#VBBuzz #1 - Prosper.com, P2PLending, Social Media, #TalkTaboo - Wed 10 Mar @ 6pm GMT

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Since pretty much the launch of my Visible Banking blog, back in February 2007, I started interviewing the thought leaders, the innovators, the social media advocates in the banking and (online) finance industry. I love meeting passionate people, people with a vision, people who wants to change the world and improve other's lives. I invite you to watch my 70+ video interviews available on VB so far.
  
In February 2009, I started using twitter to better understand how to engage on this popular medium, share my insights and views on social media in banking, start conversations, and I met some great people from all over the world. I also wanted to find out how well financial institutions are engaging and supporting their clients. My monthly updates from the Visible Banking Twitter Watch series quickly became one of my most popular posts on my blog. I invite you to follow me @Visible_Banking and look for tweets with #VBTW.
 
The VBBuzz Series: Towards More Interactive Interviews
I am always keen to try something new. From now on, in addition to my video interviews, I will organize and deliver interactive and insightul discussions on twitter. My goal is to find out more on the most innovative social media campaigns and initiatives launched by financial institutions and startups.
 
How it works: I will post an article on the VB Blog to introduce the discussion and the participants and make sure you are aware of the date and time when the conversation takes place. I will invite you to: 1. come back to me with your questions before the event, 2. track / join the conversation on twitter using #VBBuzz.
Following the interview / chat, I will post a transcript on VB with the best tweets and without the noise.
 
VBBuzz #1 - Prosper.com's "Let's Talk About the Taboo!"
It is my great pleasure to kick off this new VBBuzz series with one of the most innovative companies in online finance, Prosper.com, and a brilliant individual, Tiffany Fox, their Communications Director.
 
I am also hoping to have a few other special guests tomorrow evening. Stay tuned!
 
During our chat, I will ask Tiffany to share with us the latest stats and news from prosper.com, and she will answer my questions on their latest campaign Let's Talk About the Taboo.
 
It is an excellent initiative, which has its challenges. Prosper will need to fully leverage social media to capture a decent number of stories in such a short period of time. I invite you to watch my initial comments on video: Prosper.com's Let's Talk About the Taboo: Collecting 100,000 Stories in 5 Weeks? Leave that to Robin Hood! shared on my blog a few days ago.
 
I am particulary interested in finding more on:
* the thinking process behind this campaign,
* Prosper's marketing / social media strategy and expectations
* the opinion from the american people, and the other startups also focused on helping americans achieve financial wellbeingness.
 
I can't wait to get hold of the stats following the end of the campaign to find out what's the proportion of stories from Prosper's own users. One of my key questions, beyond the 5-week campaign, is how the talented Prosper team do plan to use this excellent input to achieve something even greater, and help improve the lives of the 307+ million american people.
    
Tiffany's Bio
Tiffany Fox is V.P. of Communications for Prosper, the world’s largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace with nearly one million members and over $190 million in loans.  A self-proclaimed financial services geek, Tiffany has been working in the industry for over 15 years.  She began her career in private banking at UBS and in 1997 went on to help build the online financial services public relations practice at Niehaus Ryan Wong.  In 1999, she joined her favorite client, E-Loan, as Director of Communications.  Following the 2005 sale of E-Loan to Popular, Inc., she joined Prosper, a model that E-Loan’s co-founder, Chris Larsen, had been thinking about for years prior to its inception as highlighted in a June 2001 issue of BusinessWeek. 
 
I invite you to watch my video interview with Tiffany at Finovate 2009.


Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage - Finovate09
* Coverage - Finovate07 & FinovateStartup08
* Visible Banking Services
* Visible Banking Interviews (70+ Videos)
* Visible Banking Directory: Social Media in Finance
* Visible Banking Twitter Watch (710 accounts tracked in 38 countries)

Comments

[NewHorizon]

You're right, that'd be great data to see, if it's made available. And of these users, it'd be useful to see which are borrowers and which are lenders. And of these borrowers, it'd be even MORE interesting to track them over time - and thus track the success of the talktaboo campaign - to see how many borrowers pay their loans and how many don't.

Having said that, tracking the good vs bad loans of talktaboo borrowers might not be possible. I say this because of the testimonials which Prosper has published on its site over the years, the ones from delinquent borrowers have disappeared. But we'll see. Looking forward to more VBBuzz Prosper updates!