Think there's more to social media than views, likes orfollowers? Curious to try something new at your credit union butnot quite sure it's even possible?

Well, now there's a lab for that courtesy of CUNA MutualGroup.

CMG Digital Media Manager Michael Ogden and Digital MediaStrategist Holly Fearing, who have long been vocal about the use of social media to furtherconnections and conversations, have unveiled the Digital MediaTest Lab, a full- immersion laboratory dedicated to examiningdigital communication.

“This is our stake in the ground. To help dig into some of themost important issues facing the future of credit unions and how toapproach them through social media,” Fearing said. “We’re going all-in to take a newapproach to discover and really understand the ways social media ischanging how humans interact and solve problems.”

Holly Fearing and Michael Ogden strike a pose in one of the twointerview sets in the Digital Lab at CUNA Mutual Group.

Ogden said the lab provides an opportunity to prove the deeperimpacts of social media and test for more-effective ways to measureits value, which ultimately is rooted in human interactions.

“Without the human element, it's just a bunch of machinestalking about where we are and what we do,” said Ogden, whotogether with Fearing has been experimenting and sharing theirsocial media experiences with credit union clients of the Madison,Wis.-based CUNA Mutual.

“We’ve been doing this for a little over two years and the labcame out of frustration with the wrong questions being asked andused in metrics,” he said, “so we decided to create this lab andhelp credit unions and the industry go deeper.”

The duo don't claim to have all the answers but rather an openmindedness to keep the bigger picture in mind as they collaborateand experiment, testing their theory of how social media can beused to make a bigger impact and rethinking the measurements usedin determining ROI effectiveness.

“We want to move beyond the misperception of social media justbeing a nice-to-have instead of a need-to-have,” Fearing said.“We’re in a digital world. If you look at Yelp for recommendationsor search the Internet for any information, it's ‘social media.’Social media is just a tool to increase the connections humanbeings already have with one another.”

With the industry as a whole looking to build awareness of thecredit union difference, she said there's an opportunity toquestion and discover the biggest issues people are passionateabout, to get together and discuss ways to collaborate forsolutions.

Ogden added, “We went with ‘Digital Lab’ as the name because wedidn't want to be just pegged as social media because it's aboutthe wider issue of digital communication. It's how we as humanslive, play, shop, do transactions and, yes, do social. So we wantedto have that wider scope.”

The approximately 12-foot by 10-foot room contains a 60-inchmonitor where graphs, charts and video can be referenced duringinterviews or presentations, two additional 35-inch monitors,studio lighting, two webcams, a microphone, laptops, iPads and awall which, with the help of special paint, can be used as a giantwhiteboard to brainstorm and keep track of projects.

Dual monitors that can wirelessly display graphics from laptops,iPads, microphones, webcams and studio lighting help make theDigital Lab these researchers’ dream come true.

Ogden and Fearing are proud of the dedicated space to doeverything from hosting Google+ Hangouts and recording videos toediting and helping credit unions breathe life into their ideas toconnect in their communities. They already are helping some creditunions in Ohio and St. Louis with projects.

“It's about having these minds come together across allindustries,” Ogden said. “We will never learn anything just talkingto each other and cheerleading as we do. The whole world is sittingout there and yet the industry likes to behave as if it exists inits own special bubble.

“What is the point of being a best-kept secret? Is it a moraleissue of turning a failure into a point of pride? If we want toaccomplish something, there needs to be less bragging to each otherand more outward bragging,” he said.

To Fearing that means working cooperatively.

“We want to open up those conversations and uncover what'shappening in the financial industry, technology industry, etc.,”she said. “We can see this developing into more. So other peopledoing social media for their organization can connect with us andwe can do this together – whether it's testing out an idea orproving the worth of social media in a more meaningful way.

“Together we can do the research and share the results. We can'tkeep using old metrics and apply them to a new way of doing things.With this lab we want to discover more about what are thealternative, more effective metrics.”

Ogden pointed to a recent infographic from SouthbySouthwest 2014that looked at all the social media mentions of the hashtag #SXSWand the word “love.” Beyond the 7,000 mentions, the experimentrevealed most popular session topics, top keywords, most popularsession times, top party times, most popular party venues and thelike.

“That's just one example of looking beyond the metrics to findout what the larger story is in those numbers,” Ogden said. “Theworld has already changed. We as an industry have to stop playinglike we are in first grade and graduate into college by exploringassociations and turning them into something more valuable.”