WYLIE, Texas - What began as an idea to get his financial institution clients better answers has turned into a mini-phenomenon.
That idea is "Banktastic," initially created by consultant Brad Garland to be a professional networking website (www.banktastic.com) for everyone in the financial services industry.
Lisa Randolph, Banktastic's community manager, said that Garland was sometimes approached by his clients about what vendors to choose or what solutions to implement, and he knew he did not have the best answers. So he decided to create a venue where financial industry executives could speak with one another and break down the communication barrier between institutions.
The site features a plethora of user-created content, including question-and-answer threads, news postings, and a video blog area.
"Our biggest trafficked section by visitors are the Q&A section and that's what we hoped it would be," said Randolph.
Banktastic recently announced its partnership with Texas Bankers Association, which will showcase its network at a human resources conference this summer. As it stands, the community consists of about 300 users from the financial world, including executives from banks, credit unions and even vendors.
"It is quite small at the moment, but we just signed on TBA and they are going to sign on 480 people just in their training network," said Randolph.
No Bad Blood
Though credit union and bank professionals interact on the site, with about an equal membership, Randolph said that there has been no bad blood between the two sides.
"We have this mantra that people are inherently good and they are not going to bring the whole credit union versus bank thing here," she said.
Response from the credit union side has been "huge," Randolph added, noting that credit union employees are "themselves very community oriented."
Andy LaFlamme, marketing director with Maine State Credit Union, calls Banktastic an "excellent resource for asking questions and getting news."
LaFlamme was first exposed to the new networking site while spending time on Twitter. He had a conversation with Garland himself, who directed LaFlamme to his fledgling site. LaFlamme has been hooked ever since, especially because there are no character limits for individual posts, unlike Twitter, which cuts off posts at 140 words.
LaFlamme said Twitter "limits the ability to have an in-depth and extensive conversation. (Banktastic) is definitely geared more towards personal interaction, whereas Twitter is more about what (each person) is doing. (Banktastic) has more of a personal feeling and people are excited about it because it allows for more user-generated content."
The CU Scoop
The site's video blogging section has a webisode series dedicated solely to credit unions called the "CU Scoop." Each video details the latest breaking news in the financial industry, but also chiefly focuses on how to leverage social networking media and other web 2.0 applications.
In his personal experience, LaFlamme has found the vendor ranking section to be of great use. For instance, Augusta-based Maine State CU was reviewing options on a new account management solution, so LaFlamme took the discussion to Banktastic.
There he was able to ask colleagues about his choices and then sort through vendor rankings and reviews. Representatives for the vendors are also invited to defend criticism and accept praise.
"They have done a really good job getting the community involved and interested in what they are doing," LaFlamme said of the site's managers, noting that the fledgling firm has passed out swag to users and gone so far as to allow users to decide on the company's logo.
Even with the TBA signing, Randolph said that the site is always looking for more users and financial partners.
"The more people we can get involved in the conversation, the more valuable it's going to be for our members."(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
