ShoreBank Blog
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Posts Tagged ‘social media’
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Am I the only one who finds it odd that my friend’s condo door doesn’t have a peephole? I do not want to have to look out a side window to identify the solicitor at my door. But, isn’t that exactly how giving through social media feels? Now, don’t get me wrong, I think it is great that the internet has revolutionized and accelerated online giving. The Red Cross has thus far raised over $21 million in $10 text donations for Haiti (and I hope there is more to come!); all nonprofits raised $4 million in the entirety of 2009. But, a reported 4,000 scam sites, disguised as nonprofit relief organizations, arose to take a cut of online donations to Hurricane Katrina. Social media makes it easy to give and hard to identity fakes. With Americans having already donated $150 million online (out of the total $300 million) to Haiti, I don’t want to see this giving trend mitigated by fear of cons. Here are a few social media reminders that will help.
Always check for ID. BBB Wise Giving provides a few tips on verifying online nonprofits. First, look for ID verification, such as a verified badge on Twitter. Second, find out if the nonprofit relief organization has an on-the-ground presence in the impacted areas. Third, find out if the nonprofit relief organization is providing direct aid. Fourth, rely on expert opinions. And, finally, when in doubt, go with the one you know or just give offline.
Beware of geeks bearing gifts. Just because you have been invited to use a Facebook application or have received a link from a friend doesn’t mean you have to open it! More than once I have received an email from a friend that warns not to click any link from previous emails because of its malicious intent. If something looks odd, it is better to get confirmation from your friend that she is the sender rather than to just open the link.
Limit your social networks. Would you invite your 5,000 Facebook friends to a house party? Most likely you would not. The greater your social network, the greater the likelihood that one of your friends or an evil doppelganger could send you a malicious link that could scrape critical logins and passwords or infect your computer with a nasty virus. Know who your friends are and keep them limited to 600.
Lengthen abbreviations. Bit.ly and Tiny URL are fantastic ways to shorten URLs to fit character limitations. But they are also creative solutions to mask malevolent web addresses. Protect yourself by installing an add-on that will display the full URL. When clicking on links, longer is better than shorter.
As we continue to maximize the profoundly good impact that social media creates, to paraphrase the film Home Alone, our social media profiles are our homes, we have to protect them so we can continue to make them safe havens for giving.
Tags: identity theft protection, ShoreBank, social media, triple bottom line
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Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
Are you planning your New Year’s resolutions? You and me, both! It is so hard to continually resolve to create possibilities and to better change the world. I, for one, already save at 20%. I have never owned a car. I try to recycle. I even fit in some volunteering. But there is so much more that I could do to better employ ShoreBank’s mission in my personal life. That is why I resolve to do the following in 2010:
Overcome my fear of our composter. I’ll confess – I do not like composters. Our office just acquired one and I have yet to throw the core of my daily apple in it. My problem – I don’t like seeing the food. Well, in 2010, I’ll just cover my eyes! I know that composting organic materials decreases the production of methane and leachate formulation in landfills. It also creates good nutrient rich soil for another resolution. Composter – here I come!
Offset some C02 pounds by starting a green garden. This year, I obtained flight status from recreationally flying over 25,000 miles. We even blogged on plotting the most eco-friendly way to enjoy your vacation. Using that blog’s CO2/trip calculation table, I emitted 9,250 pounds of C02 in 2009 on one airline alone. I think it is time to claim my freshly composted dirt and to plant my own little urban window garden to at least start to offset my carbon emissions.
Cease procrastination and ask my landlord to seal my windows. It has been over a year and I still have a draft coming in from my windows. Not only do I want to not wear a nightcap, but as we just blogged, one-third of all dangerous gas emissions released into the environment emanate from our homes. This small improvement really will help increase the heat in my home and potentially good paying jobs.
Reanalyze my 401(k). My conservative risk portfolio preserved my assets through the financial meltdown, but it is easy to be conservative when you are a passive investor. It is time to research corporations’ corporate social responsibility reports and to start to look at their long term returns to both my portfolio and to the world. The economy will turn around and I want to be ready to increase investments in the right organizations when we come around the economic bend.
Provide more value to our ShoreBank online community. I brought a new sbk.com to life in 2009. In 2010, I want to bring you, our online community, as much as I can to create possibilities to build your wealth and to improve lives.
I hope you’ll employ your own resolutions to change the world in 2010. I know that I can’t wait to start!
