By Mary Arnold
In an article we're prepping for the May issue of Credit Union Management, Tim McAlpine, creative director at Currency Marketing in Chilliwack, British Columbia, laments that few credit union blogs (besides the very excellent Ask Jack which is written by Members Credit Union CEO Jack Braswell, Winston-Salem, N.C.) really communicate with members about what is going on in the economy, explaining things in everyday language and reassuring them that their CU is there for them.
"If ever there was a time to create content to put on a blog," McAlpine says, "it’s now. There’s so much misinformation and misunderstanding about what is going on, and credit unions have this tremendous opportunity to be a voice of reason and to deliver vital information to their members in particular and consumers in general."
Good news, Tim. I visited some of the CU blogs in this listing and found that Ask Jack does have some pretty good company--especially these blogs, also written by CEOs:
NAECU Blog by Greg Olmsted, CEO of North Alabama Educators Credit Union, Huntsville. (Hat tip to CUES member Charles Bruen, CEO of First Entertainment Credit Union, Hollywood, and his blog for bringing Greg's to our attention.);
Corner Office by Kent Lugrand, CEO of EDS Credit Union, Plano, Texas; and
Hopewell Federal Credit Union’s Blog by CEO Alan Smith in Heath, Ohio.
What they all have in common--and what makes me think they deliver what Tim is urging for--is that they sound like what a credit union CEO would tell his or her neighbor if they got to talking across the fence about the news of the day. Their posts don't read like prepared statements or sales pieces but honest efforts to share their expertise for their members' benefit.
Are there other blogs out there that deserve a shout-out? I bet I've missed some good ones--tell me in the comments section, below. CUES Editor Ron Jooss talks about one he likes here. I'm actually surprised there aren't more credit union CEOs blogging with members. Letters from the CEO in credit union newsletters are pretty standard--even a tradition that I think goes back to the time before marketing departments, when CEOs wrote the newsletters. A few still do! But that's another post. Stay tuned! Mary Arnold is VP/publications for CUES.
