The Banktastics

Download this video

Thanks for checking out this episode of BanktasticTV’s “The Burst.” Here are some important notes about this episode:

Article: The Branch of the Future
Brad recently shared an article on Banktastic regarding a video clip showing the Branch of the Future. This is video takes a look into the potential that bank branches have in the future. Watch the video here!

If you have any thoughts on this video and want to share your opinion, please feel free to comment back to this blog!

Article: Blocking Social Networking Sites in the Workplace
Brad also posted an article he came across regarding the blocking of social networking sites in the workplace. It’s a touchy topic for some, but many people feel that if moderated properly, allowing your employees to use these social networking sites & applications can actually be of benefit to your business. Brad gave his thoughts in this week’s episode - what do you think? To block, or not to block? That is the question.

Firefox 3.0 is Spreading like Wildfire!
If you’ve somehow missed the hype about Firefox’s new browser release, the latest version was released on Tuesday. It’s getting great feedback so far, and Brad thinks you should definitely check it out. You can download this awesome new browser here. If you like it, spread the word! Firefox is aiming to make this a ground-breaking release.

BarCampBankDallas!
BarCampBankDallas is this weekend! If you want to be there, feel free to drop by! We’ll be at the American Bank of Texas in Frisco from 9-5 on Saturday and 9-1 on Sunday. If you want to get in on some awesome discussions, feel free to join us! We’re going to try to work in a lot of fun events, so be there if you can!

Subscribe to Banktastic on iTunes
All of BanktatsicTV’s shows are available on iTunes now! Click here to access our podcast page to subscribe, or open iTunes and search “BanktasticTV.”

Email Us!
Feel free to email comments or suggestions about “The Burst” to brad@banktastic.com, or post your thoughts on the Banktastic Community.

See you next week!

-The Banktastics

Download this video

Thanks for checking out this episode of BanktasticTV’s “The Burst.” Here are some important notes about this episode:

Article: Customer Bank Fees - Mint Takes on Wells Fargo
An article shared recently by Lisa was about Aaron Patzer of Mint.com speaking out against Wells Fargo and the amount of fees they and other banks charge their customers. Aaron called for a shift in the way banks generate money, focusing less on fees and more on customer-focused programs. Patzer also threatened to “expose” these banks and all their fees on Mint.com. To this, Danny Peltz of Wells Fargo stated, “we wish you luck with that.”

If you have any opinions on this topic, we’d like to encourage you to check out the article on Banktastic and get involved! Let us know what you think about Patzer’s stance on a change in revenue generation for banks.

Q&A: Does your organization use laptop encryption?
One recent question that piqued Brad’s interest was about laptop encryption. A lot of Banktastic members gave insight into what types of encryption solutions they’ve used and what worked for them.

This was a great question that generated a lot of great responses. If you have any advice about laptop encryption, visit the question on Banktastic and share your experiences. Also, if you’ve run into an exceptionally good or bad encryption software, why not head over to the Vendors section of Banktastic and review a company? That way you can help people shopping around in the future by sharing your experiences.

Vendor Rating: FindABetterBank.com
Speaking of the Vendors section on Banktastic, Brad recently reviewed FindABetterBank.com. We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repreating - this website is providing a very unique and innovative service for banking customers, and we love it. If you’ve never checked out their site before, we encourage you to visit and try it out! Once you do, let us know what you think by adding your own rating in the vendors section in Banktastic. We think FindABetterBank is doing a rocking job at helping customers finding a FI that better suits their needs. Great job, guys!

New Blog - TheFinancialBrand.com
Brad wanted to announce a great new blog that everybody should subscribe to - New Blog - TheFinancialBrand.com. This blog is run by Jeffry Pilcher, and focuses on branding, marketing and advertising for FIs (both banks AND credit unions). If you’re looking for a new gem to add to your RSS reader, we highly encourage checking this one out. Subscribe today!

Subscribe to Banktastic on iTunes
All of BanktatsicTV’s shows are available on iTunes now! Click here to access our podcast page to subscribe, or open iTunes and search “BanktasticTV.”

Email Us!
Feel free to email comments or suggestions about “The Burst” to brad@banktastic.com, or post your thoughts on the Banktastic Community.

See you next week!

-The Banktastics

Download this video

Thanks for checking out this episode of BanktasticTV’s “The Burst.” Here are some important notes about this episode:

BLOGS!
The topic of this week’s episode is some of the best banking blogs that you need to read! Check out the blogs we’re featuring, and go subscribe to them!

NetBanker

NetBanker, run by Jim Bruene, is a great comprehensive banking blog. They have lots of great news about finance, mortgage and much more. They update daily to give their readers the absolute best, up-to-date news.

The Bankwatch

Run by Colin Henderson, The Bankwatch is a great bank news website that features a lot of great social media & research information. This was actually the first blog that Brad ever subscribed to.

The Story

The Story is run by Jeff Stephens at Creative Brand Communications. It’s a fantastic blog about marketing techniques for banks. They’ve also got a lot of really great posts about branding and social media. Be sure to check them out!

Marketing ROI

Marketing ROI is run by a familiar face around Banktastic, Ron Shevlin (aka - The Shevlinator). This blog is a great source for trends in all things related to marketing. Ron updates very frequently, so it’s a great addition to your RSS reader. Go and subscribe now!

