community engagement, and is called MI Community Space. Did you all know that? I met James Anderson at Net.Finance last year, and spoke with him again today. A highly impressive individual.

--
Also, check out Rob Cottingham's latest cartoon with a reference to our Webby Nomination.

Labels: banking, blogging, changeeverything, conference, corporate responsibility, credit union, netfinance, socialsignal

posted on Monday, April 14, 2008

I'm off to Net.Finance.

I leave today for Scottsdale, Arizona to attend and present at the Net.Finance conference. This will be my third year attending Net.Finance, and I always come back with some great new ideas to implement, lots of ideas to share with my peers, some new friends and colleagues from across North America and a nice time away in a sunny climate.

This year, it's especially nice because this is an important first anniversary for me. It was a year ago when I presented at Net.Finance about ChangeEverything.ca, and my journey on the conference circuit began in full force. Presenting at conferences has become a real passion for me. I get to share knowledge, meet lots of fascinating people, attend conferences that Vancity simply doesn't have the budget to send me to, and I get to perform in front of a crowd, which is something I truly enjoy.

This year I'm presenting on Corporate Social Responsibility As Key Differentiator, which is a fancy way of saying social marketing and social media. I'll talk about how Vancity's community focus takes an increasingly strong role in our advertising and marketing, how we can leverage that community work into successful use of social media, and how it positively impacts our triple bottom line.

I gave two practice sessions to my peers at Vancity on Friday, and feel ready to go on stage and present in Arizona.

And this year at Net.Finance marks another nice anniversary. It was a year ago, in April of 2007 that I changed my blog's purpose and focus from a place to put humourous links for my friends (with a whopping subscriber base of 8 readers at the time [thanks Ruben]) to a place where I discuss social media, corporate social responsibility, online branding and banks and credit unions (and now have a subscriber base of 140 or so readers [thank you]).

It's been profoundly rewarding, enlightening and social. I have met some great people through my blog, taken part in some amazing discussions, and have received some very useful feedback on my work. It's something almost indescribably wonderful.

So now I head off to Arizona, with five more major conferences ahead of me this year, an excitement about my work, and some extremely exciting projects ahead.

So thanks for reading, let me know if you'll be at Net.Finance, and I hope to break 500 connections on LinkedIn by the time I return.

Labels: banking, blogging, changeeverything, conference, corporate responsibility, credit union, LinkedIn, netfinance, social marketing, social media

posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008

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Ready and raring to present.

I spent a big chunk of this past weekend creating my presentations for both Net.Finance 2008 and CUES Experience.

It's funny to look back at my initial presentation from last year's Net.Finance about ChangeEverything.ca. It was so full of words and clunky. I am relying mostly on images and my own storytelling now to get the message across. It's a big evolution, and I'm excited to see how it will go over.

My talk at Net.Finance will be Corporate Social Responsibility As Key Differentiator, which may be like speaking socialism to a room full of bankers. Hopefully I can at least make it funny and entertaining. I am pulling data from our experience at Vancity as a community-driven organization, proving the model that social marketing can break through the clutter, epsecially in our heavily commoditized industry.

At CUES my talk is called Credit Unions and Social Media: A Case Study, and will cover a lot of the same ground, but deal a lot more with social media and go into more detail around how ChangeEverything.ca works. I have the luxury of a 75 minute session, which is by far the longest talk I have given. It'll be nice not to be pressed for time, and be able to engage in a discussion throughout, rather than at the end, time permitting.

I'll take what I learn from them to shape my end of the year keynote at the Partnership Symposium 2008. I'm really excited about it. My talk is called Engaging with the Social Economy, and I'm just starting to wrap my head around what I'll cover. It will deal with how credit unions are uniquely positioned to use the banking platform to make our society a better and more equitable place.

Please let me know if you'll be at any of these events. I look forward to seeing you there.

Labels: banking, conference, credit union, CUES, innovation, netfinance, partnership symposium, social economy, social media

posted on Sunday, March 16, 2008

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Can you help me with nicer graphs?

I don't like Microsoft products. There I said it, and hopefully you're not offended.

For an upcoming presentation I want to create some charts and graphs nicer than anything Excel can spit out. And I don't have Keynote, which is probably the solution I should be looking at. In the meantime though, are there any good web 2.0 offerings that allow you to input data and create nice looking charts and graphs?

If you do, please comment here with the URLs or email me at william [at] azaroff [dot] com.

Many thanks in advance...

