By Lisa Hochgraf
This weekend I was amazed to learn that 18-year-old Samantha Larson posted to her blog from the top of Mt. Everest. As is well documented already, Larson blogged simply, "We made it to the top! Now all we need to do is get back down ...."
The fact that Larson leveraged wireless to post to her blog from way up there on top of the tallest mountain in the world made me realize that it's not so hard to communicate with young people, like we hear so often in CU land. Rather, young people are insanely reachable (while they're on top of mountains!?), if we know how to do it in the ways they prefer.
I don't know for sure if Samantha has yet been able to read the 121 (and counting) comments in response to her post. But wouldn't it be cool if a credit union were among them? (Read more about Samantha in this article.)
As if to confirm the idea that young people can be reached if we just know how, I saw a group of school children on an Erie Canal field trip this weekend. Among a group of 25, I saw at least three iPods in use during my quick glance as I rollerbladed by. If blog posts and podcasts are how young people are consuming information, then kudos to the credit unions already out there in these formats.
You can link to a list of CUs doing blogging and podcasting in the "PR and Web 2.0" section of CUES' Operation Outreach: Promote Your Good Works to Policymakers & the Press. Did we miss anyone?
Lisa Hochgraf is marketing/operations editor for CUES' Credit Union Management magazine and edits the CUES Tech Port e-newsletter, News to Go.
Also read this CUES Skybox article on young adults and credit cards by Bryan Sims.
