"Looking at it, my thought was I wish there was a way to highlight credit unions that are doing Twitter well, and the idea came to mind of aggregating content from a group of credit unions that were actively taking part in the conversation," said Shell, who is marketing communications supervisor at Truliant Federal Credit Union "Given that I'm not a hardcore Web designer I knew I needed help so I then sent a tweet asking any credit union Web designers that wanted to help with a project to reach out. James Robert responded with a direct message saying, 'Let me know what's going on and how we might be able to help.' How appropriate is it that a Twitter tool for credit unions essentially started on Twitter?"

Lay, who is CEO at PTP New Media and Grower of Relationships, said once he heard the concept he jumped at the opportunity to partner on the site.

"Part of what we strive to do at PTP is educate the credit union industry on how to build relationships with new media and CUonTwitter.com is a perfect fit. We'll likely expand the site over time, but at the launch we're highlighting five credit unions that we think are effectively using Twitter."

The initial five credit unions featured are Bellco CU, Truliant FCU, A+ FCU, Public Service CU and UTFCU.

"You don't always have to talk about loan X or product Y on Twitter-members are normal people and engaging them in conversation can be great for building relationships above and beyond what already exists," said Shell. "There are other examples out there, but we picked a small list initially to get things started. The resources and credit unions highlighted will evolve over time-it isn't about quantity but quality."

Shell said he understands that not everyone on Twitter knows what to post, so he hopes the site can also be used as a brainstorming resource for credit unions just starting to use Twitter.

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