Labels: conference, design, netfinance, web 2.0

posted on Saturday, February 16, 2008

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My scores at Net.Finance

I was so pleased to get the audience's rating of my presentation at Net.Finance's recent Online Innovations in Financial Services Marketing conference in New York.

PANEL RATING:
Highest Possible Score: 5.0

Content Rating: 4.5
Presentation Style Rating: 4.67

COMMENTS:
Very engaging
I like his presentation

It makes me very pleased that my content resonated with people, and that I delivered it in a way people responded to. Okay, enough horn tooting... for now.

Labels: azaroff, conference, netfinance

posted on Friday, February 08, 2008

Recap of Net.Finance on NetBanker.

Discovering the Social Economy at Net.Finance

I wrote a recap on NetBanker of what happened at last week's Online Innovations in Financial Services Marketing conference that Net.Finance held in New York. It was an excellent conference, full of great presentations from some of the companies pushing the boundaries in the Financial Services sector.

The big surprise for me was the number of speakers who spoke of the Social Economy. Any reader of my blog will know that this is a new big topic for me.

And that is the lens through which I wrote my recap on NetBanker, Discovering the Social Economy at Net.Finance.

As always, all of my NetBanker posts can be found at netbanker.com/azaroff

Please comment there to further the conversation.

Labels: innovation, netbanker, netfinance, social economy

posted on Monday, January 28, 2008

May I introduce you to a Banker With Balls?

My friend and conference colleague Jurie Pieterse, who is Head of Marketing Communications at ING Direct (US) has started a blog called Banker With Balls.

Here's how he describes the name in his inaugural post:

"With balls" - other than to infer some gutsiness - is a reference to where I work at the bank who loves orange balls: ING DIRECT... I'll try to keep it balanced, but remember that I am passionate about my marketing work for ING DIRECT so that will likely come through.

I look forward to reading Jurie's musings and opinions about marketing for a big, but untraditional FI. Having had the privilege of hearing him speak at two conferences, including the current Net.Finance where I'm writing this from, he has enough experience to be someone I can really learn from.

And here's a link to his feed.

Labels: banking, blogging, netfinance

posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Off to Net.Finance.

On Tuesday I fly to New York for a couple of days to attend and speak at Net.Finance's Online Innovations in Financial Services Marketing conference. This is an extension of their main conference which occurs every April in Arizona.

Last year the final day was focused on innovations in the financial services industry, and included an excellent set of speakers and presentations. I spoke about ChangeEverything.ca, why Vancity did it and what we get out of it.

Next week I will be doing a brand new presentation about responding to bloggers. I have been delivering the presentation internally, getting some incredible feedback, and am excited to deliver it in New York.

I'm particularly keen to see some terrific people, including Shari Storm (who always speaks right before me), Michael Seaton, Jurie Pieterse, Jason Knight and Jim Bruene.

I have been to the last two Net.Finance conferences, and find them to be valuable sources of information and incredible networking opportunities. This April's conference looks like an outstanding line-up. I am delivering a presentation about FIs and social responsibility. It's a big topic, and frankly I'm a little nervous as I begin to plan out what I want to cover.

So let me know if you'll be at either of these two conferences, and if you are there, please make sure we connect in person.

TWO QUICK UPDATES: One, I'm so excited that my friend Trey Reeme will also be there. And I'll try and blog the conference each night. No promises though!

Labels: azaroff, blogging, conference, netfinance

posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008

I need your help with my Net.Finance presentation.

For my upcoming Net.Finance presentation Responding To Bloggers - Playing On Their Turf I am focusing on the pros and cons of responding to bloggers when they write about your company.

I have a few examples of bloggers writing about their experiences with and opinions about their bank, credit union, credit card company, or other financial services provider, but am looking for more. Do you have examples of:

a blogger letting an FI have it on their blog
a blogger praising an FI
a company responding to a blogger
a company who SHOULD have responded but didn't

Examples don't have to be FI related, but it would help if they were. I have never heard of a Dell Hell happening in the FI world, but it's just a matter of time.

If you have an example please either leave a comment here or email me at william (at) azaroff (dot) com.

Thanks for the help. I'll credit you in my presentation if I use your example.

Labels: azaroff, banking, blogging, credit union, netfinance

posted on Monday, November 26, 2007

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My Net.Finance session.

Net.Finance has just updated their website with the full agenda of their upcoming Online Innovations in Financial Services Marketing conference. It will take place at the New York Information Technology Center from January 23-24, 2008.