Happy New Year from your Online Channel Manager
Tags: green resolutions, ShoreBank, social media, triple bottom line
Posted in Outreach | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
I believe, in the words of W.J. Cameron, that “Thanksgiving . . . is a word of action.” It is not just a moment. So as we look back on 2009, one of the most economically difficult years in our nation’s history, I am thankful for many things that offer real hope for the future. I give thanksgiving for:
Social Media’s growing impact
Its role as a catalyst for creating positive social and environmental change continues to grow larger. For example, this year’s Summer of Social Good exhibited the potential for what can be accomplished when social media is implemented to raise funds for nonprofit organizations. And President Obama’s administration and numerous organizations continue to demonstrate the impact upon an issue or a cause that can stem from the buzz created by social media.
The Chicago Climate Action Plan
The City’s plan to retrofit 400,000 units of housing by 2020 to mitigate 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide is already off to a great start. Administrators claim to have exceeded the quantity of residential retrofits they wanted to complete this year while planting 7 million square-feet of green roofs. Plus, additional bike lanes and new storage racks across the city to accommodate parking 12,000 bicycles will help reduce monthly expenses, congestion, and greenhouse gas emissions, all of which will make Chicago a healthier place and improve the quality of life for everyone.
Extending the First-Time Home Buyers Credit
The tax credit that has already helped nearly 1.5 million Americans to buy a home has been extended to June 2010. I am confident it will continue to boost home sales and fuel the consumer spending that will help stabilize our communities and get the economy moving faster.
The Home Affordability and Modification Program
This economic crisis is not limited to “a bunch of irresponsible people who bought or sold more home than they could afford.” So we are proud participants in the Administration’s Home Affordability and Modification Program. We have completed more than 50 successful modifications and, in addition to our Rescue Loan Program, we are doing everything we can do to help homeowners to save their homes.
The new SBK.com Website
Developing a fresh new look and new features for our website provides more people with greater access to the resources and services that will make life’s possibilities all possible.
And most of all – our customers:
We are grateful for all of our customers who support our commitment to providing the services and products that create new opportunities to build strong, sustainable communities and reinvigorate peoples’ lives. We are also so proud of our customers, like Indie Energy, who recently received a $2.42 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy to further develop geothermal technologies, for demonstrating the alternative energy industry’s potential to create good paying jobs while helping its customers to consume less energy and reduce their carbon footprint.
We are a “different” bank – and you are a special customer. Thank you for giving us so much to be thankful for in 2009.
Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at ShoreBank!
Tags: Chicago Climate Action Plan, First-Time Home Buyers Credit, home affordability and stability plan, Indie Energy, ShoreBank, social media, triple bottom line
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Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
Hi! I’m Scott Kenemore, and this is my first blog for ShoreBank Voices. I work in ShoreBank’s communications department but am also a musician in a local Chicago band. Although these two gigs at first might seem disconnected, music and social activism are greatly connected to ShoreBank’s work serving nonprofits and foundations.
Popular musicians have long been associated with social causes, but when people think of music and activism, I think most still picture the Tibetan Freedom Concerts of the 1990s or Sting’s efforts to stop logging in the Brazilian rainforest. If that’s the case for you, I think you’ll be surprised (and, I hope, pleased) by the recent ways the internet and, in particular, social media, have allowed performers and socially oriented organizations to come together to raise awareness.
MySpace is a great example. MySpace.com is the web’s second most popular social networking site. Although originally created to allow bands to promote their music, individuals and institutions (including nonprofit organizations) also established their presences on the site. Because of the way MySpace works, artists are capable of displaying “favorite” or “top” friends, which can be organizations, on their pages. Therefore, an artist who wants to support a particular nonprofit or movement can feature the corresponding profile on his or her page, which will create increased (and, not unimportantly, free) visibility for that organization.
When a world-famous, platinum-selling artist features an institution on its social networking page, that organization’s impact and awareness can skyrocket overnight. For example, when U2 featured the (RED) campaign to fight AIDS in Africa in their top friends on MySpace, awareness of and membership in that organization increased exponentially. The American band Green Day went a step further, launching a joint MySpace page with the National Resources Defense Council (NRCD) where fans can peruse articles, blog entries, and photographs that tell the story of the band’s support for the NRDC. The site also lets visitors join the NRDC or make an electronic contribution.
Big-name acts aren’t the only ones supporting worthy causes. Plenty of local and regional bands feel just as strongly about supporting certain nonprofits, foundations, and organizations via their web presences. Local bands might have 4,000 MySpace or Facebook friends (as opposed to 400,000), but get 100 local bands supporting your organization, and the impact is the same as if one international band supported your organization.
