I don't know how many companies today have a policy around what you can or can't say through social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and or Blogs. I don't even know what my companies policy is on it, as it doesn't seem to be in the handbook. But some things are clear be polite and respectful and be TRANSPARENT!

I love blogging and tweeting about the cool things my company works on because we have created a great culture that allows people to be themselves and be proud of what they do. This in my mind is how social media is suppose to work. People socializing with other people, not companies pushing their crap down our throats.

Other companies that have embraced this corporate culture and allowed their people to talk on their behalf is Digg, Zappos and Amazon. All three have become fan favorites in this new social dynamic that all companies are desperately looking to connect on.

Digg encourages everyone from the CEO to the receptionist to contribute on their corporate blog and be the companies voice. Through this approach Digg has really connected with its customers so much it has been able to create Diggnation a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories. It's hard to believe a bunch of nerds actually became rock stars in this approach. But, by keeping it real and not just having the CEO talk Digg and other companies are able to build up their people and create engagement beyond any paid social media marketing plan.

I heard a CEO once say he didn't want his employees contributing to their corporate blog because he didn't want headhunters taking his people. Really? Recruiters are smart and have so many tools today they will find whomever they want. I thought to my self why doesn't this CEO focus more on making his business a place people would not want to leave no matter what they are offered because they love the culture and embrace it.

Zappos is another great example that has done a wonderful job building up its employees and allowing them to speak on the companies behalf, so if the CEO Tony Hsieh steps away the company brand presence doesn't fall over. Jeff Bezos at Amazon is another great example.

Social media succeeds when real people connect and share real experiences whether good or bad about your brand. Corporations should learn that pushing content to consumers through social media will likely fail but creating virility in the culture will organically grow as people can't wait to talk about it.

One thing I've learned in my career is a team has to be emotionally invested to succeed. Imagine if every team in that company is; then it is headed down the right path for exponential brand loyalty. Think about the stories in sports where all the seniors come back to play and win that year. That stuff really works!

Alex Hunter from Virgin.com spoke at F.O.W.A. in Miami on corporate culture and branding and highlighted all this very well. He said marketing alone was the cancer on the nut sack of creativity and if companies focused inside to create a great creative corporate culture people would connect with their company in so many priceless ways.

So I say go tweet, retweet and update your status with the great emotions and connections you have with your company and you'll soon have friends asking you if you get a cut of the company or how can they come work there.

One way to think about designing a successful app regardless of the platform is to make the app almost invisible and design the experience. The experience is successful if the relationship ties the customer back to the company and therefore makes the brand useful. A useful app that gives the user a sense of enjoyment, information or a check mark on the todo list can do wonders for the longevity of the brand and its success.
 
At Rockfish Interactive I’ve had the opportunity to work on apps for great brands such as ESPN, Walmart, Listerine, Tyson, Silver Joe’s Coffee and Arvest Bank across many platforms such as iPhone, Facebook and online web apps. In all of these I always worked towards the experience the user should have while interacting with the app and defined the interface around that.
 
Applications should not be cumbersome they should use natural elements that enhance the experience instead of introducing a lot of new stuff. Don’t assume users will look for stuff because they won’t the application needs to be an extension of what I am already doing. Many great apps out there today already do just that and now we’re seeing a huge explosion in the mobile space that can provide a great extension of any brand if done correctly.
 
One piece of advice I received while designing an online banking application was to design the app the way that I would use it then get feedback and refine. This seemed to go well as the client was very pleased and the feedback was very minimal to the overall design. The client said the experience seemed spot on we just had to tweak a few colors and icons.
 
A great contributor to the success of your app is to have users provide feedback. I firmly believe unlike a website site an app design is never done and the more you listen to your users and refine the happier they will be. We hosted a user group of about 15 people the other night and the feedback was outstanding. We followed up the next day and ran through the list and discussed and itemized the crucial steps we needed to take before its launch in a few weeks.
 
Application design can be very rewarding for designers especially if it’s an app that you would get to use regularly. I’m pretty excited to debut a new app we’ve been working on at RFI in a few days to attendees at the F.O.W.A. (Future of Web Apps) conference in Miami and get more user feedback.

A couple months back a co-worker and I got to attend the Walmart Sparkology Summit. Where creatives, marketers and advertisers from agencies such as Lippincott Mercer, R/GA, Lopez Negrete, Global Hue, Rockfish Interactive and more came together to discuss brand ideas and messaging through brainstorming sessions and creative exercises. We discussed things such as best practices, experiences, activation methods and emotional experiences. Overall it was a great experience for any designer working with a brand and getting to see what goes on behind some of the most successful brand campaigns. Below are some pictures from the summit.