The main proposition is: Engaging Your Customers Through Social Media, Social Lending & Mobile Banking. Sounds pretty good. I'm fortunate enough to have been asked to speak at this conference, and I'm also happy to be speaking about something other than ChangeEverything.ca (not that I ever get sick of talking about it).

My topic is Responding To Bloggers - Playing On Their Turf. The session is described as so:

There is a conversation going on right now in the blogosphere about your FI. Are you tracking the comments being made? Are you responding? Do you have a strategy in place to determine the right course of action to deal with bloggers who write about your company?

Learning how to track conversations in the blogosphere

Determining when is the right time to respond

Seeing and evaluating the pros and cons of entering the conversation

Should be a fun time, hope to see you in New York.

Labels: azaroff, banking, blogging, conference, credit union, netfinance, social media

posted on Friday, October 19, 2007

Innovations in Financial Services Conference in NYC.

Net.Finance is organizing a special Innovations in Financial Services conference in NYC in January. I am honoured to have been asked to come and present about social media. Will be nice to go back to New York again.

Labels: azaroff, banking, changeeverything, credit union, innovation, netfinance, social media, vancity, web 2.0

posted on Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Guest blogger on NetBanker.

If things have been a little quieter around here than usual, I have a good excuse. I have started guest blogging on one of the biggest and best FI blogs around, netbanker.com.

Jim Bruene runs a great blog, his insights and research into how FIs use (and underuse) the online channel is amazing. I have long been a fan and follower, and was happy to finally meet him face to face in Arizona in April at Net.Finance. And now I'll be adding to his blog a few times a month. It's an incredible honour for me, as this is the first time Jim's ever had anyone besides him write on his blog, and because he has 6,000+ RSS subscribers (to my mere 40).

I'll be writing about how FIs can better use the social web and brand themselves online. I'll try and write from an insider, client-side perspective. I have the blessing from the folks at Vancity to do this, which is nice not to need the typical "these thoughts are my own and do represent..." disclaimers.

My inaugural post is entitled Finding your way to the Social Web. It's an examination of how FIs could better leverage the Social Web, and uses a proposed Bank of America case study. You can see all my posts collected together here.

Jim welcomed me aboard very warmly, and I appreciate that. I'll be linking to my posts on NetBanker from my blog everytime I add a new post, so stay tuned.

Labels: azaroff, banking, blogging, credit union, netbanker, netfinance, web 2.0

posted on Saturday, July 14, 2007

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My Net.Finance podcast at OpenSourceCU.

Thanks to Trey and Brent at OpenSourceCU who have turned my Net.Finance presentation in April into a podcast. I hope it holds up without the visuals.

Enjoy.

Labels: azaroff, banking, blogging, changeeverything, corporate responsibility, credit union, innovation, netfinance, opensourcecu, podcast, socialsignal, vancity, web 2.0

posted on Monday, June 18, 2007

ROI on community.

I have been asked many times about the ROI of community projects like ChangeEverything.ca. Up until last month I had an answer, but it wasn't very good, and I can't even remember what it was any more. Just some mumbling about how we can't measure ROI on everything.

At Net.Finance I heard Michael Seaton speak and he asked the audience, "What's the ROI on a round of golf or lunch with a client?" I loved it. If a company is interested in being innovative, some money has to go towards projects where the ROI cannot be expressed ahead of time. You have to try it and see if it works. Certainly I wouldn't recommend this for more than, say, 10% of your marketing or development budget. But if you want to innovate you have to have a little fun money to play with for experimentation purposes (rumour has it that Google developers can spend 10% of their time on side projects, that can end up creating important innovations).

And then, via Colin I came across this post by Will Pate: Online Community Success and ROI. He has found metrics and stats from a variety of sources indicating the benefits that community features will give to a website's ROI. Nicely done.

Thanks Colin and thanks Will...

Labels: bankwatch, blogging, changeeverything, innovation, netfinance, technology, web 2.0

posted on Friday, May 25, 2007

Results from Net.Finance

Okay, brace yourself for a little auto-horn-tooting. I got the audience results from my presentation at Net.Finance today. I'm quite excited about this.

Out of a highest possible rating of 5.0...

Content rating: 4.72
Presentation style rating: 4.61

Some of the comments were:
Excellent!
Great!

I'm so pleased with this, especially because I spent a lot of time on my presentation style, making sure my PowerPoint was active and my presentation had a kind of story-arc. So the fact that my content was better received than my style make me very pleased.

I'm available for weddings, birthday parties and Bar Mitzvahs.

