Without creativity, it is not possible to reach an audience. The representation of your brand must be cohesive, aesthetically pleasing and explain what it is you’re trying to tell your audience.

Luckily for brands, there are a lot of ways to get creative with social media. Social media gives you a loud voice and an open creative channel to advertise your company, product or personal brand. There are countless numbers of ways to creatively design your brand across a number of platforms. Be sure to have some fun with design and find creative ways to represent yourself.

Below are some impressive examples of how companies or individuals are using strategic design within various social media platforms:

What are some other creative social media campaigns or profiles you have seen? How important is graphic design for your brand?

• @TweetPages – Custom Twitter Background Designs

Matt Clark representing the TweetPage brand and advertising their services directly on their Twitter background.

• @jakrose – Jason Keath, Founder of @SoFresh – Twitter Background

Jason used creative design to represent his personal brand, as well as creatively notify his followers of his personal website.

• Jessica Claire Photography - Custom-Designed Newsletter by @RibbonsofRed

Newsletters are an excellent source to reach out to your audience in a creative way. Photographer, Jessica Claire, has a unique and well-designed newsletter that fits with her brand.

• Pfizer – Custom-Designed SlideShare Channel

Pfizer utilizes the Pro SlideShare account to have the opportunity to add a custom background design to their channel.

• Campbell’s Soup “Just Scan and Snap” Stickybits Promotion – Custom Facebook Tab

Campbell’s Soup designed a custom Facebook tab that promotes the Stickybits promotion they are currently running on all barcodes of Campbell’s Soup cans in grocery stores. When you scan the barcodes with the Stickybits app, it brings you to the Facebook contest promotion: “Just Scan and Snap.”

Ahem. <clears throat and raises right hand>

I acknowledge that foursquare check-ins while walking into a five-star dining experience may be a bit off-putting. I am fully aware that Twitter hashtag trending means nothing to the majority of the population. And I fully admit that checking my emails more often will not cure cancer or solve world hunger.

So I may or may not have a shiny objects problem. But one thing is certain: there are some really cool shiny things out there that you may also want to know about that can make your lives better by saving you time. And I’m here to be your enabler.

Staying caught up with my email these days is virtually impossible. Add to that the text messages, Twitter replies, Facebook updates and voicemails, and quickly life turns into a catch-up game. Anyone else wish there was a way to simply speak into a small, portable object, push send and take care of all of it? Well, that’s kind of what this is.

What’s great is that this shiny object basically justifies itself, since it’s both a time saver and a safety tool. Okay. The safety tool is a bit of a stretch, but bear with me on that rationale…

Time saver.

The app integrates with email, SMS, online search engines, maps, voice-activated phone dialing, and social networks including Facebook and Twitter. So I can stay connected through a single application, without having to type on my less-than-ideal iPhone keypad. So I have more time for friends and family. So that’s good. (Sorry, Apple. I love the phone, but the keypad is just not awesome.)

Safety tool.

After a short learning curve of training myself to speak in a way that is more likely to be understood by the voice recognition software, I can draft emails, text messages, Facebook updates and tweets while multitasking – and potentially even while driving, in mobile phone acceptable driving zones, of course.  So, for those of you who have a hard time not texting or tweeting while you’re on the road, this application may actually help you make *safer choices. (Safer is the operative word there. More accurately, less unsafe than texting while driving.)

I think you’d all agree that speaking while driving is at least slightly better than texting while driving, which is illegal in 30 states. Of course handheld cell phones themselves are also banned in 8 states, so you can apply the safety principle to walking while texting, instead of driving while texting. I’ve seen people walk into mailboxes and lightpoles while texting. It looked like it hurt at least a little.

As with most voice recognition programs, I do find myself needing to go back to check for punctuation and misinterpretation. However, more often than not, this app gets it right the first time. And the app makers purport that the software learns your voice and vocabulary over time. The app does seem to make fewer word recognition errors now than when I first started using it.

Worth the money? Yes.

The application has a basic free version. This version lets you use the app for Twitter and Facebook updates, maps, voice recognition dialing and web search. For $9.99 you can upgrade the app to draft SMS/texts and emails, which are the functions I find most useful.

This app is a no-brainer, in my opinion. Easy to use, functional, effective and a time-saver and safety tool (sort of), to boot. Just don’t

On Wednesday, August 11th at 11am Central, Comet Branding Radio will explore the revolutionary smartphone application Taxi Magic with our guest Sanders Partee. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.

For many of us having cash is a rarity as we expect to do just about everything with the swipe of our credit card. Bring smartphone technology into the mix and we have a whole new world of electronic transactions.

Taxi Magic, RideCharge’s well-known smartphone app, enables users to book, track, charge and expense their taxi trip all from their smart phones. As my fellow smartphone junkies will tell you, we are always looking for new ways to get the most out of our pocketsize computers and Taxi Magic vastly improves the way we should think about riding in a cab.

Taxi Magic was featured in full-page Apple/AT&T iPhone ads in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times. Taxi Magic has also been included again and again in best iPhone apps lists from Wired Magazine, CNET, SF Weekly and Business Insider.

Join us Wednesday, August 11 at 11am CST as we interview Sanders Partee on this week’s edition of Comet Radio to discuss his role in expanding the Taxi Magic network to include over 60 taxi fleet partners across major cities, and click-to-call directories covering 4,000 cities and towns in smaller markets. Send your questions to @cometbranding and we will ask Sanders live during the show.