Payments News

Payments News is run by Glenbrook Partners. We’ve done a little research, and it turns out that most of the articles posted on Banktastic come from Payments News! They post several times a day with the latest and greatest banking payment news. If you want to keep up with what’s going on with payments in the banking industry, we highly suggest you subscribe to their RSS feed!

They’ve also tapped into the Twitter world! Follow their updates on Twitter: paymentsnews

Subscribe to Banktastic on iTunes
All of BanktatsicTV’s shows are available on iTunes now! Click here to access our podcast page to subscribe, or open iTunes and search “BanktasticTV.”

Email Us!
Feel free to email comments or suggestions about “The Burst” to brad@banktastic.com, or post your thoughts on the Banktastic Community.

See you next week!

-The Banktastics

Download this video

Thanks for checking out this episode of BanktasticTV’s “The Burst.” Here are some important notes about this episode:

Have you ever used the word “spondu”?
On a rather silly note, Brad brought up the fact that I use the word “spondu” on occasion. There’s a quite nice example of what the definition is in this video. He wants to know if any of you have ever heard of or used the word…ever. So comment back and let us know. I swear the word is real!

BIG Metrics Demo Account for Banktastic Members
David G. worked out a nice deal with the people from BIG Metrics to get a demo account for Banktastic members to try out. He thought the application was so great that he wanted to share the wealth with everybody else. To find out what BIG Metrics is about and get the demo account information, click here. We’d like to send a huge thank you to David for working this out for us. You rock!

Private Message about Web 2.0
Brad received a nice private message from David A. about technology leaders and their knowledge of Web 2.0. There’s a great discussion to be had on this topic. Do you think that technology leaders know anything about social media, and would it help them at all to know it? Comment back on the blog and let us know what you think.

New Features on Banktastic!
We’ve rolled out a few new features on Banktastic! The first one is a nice little algorithm we’ve setup in all main sections of Banktastic to show you what’s “hot” and what’s “fresh.” Based on community activity, you can see what’s the most popular content out there by clicking “hot”, or check out the latest news, questions or vendor ratings by clicking “fresh.” It’s a great new way to sort content on Banktastic. Check it out!

The other BIG thing we’ve rolled out this week is a groups section that’s not currently available to the public version of Banktastic. We’ve given associations, member groups, credit union leagues and many more the opportunity to use Banktastic as a communication tool to stay in touch between conferences. It’s like a mini-Banktastic all for particular group. An established group can share announcements, post articles, private message anybody within the group, and ask questions all within the privacy of your own group. You have the option of keeping all of your content private, or sharing it openly with the rest of the Banktastic community. It’s a great way to keep your members connected in between events or meetings.

Here’s a little sneak-peek at what a group looks like:

If you’d like more information about groups or are thinking of creating one in Banktastic, please contact brad@banktastic.com or lisa@banktastic.com. We’d be more than happy to setup a webinar to show you all the capabilities of a group on Banktastic.

Subscribe to Banktastic on iTunes
All of BanktatsicTV’s shows are available on iTunes now! Click here to access our podcast page to subscribe, or open iTunes and search “BanktasticTV.”

Email Us!
Feel free to email comments or suggestions about “The Burst” to brad@banktastic.com, or post your thoughts on the Banktastic Community.

See you next week!

-The Banktastics

Download this video

Thanks for checking out this episode of BanktasticTV’s “The Burst.” Here are some important notes about this episode:

Brad’s Thoughts on This Episode
Hey folks, sorry for the ’silence’ this week but whaddya gonna do, right?! I just again wanted to give MUCHO props to Seesmic for helping us with this episode. Those video responses were received within a minutes after my initial post and they came from all over the world. It’s a great way to see how conversations have truly gone global.

Anyway, I realize that a lot of these folks are on one end of the tech-savvy scale but I don’t necessarily think they are exceptions. People want their banking experience to be less obtrusive so by using a lot of online services they are able to do so but notice that these people still don’t feel comfortable handling ‘bigger chores’ like car loan or mortgages yet because the online experience hasn’t made them feel comfortable enough to do it. All great responses and hopefully it provides some insight into the minds of the banking consumer.

Thanks again for watching The Burst and yes, we are changing the industry!

Thanks to Everybody from Seesmic!
We’d like to send a huge thank you to everyone that participated in our Seesmic video survey. We got some fantastic feedback, all of which will help bankers learn more about the banking trends of everyday people. You all were a great help, so thank you!

BanktasticTV Podcast Now on iTunes!
You guys asked for it, so we did it! All of BanktatsicTV’s shows are available on iTunes now! Click here to access our podcast page to subscribe, or open iTunes and search “BanktasticTV.”

Email Us!
Feel free to email comments or suggestions about “The Burst” to brad@banktastic.com, or post your thoughts on the Banktastic Community.

See you next week!

-The Banktastics

Today, April 1st, we released the brand-new version of Banktastic.com. The site got a complete facelift including a new feature - company & product reviews! This is a great way for companies & consumers alike to get involved and help members of our community learn more about specific companies & their products.

We’re really excited about the big changes we’ve made to Banktastic. We spent a lot of long hours working to make this site better, and, of course, ran into a few bugs in the process. By the way, a huge thanks to those watching the countdown and endured the delay of the new site with us. It was completely worth the wait!

So take a look around the site and see what we’ve made better. Feel free to give us your feedback by commenting on this blog. Oh, and if you happened to miss our April Fool’s video about the Banktastic Water Cooler, you can watch it here:

Thanks everybody!

-Lisa Randolph, Community Manager