For example, let us examine the areas in which ShoreBank has branches: Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. With a quick search of MySpace, I can find Chicago acts like WILCO, which features nonprofits Oxfam America and the Gulf Restoration Network; Detroit-area groups like Serenity Court, which supports a local street fair; and the Woodchuck Music Festival in Cleveland, which promotes multiple nonprofits ranging from World Wildlife Fund to Greenpeace.
If you work with an organization that promotes a social cause, explore creating “brand ambassadors” via social networking sites. If there is a musician in your area whose demographic fits with yours, contact him or her directly and ask if he or she would consider supporting what you do. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the willingness of performers—both large and small—to use their visibility to help institutions that make a difference in their communities.
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Tags: community development, green banking, ShoreBank, social media, triple bottom line
Posted in Outreach | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
With all the time we spend online it is nice to have the Fourth of July to look forward to. It is a big day for good old in-person cookouts and picnics with friends and family. And there is no better place to get the food you’ll need than your local farmers market. ShoreBank is lucky enough to host a farmers market every Wednesday during the summer in the parking lot of our branch at 71st and Jeffery in Chicago. I stopped by last Wednesday expecting a little dose of food – and while I got that, I also ended up getting a big dose of family.
I had heard of San Diego and San Francisco but…SanJustins? How did I miss them on my last swing through the west coast? SanJustins is a small bakery stand at the farmers market. It is run by Sandy with a lot of baking done by her son Justin (get it? SanJustin). Even her sister was helping her out. Sandy is building her business in Chicago and has her business plan – for now she is three weeks into her first season at a farmers market. She already has loyal customers (one stopped by for her sweet potato nut bread) and she is testing ideas and responding to market feedback (she added banana nut bread without sugar for customers who might be diabetic).
While Sandy may be in her first season, Andy of Blankenship Farms essentially grew up at farmers markets – this one included. Although Andy has had a stand at our farmers market for 6 years, his parents were previously there for over a decade. And as a little boy he came with them so some of Andy’s customers have known him since he was a kid. And this week – cherries should be coming in!
The “all-in-the-family” trend continued at Mark Farm but in a way that surprised me. This farm is in Indiana but the first person I talked to surprisingly lived across the street from the market, on Chicago’s South Side. Gregory was working the stand after his one minute walking “commute.” But he isn’t the first one in his family to make that short walk to work. His father was a Mark Farm customer who later started working there and Gregory has followed, literally, in his footsteps.
So if your local farmers market is full of great family stories too – and I bet it is – there is actually a way you can leverage your digital expertise to help. The site Care2.com is running an online voting campaign on farmers markets. Vote for your favorite and the market with the most votes will get $5,000. Three cheers for the family of farmers markets!
Tags: community development, farmers market, green banking, ShoreBank, social media, triple bottom line
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Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
President Obama’s recent televised fly swatting impacted more than just the fly. It sparked both PETA to send Obama a device that traps flies for subsequent outdoor release and an online debate across social media sites as to whether or not PETA overreacted. The result may influence whether or not Obama swats again. It is clear that Eco-Activism 2.0 is in full swing but it begs the question ‘can online eco-activism actually make a difference?’
For those people who are unfamiliar with the term ‘Eco-Activism,’ it is used to describe a person, such as Van Jones or Al Gore, who is involved in heightening consciousness and promoting potential behavioral solutions to environmental issues. There are many types of Eco-Activists. The type to which I am referring is rooted in good old fashioned person to person conversations. The more people to whom you speak, the more likely you are to reach the ‘tipping point.’ As the need to ‘go green’ intensifies, so too does our need to spread the world quickly. And what spreads the word more quickly than social media? The problem is to make sure that the word does not just spread online, but that corrective solutions are taken offline.
Two social media websites, 2people.org and changents.com, are designed to enable eco-activists to connect and to form online communities focused on solving environmental problems. 2people.org’s goal is to create a critical mass of activists who will create enough buzz about global warming that it will cause people to do something about it. Its basic social networking features allow people to form activism teams, to create a virtual workspace, and to monitor events, people, and actions in the world. Changents.com then enables Change Agents (Changents) to team-up with a receptive audience of Backers who can respond to, spread, support and consumer their innovations and ideas. They have offline abilities to back a Change agent through Action Requests.
