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5 Ways Banks Are Using Social Media

Many banks have started using social websites to help them with everything from healing the financial industry to promoting their latest credit cards. By embracing the most popular tools available, the industry has also been embracing the best of what social media culture has to offer, and smaller, community banks seem to be leading the charge when it comes to social media innovation.

This post profiles some U.S. banks that have used social media in their marketing and communications plans in some interesting and successful ways. These banks have tapped into the root of what social media means to the community, enjoying success in the way of returning real value for their institutions. (via Mashable Sept 11th, 2009 | by Lon S. Cohen)

The New Social Engagement: A Visit to Zappos

Most Mashable readers have probably heard of the online retail company, Zappos. You may have learned of them via Twitter (Twitter) and count yourself among the 400,000+ people that follow the CEO, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay but who people refer to as Tony), or from a friend after she had one of the best customer experiences in her life.

No matter how you heard of them, we wager to guess that you did so through word-of-mouth. And word about Zappos has been spreading. . . . They did $3 million dollars in gross sales the day before our recent visit, and surpassed $1 billion last year. They are one of the companies forging a new era of business that emphasizes, in their words, “making personal and emotional connections.”

We visited Zappos recently, initially planning to have an hour with Tony and ended up spending the entire afternoon there interviewing not only Tony, but the in-house coach, the help desk coordinator, and many others. Once in the Zappos universe, we wanted to know, “What are they doing that is working? Why do they have a brand that is so well respected?” And, “Why does it feel so damn good to hang out with these people?”

Below are some of the lessons we gleaned from our time there. (via Mashable April 26th, 2009 | by Soren Gordhamer)

10 Impressive New Implementations of Fb Connection

Facebook Connect is an exceptionally useful technology for web developers. Not only can they offer Facebook () users one-click registration and sign-in, but by accessing profile and social graph information, Facebook Connect gives developers a way to create a richer experience for their visitors and gives publishers a brand new promotional channel.

In January, we brought you a list of 10 great Facebook Connect implementations, and developers across the web have been busy since then coming up with new and innovative ways to integrate with Facebook. So below is a list of 10 more great implementations of Facebook Connect that stand out for their creativity, their usefulness, or their seamless integration. (via mashable July 21st, 2009 | by Josh Catone)