Developed on the Post Zinger platform, this blog provides a forum for our products, as well as commentary about the banking industry and consumerism. Oh, and it rocks!

SmartyPig's Footprint Keeps Growing

As shown in the past months with our new Clearspring widgets and our utilization of Twitter and Facebook to make us more accessible, we are committed to putting SmartyPig on leading social platform technologies that help increase our outreach and connection. Our goal is to always be as informative, responsive and as inclusive as possible.

This will be a great tool for all three. Since day one, our customers have been THE most integral part of our growth and development.

Just read what the top bloggers have to say about us here:

• Being Frugal
  
• Gather Little by Little

Human SmartyPigs Don't Wallow in Mistakes

We right wrongs as quickly as possible, and we air all dirty laundry in public. Why? Because the more you can read about and participate in relevant discussions about SmartyPig, the more of an understanding you'll have regarding who and what SmartyPig stands for.

Join In The Conversation

So sign up for our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook or give us a piece of your mind or product improvement suggestions on Get Satisfaction. We not only want it all, we can take it all.

This isn't some hacked together, multiple technology cut-and-paste job. At SmartyPig, we want to leverage all the great and communicative opportunities in Web 2.0. And while we roll up our sleeves every morning and cross our fingers hoping that the news and customer experience is always good, we're ready for the open dialogue to begin in earnest. After all, that's the only way to ensure we can do the best job possible.

So let us have it. Really.

We have a new widget option for sharing your public goals with friends and family. We are leveraging the Clearspring widget technology from our friends there to allow you to easily integrate your SmartyPig goal widget into the leading social networks, start pages, desktops and blogs. Such as MySpace, Facebook, Google, Dashboard, Live, myYearbook, Netvibes, Hi5, Freewebs, Xanga, Friendster, Tagged, Blackplanet, Blogger, TypePad, Livejournal, Wordpress, Hoverspot, Multiply, Eons, Pageflakes, Webwag, Orkut, Vox, Piczo, and Perfspot.

Because we are able to break the mold again and again, reacting quickly to what our customers want, we are watching as our message of responsible saving resonates from coast to coast. And it is not just about folks signing up for SmartyPig, it's what they do upon signing up: They invite others to be a part of the experience. Clusters of users have created their own SmartyPig Friends groups. Some are saving for different events like weddings, a family vacation and the latest in electronics, while others are saving for the same thing, all together, like Spring Break 2009 or their Girls Night Out.

Most importantly, all of these individuals are sharing in the goal-saving experience - just like when they share about other aspects of their lives on their social networking pages, Websites and blogs. This true banking/social application is only available on SmartyPig, and we feel our updated widget option will go a long way in our really opening up this social side of saving, letting customers build their groups, allowing others to easily help them along, and most importantly giving them another tool that will keep them focused with regard to sensible saving.

In a terrific post by blogger Guillaume he writes of a "most critical time" for banks regarding true innovation, pointing out that without paying careful attention to what is going on in areas like the social space (like SmartyPig does), traditional financial institutions could be relegated to "mere accountants." We could not agree more. Because while we, too, like to see our bank statements online, we believe that true advancement for entities in the banking space lies in allowing customers to truly interact the way they do everywhere else on the Internet.