Although still in Beta, in its first year, changents.com has already received 235 action requests for 157 Change Agents. One such Change Agent is the Big Green Bus team – a group of 15 Dartmouth students who are driving a huge green solar paneled veggie-oil powered bus cross-country to bring awareness to how we can all change the reliance on energy. The requested action: that their 122 Backers forward their schedule and message to their friends. Eco-Activism 2.0 is working. The team met with Senator Jeanne Shaheen and House Representative Dave Reichert last Friday.
For those people who are unable to make the time and effort to “change the world,” supporting an online eco-activist site makes it incredibly fun and easy. All it takes is just getting online and enabling social media to spread the word.
We really can move a nation—if each of us moves two people. And going out and changing the world is really as simple as clicking a mouse.
Tags: community development, Eco-Activism, green banking, green transportation, ShoreBank, social media, triple bottom line
Posted in Outreach | 3 Comments »
Friday, May 15th, 2009
We are excited to sponsor Chicago Green Festival this weekend, May 16-17 at Navy Pier. Green Festival is a fabulous opportunity for ShoreBank to illustrate to others that by integrating economic development and environmental sustainability we can build stronger, healthier communities. Amidst the backdrop of current economic conditions, this education has perhaps never been more important.
Green Festival is the largest environmental sustainability event in the world. It attracts tens of thousands of individuals interested in “green” living. Festival visitors can participate in green career workshops, kids activities, sample organic refreshments, and enjoy live music while gaining a better understanding and appreciation for the 350 small green businesses from across the country that are creating healthier individuals and helping to build strong, sustainable communities.
But, living a more sustainable, green lifestyle takes place in the community, one person at a time. That is why social media has such great potential to reach more people and make positive impressions. So, to celebrate Green Festival 2009, ShoreBank will plant a tree for every new person who becomes a ShoreBank Facebook Fan Page fan this weekend!
But we need your help. Please show your support for ShoreBank’s mission and help protect the environment by sharing our Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/ShoreBank/21702975841 with all of your friends and family. Green Festival might be in Chicago but environmental sustainability knows no boundaries.
If you are in Chicago, please come to Green Festival, compliments of ShoreBank. Find your free Green Festival admission coupon here. Please stop by our booth at #5000 and say hello! We look forward to meeting you and all of our new Facebook fans!
Tags: community development, green banking, Green Festival, ShoreBank, social media, triple bottom line
Posted in Community | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
“You manage online marketing and social media for a bank?” You may be surprised that any organization in as traditional an industry as banking would ever enter the untraditional arena of social media. But I’m not. Social media is about building community regardless of whether it is online or offline. I believe that it is only logical then that a community development bank, like ShoreBank, would start to engage in social media to develop online communities.
I am consistently surprised by how grounded the online community is in meeting in physical locations. At social media club events, the speakers are often drowned out by attendees’ passionate discussions about their favorite causes. People are no longer ‘Tweeting’ or ’Facebooking’ merely to stay connected with their existing friends. Instead they are implementing social media to find and make new like-minded friends and to invite them to join the conversation. That online conversation often fuels a desire for an action that rallies the most unlikely of allies to a particular location. The impact social media can have on building a crowd is phenomenal.
Take the success of Twestival. On January 8, a ‘tweet’ (or online message sent using Twitter.com) went out asking cities to join in hosting a Twestival on February 12 with the goal of bringing local Twitter communities together both online and offline to kickoff a fundraiser for charity: water. I did not think twice about going. So, with $10 in hand for my donation, I joined the more than 10,000 people across 200 worldwide cities, which raised over $250,000. And almost every person I spoke with at Chicago’s Twestival said, “You manage online marketing and social media for ShoreBank? That is so cool.”
They recognized that ShoreBank’s mission is one about which many people are passionate. We build relationships to develop neighborhoods. Why would we not engage in social media to invite like minded friends to join our conversation? We look forward to building our community with you, your passion, and your ideas.
And we want your ideas to help us turn this blog green in April! David, Joel, and Michelle will blog on environmentally friendly practices that can save valuable financial and natural resources. From economic analysis to green design, there is much that a financial institution can do to positively change behaviors to protect the planet. And no one has a monopoly on good ideas which is why we are inviting you to build a blog post around your input!
Please tell us how are you using the internet and online social networks to help save money and protect the environment.
Comment to this thread or contact me independently and let’s see what impact we can make through our online community.
Tags: community development, green banking, ShoreBank Direct, social media, triple bottom line, Twestival
Posted in Community | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Inauguration Day 2009 brings more than just a new president. It brings a turning point in the way our society approaches community development.
