In Plain English
Posted by Brent Dixon on December 11th, 2007
The folks at Common Craft do an awesome job of demystifying social media buzzwords through their “Explanations in Plain English” videos. Here’s their video on RSS (hat-tip to Bryan Sims for sending this our way several months ago):
They also explain blogs, wikis, and zombies.
These rock because:
- Video is a lot more engaging than a long blog post, or even an audio podcast.
- Their presentation is all about imagination and clarity over production quality.
- They don’t talk down to me, they just talk.
Are any financial institutions out there doing something similar with personal finance? I’ve seen quite a few financial literacy podcasts pop up, but honestly, most are boring – not something I’d spend time listening to if I didn’t work in this industry.
Wesabe and Mint have made managing your cash a little sexier. Can understanding your cash be interesting and simple?
Brent, thanks for this post. These are awesome videos. They are so simple and edu-taining. I can totally see a credit union using something like to this to demystify finance for young people.
Hmmm, I totally know a new young credit union spokesperson that needs to rip… err, I mean be inspired by these!
I have to admit that I draw a lot of my inspiration these days from UCCU out in Utah. Their youth landing site bemoneysmart.org has video tutorials that are leaps and bounds above most click-on-this-link-for-outdated-information financial literacy campaigns. Granted, their video stuff is mainly geared toward explaining products, but I didn’t mind watching it … and that’s a start.
You can also change the background at will and choose Paisley or Nick to guide you through the site.
Brent, Great post! I’d never seen these videos. Now I have them all marked on my You Tube site. You’re right – we can all take a lesson from the simplicity and creativity of these explanations.
Tim -
I seriously can’t wait to see what Larissa comes up with. Do you see her putting out educational content?
Ben -
Thanks for that link. It’s definitely more intriguing to watch than a bunch of dry (and, good call, usually out of date) links. UCCU has a really nice site design too. Do you know who did it?
Ginny -
Thanks! As a board member, do you have any advice on simplifying complex ideas or initiatives to improve buy-in from the board?
Great post Brent, this really simply’s how you can capture the power of a RSS reader to save time.
Thanks Dad!