</bragging>

Labels: azaroff, banking, changeeverything, credit union, netfinance, vancity, web 2.0

posted on Friday, April 27, 2007

Photos from Net.Finance

Here are some photos from my trip to Arizona for Net.Finance.

The view from my hotel room at Net.Finance. The Camelback Inn was extremely nice, which is what you'd hope at the prices they charged.

A panel discussion with (from L to R) Chris Larsen from prosper.com, Mickey Mencin from Key Bank, Shari Storm from Verity Credit Union and Gabriel Dalporto from zecco.com.

Colin Henderson from The Bankwatch presenting. Colin painted a great picture of the landscape of what web 2.0 is doing for those FIs brave enough to embrace it.

My presentation. I think I was very well received, and am very pleased with how it went.

A group of us out for dinner on the second night of the conference. Having great Mexican food was one of my goals, which I definitely met.

Ned with cacti. Ned Georgy, a colleague from Vancity and a good friend, and I stuck around Arizona for an extra day and visited the Desert Botanical Gardens, which was fantastic!

Labels: arizona, azaroff, bankwatch, camelback inn, netfinance, prosper.com, vancity, verity, zecco.com

posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007

The Bankwatch on my presentation

Colin summed up my presentation in a series of bullets. Here's his post.

Labels: azaroff, banking, bankwatch, blogging, changeeverything, credit union, netfinance, socialsignal, vancity, vancouver, web 2.0

posted on Friday, April 20, 2007

Net.Finance Day Four - the big day!

Today was unequivocally the best day of the conference, and I'm not just saying that because my presentation went so darn well.

I got to hear how prosper.com works straight from the CEO, Chris Larsen. This would be such a great business for Vancity to get into. I could see it as a separate spin off with its own discreet P&L. I'd be happy to run it, by the way, in case anyone in the C-Suite is reading this.

My new favourite colleague Shari Storm was fantastic. So much of the specificity of last year, the relevance, the results, the strategies that have been missing this year were there in force as Shari described why they started blogging, how they keep it going and what they get out of it. Great job Shari.

I was third up, and I'll let others describe how it went, but I'm really pleased and proud. I got a lot of great feedback and I know I had the full attention of the room. I couldn't get a break because so many people wanted to ask me questions.

Next up was Mickey Mencin from Key Bank, who spoke about podcasting. Last year I was really inspired listening to Mickey in a panel discussion and this year she had a whole presentation about what she's up to at Key. It's interesting to hear from the FIs who are willing to invest a little discretionary spending into innovative projects that don't have to rigidly prove their ROI. As Michael Seaton said so perfectly, "What's the ROI of a business lunch or a golf trip with a client." Sometimes you gotta have a little pocket money to try out new things.

I also enjoyed hearing from zecco.com CMO Gabriel Dalporto. Between them and propser.com I feel like I learned about business models that decentralized heavily centralized industries. People looking to start starfish organizations to attack the big bank spiders.

But my highlight of the day was hearing Colin Henderson. First off, he's a hell of a nice guy, and he's just so knowledgeable about this space. Great to finally put a face to a name, both for him and Jim Bruene, who should have been a speaker for sure.

Last year it was all about the amazing presentations, but I didn't meet a whole lot of people. This year it was all about the networking. Meeting people from across Canada and into the States who are doing interesting and innovative things.

Okay, I'm done. Ned and I are going to spend an extra day down here relaxing and seeing some sights. Let the vacation start...

Labels: azaroff, banking, bankwatch, blogging, credit union, netbanker, netfinance, prosper.com, vancity, verity, web, web 2.0, zecco.com

posted on Thursday, April 19, 2007

Net.Finance Day Three

Well the standout today at Net.Finance was Michael Seaton. He's a great presenter who knows how to tell his story effectively without PowerPointing to death. It was great content, relevant and useful. I wonder about the sophistication of the crowd with social marketing, but I think he gave everyone something big and real to think about.

I feel a little bad that Vancity spent good money sending us out and the information is either too esoteric or too high-level and vague. Presenters need to give real world examples, challenges, successes, failures, metrics, results, stories. You know, actionable information to help the rest of us build business cases and spread the gospel of the web as a marketing, communications and engagement tool for our customers and prospects.

I am excited about tomorrow. For me, this is where all the exciting stuff is.

Okay, off for some Mexican food. Great Mexican food is about the only thing I miss about LA. I lived like two blocks from the BEST.

Labels: azaroff, banking, blogging, credit union, netfinance, usa, vancity, web, web 2.0

posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007