There's a buzz about Filene Research Institute's QUEsocial pilot program as it may finally help ground all the talk about the “need” for social media with actual business results.

Of the 36 credit unions and 120 individuals in the pilot, more than 50% of participants have successfully leveraged social media for business wins ranging from leads, new members and loans to expanding their reach within the communities they serve, the Madison, Wis., think tank said.

Last year, Filene teamed up with Chicago-based technology company QUEsocial and launched a research pilot designed to explore how credit unions can improve their social media efforts and effectively drive business.

Offering credit unions a set of social media tools and resources, the portal combines e-learning, content delivery, gamification and analytics to make it easy for credit unions to take social business beyond just marketing to include individuals from across the organization.

Here's how it works. Platform participants build an internal network of socially engaged team members, learn new strategies from other credit unions, and gain practical insights about how to incorporate social media tools into day-to-day operations.

According to Filene, initial results revealed that growing social networks and posting frequently are the key factors to driving business results. In addition, among the pilot's best performers, Twitter has been the most popular social platform.

The research pilot will wrap at the end of this month but the Filene | QUEsocial Social Media Platform will be open to all credit unions effective May 1, the institute said.

Some post-pilot features will include more curated content specific to areas such as HR, marketing, sales, and business services, along with Canadian-specific content. It will also have enhanced training modules, gaming integration, and back-end technology.