I’ve been watching for Vancity’s entry into social media for a while now – so much so that I feared a letdown. Oh my goodness, I was wrong! Thank you Vancity for launching this project.

Without a doubt, it’s the best example of any financial institution successfully using the social web (blogging, user-generated content, building a true online community). Wells Fargo should be taking notes along with every credit union with a culture open enough to participate in social media with their members.

From Rob Cottingham’s blog:

Targeted to people living in Vancouver, the Lower Mainland and Victoria, ChangeEverything.ca is a place where people can discuss, plan and make changes. Some of the changes are modest in scope (I want to get my bike out of storage, for instance), but some are a lot more ambitious – scrapping Daylight Savings Time or providing affordable housing for families with kids.

Users list their changes and blog about them… but that’s only the beginning. The real fun starts when users join each other’s changes and start collaborating and communicating. Even though it’s early days, you can already see the cross-pollination beginning to happen.

The site ties in with Vancity’s Change Everything ad campaign, but goes way beyond what you’d usually think of as marketing. That’s part of what’s made it such a joy to work on this project, especially since Vancity really gets the social web. I don’t know of another financial institution that’s launched such an open, inclusive online community.

Where do I start? Flickr integration. Members building content to affect change throughout the community. This just scratches the surface. You must visit the site and see for yourself.

It’s exactly how the brand of a “credit union” is supposed to be represented. Efforts like this can change the entire industry/movement/whatever-you-care-to-call-it. And while I’m on that point, this site says “movement” not industry.

Brent just blurted out, “This is awesome. I signed up for an account.” Brent is hard to impress. As am I.