I did not want you to hear this through a text, tweet, or post. But I have been thinking about this for a while now.

I know you have enjoyed a few banner years, between your successes at SXSWi, Foursquare Day and your growing user base. You are the hot kid on the block right now, but things just can’t go on like this any longer.

It seems like I am always checking in and getting random points or badges that are meaningless. Yes, it’s true I knew when I joined that I would be competing for your affection and attention. I just really do not want this to be another app that I become bored with, put you down and forget about you forever. I do not want that to happen. I truly like you and at one point we were having such a great time.

The longer that time goes by, the more I realize we need to fix our relationship to make it work. It is not you, it’s me. Sending me a random NBA Celtics badge every once in a while does not fix our problem. I am not saying I am going start seeing other people. What I am saying is let’s spice things up in our relationship.

Don’t get me wrong; I was excited when I got my first “Swarm Badge”. But I have moved on.

So, here’s how things stand. The only real people who truly benefit from Foursquare are Mayors and first time check-ins. But what about the rest of us, the community of people who check-in to our favorite establishments and only get assigned random points or a meaningless badge? Where’s our incentive? Here is where the problem lies and here is my solution:

The Foursquare Lottery.

It’s pretty simple. What I am suggesting is putting a “lottery” system in place that randomly rewards users for check-ins. It can be mayors, first-timers and people like me, in the middle.

Here’s how it works. Say I go to a place like AJ Bombers, a place that has an active Foursquare community. Well, I am never going to be the mayor, because I do not frequent the establishment enough. I have already used my first time check-in, so what is my incentive to keep checking in?

By instituting a lottery system, all of us in the meat of the bell curve could randomly get rewarded with free fries with the purchase of a burger, a free beer, buy one/get one, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Now, I know this is not a perfect system. There are some kinks to work out and you would have to get businesses to buy-in on the concept, but I do think there are enough progressive places looking for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition.

I know I am not alone, even if others will not admit it. You have to believe that. I just can’t continue to be that guy whom repeatedly checks-in and gets little in return.

I’m afraid I am going to have to call us off for the time being. As much as I hate to, it is the only way to see my vision of random rewards get implemented.

I’m truly sorry it has come to this. I will always think of you fondly and I hope you will also think of me, not as whiny or needy, but as a person who has your best interests at heart.

Hugs and badges,

Mike

I was honored for this opportunity to complete the “Laura Gainor Utilizing Social Media” story and showcase the various events that occurred in such a short time to bring me to Comet Branding.  I left the group with tips on how they can start creating their personal brand through social media and build their network. This is a topic I’m very passionate about and hope I can make an impact on job seekers to help them find their dream job.

My road to joining Comet can be summed up in one well-known saying, “It’s not what you know, but WHO you know that matters.”

Of course what you know–your professional experience, areas of expertise, etc.–is important, but in today’s economy and job market, having a great professional network is a must.

After deciding I was ready for my next professional challenge, my mentor, Laura Monagle, APR, Programming Chair and President-elect of PRSA Southeastern Wisconsin, recommended me to Al Krueger and Sara Meaney as an ideal candidate for their Social Media + PR Coordinator position.

I sent Comet my résumé a month after the job posting appeared on Big Shoes Network—which I assumed would be a waste of time as I knew hundreds of people had probably already applied. But given the strong recommendation from Laura on my behalf, I hoped luck was in my favor.

Sara Meaney called me that afternoon to set-up a phone interview for the following Monday. Just two weeks later I had an offer. Stoked doesn’t even begin to describe my reaction.

So although it’s my professional experience with public relations, social media strategy and implementation and academic accomplishments that got me the job, my professional network is what got me through the door.

The moral of my story: I cannot stress enough the importance of building your professional network through social media, by attending events, joining professional organizations and by having mentors whose career path you’d like to emulate.

Cheers to new connections!

Comet has grown quickly and as our latest press release discussed, we each offer our clients a unique blend of experiences and knowledge in the areas of social media, PR and marketing. Al Krueger and Sara Meaney have highly encouraged a team atmosphere at Comet to spark creativity and strategic thinking, so think of this week’s radio show as a bonding moment you can all be part of.

We invite you to take this opportunity to learn a bit more about what makes our social media and PR clocks tick. Got questions? Send them to our @CometBranding Twitter account by clicking here. We’ll answer as many as we can on air.

Please join us Wednesday, June 16 at 11 a.m. Central, for this week’s addition of Comet Radio. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.

Looking forward to your questions!

I recently stumbled upon this social tool called Formspring.me. Formspring is a question and answer site founded in November of 2009. Formspring is a way to ask questions and share knowledge, and ultimately, get to know a person better. At first glance, Formspring is just an honesty box where friends can ask each other questions and this has brought about some controversy especially with high school students and cyber-bullying, but I feel it could make my blog writing a whole lot easier.

Well, here is where you come into the story. Help me, Help you. Everybody has questions, especially when it comes to social media. If you would allow me to, I would love the chance to try and answer your questions and increase our social media know-how in the meantime.

Now, I’m not positioning myself as a social media guru, master, expert, wizard or any of the other various titles. I’m a PR + social media professional who continues to learn each day, likes to find out answers and solve problems. I also think I’m pretty good with search engines. If I can find an answer, voila!, we have blog content. If not, it will give us an opportunity to extend the question to the great social media community. Collectively, we’ll find an answer.

So your mission. Go to Formspring.me/AndrewWiech and ask me a question about social media. I’ll do my best to find an answer, provide my opinion and increase our collective knowledge.