Most political scientists agree that President Obama’s outside-of-the-box campaign strategy incorporating social media elements was one of the things that forged his path to the presidency. As ShoreBank Online Channel Manager, I felt honored that a blogger recently compared Obama’s nontraditional strategy to that of ShoreBank’s. She blogged that Obama should create a committee of cutting edge practitioners, including “someone from ShoreBank in Chicago,” in order to realize his promise of change.
Ironically, it was ShoreBank’s commitment to providing customers with “good, old-fashioned banking” that inspired us to enter the social media space. In Friday’s blog entry, my colleague Karen recently discussed how online banking’s ability to broaden the way we at ShoreBank can connect with people does create a community. It is through the community of social media that you can help to positively impact your online and offline community.
I believe that one of social media’s core functionalities is to connect users to determine the importance of topics. Commenting on a blog, Digging an article, linking to a website, and joining a Facebook Group or Fan Page promulgates the causes you think are important across the web as it stimulates reactions. This ongoing electronic conversation can make a serious impact in the real world.
Online networks can help find people emergency housing, enable microdonations to causes, bring real-time awareness to international human rights violations, or elect a president. Creating internet connection and communication between those who share your beliefs can galvanize you to move from online communities to coordinating offline change.
President Obama changed the face of American presidential campaigning with his historic use of social media (a Facebook Page, multiple MySpace Pages, mobile text updates). However, he used these new technologies to advance traditional American political themes of optimism, service, and the need for change. ShoreBank’s social media (a Facebook page, blog, websites, and more) likewise aims to use new technologies to connect our customers to what our cofounder Ron Grzywinski calls “good, old-fashioned banking -” a tradition that builds communities, allows families to create wealth, and creates neighborhoods where people choose to live, work, and play.
Now it’s your turn. Tell us: how can ShoreBank better use social media to help you to generate change?
Tags: community development, green banking, microdonations, ShoreBank Direct, social media, triple bottom line
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Friday, January 16th, 2009
35 years ago ShoreBank was founded on the South Side of Chicago to provide people unfairly denied credit with access to financial resources and information. And next week a new President with be sworn in – one who started his career in the same areas ShoreBank has been active.
ShoreBank has always been committed building sustainable communities That mission continues today as ShoreBank is one of the nation’s only triple bottom line financial institutions.
Communities, of course, change . As Joel, our manager of triple bottom line innovations, noted in an earlier post, all he has to do is look out his window to see the transformation that has taken place in the local community – other banks have appeared on many street corners. But not just the neighborhoods have changed – the way people want to bank is also evolving too.
When I speak at events here in Chicago I often meet people who are very interested in the way ShoreBank does banking. And they want to invest in this work. They love the stories of local entrepreneurs creating green collar jobs , green businesses, and of homeowners making energy efficient improvements – and they love that we work with borrowers in-person. But like people across the nation they want to manage their savings from a computer at home. And on a freezing day like today I am definitely in this camp.
Banking online is part of “green banking” and it supports our mission to preserve scarce resources and leave as small an environmental footprint as possible. We provide statements electronically instead of in the mail and we don’t need to build extra branches to serve our customers. But how do we create a sense of community when, increasingly, we like to bank alone?
We saw this same challenge in politics this year as now President-elect Obama found a way to engage people using technology – but he still met with countless individuals face to face. We too are working to broaden the ways we connect with the community of people interested in supporting our traditional personal, one-on-one lending. So our online presence is changing. You have already seen some of these initiatives; in fact, you may have opened an Online High Yield Savings Account because of them. We have created a website with stories and videos of our customers and we have included features that make it easy to share items that interest you. We launched this blog and welcome your comments. We hope these stories and information are useful, so please share with us your comments and what other features and subjects you would like covered here too And don’t forget to visit our new Facebook page (Admittedly it is not as well known as the Obama page). This is all relatively new for us and somewhat unusual for a bank.
Even with these new electronic channels, ShoreBank continues to partner with borrowers with traditional personal, one-on-one service. Our ability to be a part of the community – working with potential borrowers, understanding their stores and finding them the best product for long term success – is, and will always be at the heart of what we do.
But in a world were my friend’s three month old daughter already has an email account we know online capabilities will be a significant part of the our future. We look forward to building community in this space too.
Tags: community development, green banking, high yield savings, ShoreBank Direct, social media, socially responsible investing, triple bottom line
Posted in Community | 2 Comments »