Have you ever been called into a brainstorming session at the last minute or find halfway through one your asking what are we doing here again? I bet more of us have than successful ideas or products that have come from these sessions. Recently I attended the HOW Conference in Austin and had the pleasure of meeting the authors of “Caffeine for The Creative Mind” and “Caffeine for the Creative Team” both books available on Amazon.com and both full of exercises to use in brainstorming sessions.
This three-hour session provided exercises and principles that both invigorate and spark creative ideas that bring ideation and execution to your team and company. The session started with an exercise right out of the book and quickly we found ourselves describing Austin and what it meant to us using Play-Doh. After about 5 minutes my group had an alien with a head made out of a taco, a body that resembled a guitar, a BBQ burger and beer bottle in hand and we kept the “keep Austin Weird” message going.

Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield the authors highlighted key principles that after hearing I was ready to share back with my team and make the next big thing. Below I will highlight some of these and for a more detailed version with over 500 exercises pick up their books.

1.    Have the right number of brainstormers present. Usually 4-7 is good, 5 is their magic number.
2.    Don’t surround yourself around other you’s. Have many different personality types include the janitor if needed.
3.    No pop quizzes – give people notice (2 days) to bring ideas to the table.
4.    Value time 1.5 – 2 hours is ideal.
5.    Fresh input, familiar output. Experience the brand in its environment but come back to a familiar place to meet otherwise there will be too many distractions.
6.    Have something up your sleeve: bring elements into the area; this shows how important certain elements are.
7.    Start the fire with a creative match. Exercises of creativity.
8.    Bring in the strategic play. Have a creative catalyst Kevin Carroll at Nike has his own creative gym on their complex.
9.    Leave the judge at the door. No one will speak out if they say something stupid and get judged. Have people feel they are not developing a solution but possibilities.
10.    If you unroll it, they will draw. Surfaces that are drawable, Play-Doh, etc.  
11.    Be the coach not the owner. Look from someone else’s or things perspective, give stalls a push.
12.    Capture residual ideas – come back 1 day later in an informal visit and jot down any ideas that might have come up.
13.    Put on the back patter hat. We all like to be stroked so praise may make us generate more.

All in all I thought these ideas were excellent and half way through the session I had a calendar invite from my team for a brainstorming session the day I got back so I was looking forward to using these.

TL Effect – A synergetic experience where value is added from the product acting as a catalyst to advance the end user.

So recently I purchased an Acura TL and let me tell you I love it! From the super-fast VTech engine to the Bluetooth syncing with my iPhone to the pounding super clear sound system this car has it all and more.

This past weekend my girlfriend got a dose of what I have dubbed the “TL Effect”. We were on our way to the movies Sunday night and stopped at a light when a jam from my iPod, plugged into the in-car USB plug, turned some heads and had the couple next to us dancing. I think Acura made an excellent choice promoting the TV commercials with Citizen Cope’s “Let My Drummer Kick” but in this case I found the perfect song for the perfect car. I have a remixed version of David Guetta’s “Love Is Gone” and the electronic baseline goes hard and nasty on the Dolby Sound system. Next we found ourselves ROFLOAO as the beats in the song seemed to be synchronized to our next moves. We pulled into a spot in the parking lot of the theater as if we were the stars arriving for the debut.

The next day I pulled up to a stop light and two young guys busted out a lame version of the robot cracking up as they did it. It was a classic YouTube moment probably worth millions of views but the 360-degree swivel-mount video camera option with one button upload to YouTube isn’t offered on the ’09 model yet.
 
Same story last night, passed by a local nightclub/bar and a girl exiting the club in a black dress threw up her hands and started dancing in the streets. It was awesome and entertaining to say the least. I’ve had people yell, “Hey give me my car back”, “can we go again” and probably broken more necks than an old Wrigley’s Double Mint double take commercial as they stare the TL down.

What I’m trying to say is that the experiences are worth more than what Acura had sold me for the car or promoted. They are moments and stories that are priceless and will be shared. The brand is rock solid the product ensures it, which makes for an enjoyable ride full of surprises each time I get in and push the big red button. More brands should focus on this type of experience design and weigh value and ROI on what the product can ignite and perpetuate in the user beyond just the sticker price. Thanks Acura you have a new loyal customer.

P.S. I would be happy to drive the next Great User Experience you create and share it across the web just give me a tweet at @RFIJoey.