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

Of the 36 credit unions and 120 individuals in the pilot, morethan 50% of participants have successfully leveraged social mediafor business wins ranging from leads, new members and loans toexpanding their reach within the communities they serve, theMadison, Wis., think tank said.

Last year, Filene teamed up with Chicago-based technologycompany QUEsocial and launcheda research pilot designed to explore how credit unions can improvetheir social media efforts and effectively drive business.

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

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

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

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

Some post-pilot features will include more curated contentspecific to areas such as HR, marketing, sales, and businessservices, along with Canadian-specific content. It will also haveenhanced training modules, gaming integration, and back-endtechnology.