Posted by Kris Colvin | Oct 4th, 2009

A Case for Employee Social Media Training...

Companies, listen up. If you’re not already factoring social media training into your human resources list of employee initiation rites, you’re making a huge mistake. I’m not talking about making a bunch of strict guidelines. You can do as much or as little as you feel you must, given your customers, public or private holding status, your industry, etc. But unfortunately, especially for a lot of younger people, they need guidelines in common sense so they don’t unnecessarily tarnish your brand. And if they deliberately tarnish your brand, I’d show them the door. Too many great, displaced, laid off workers are out there and you can do better. A link is going around right...

Posted by Kris Colvin | Sep 24th, 2009

How Mobile Brands Can Build a Successful App Strategy...

I just read a short but great article on mobile app branding and the approach you need to consider before going to market. The 12 lessons mentioned in the article: Apps must be real-time Make it easy for consumers to pay Integrate feedback quickly ‘This is not the wired web’ People will pay for value… …But free works to drives sales for your endemic product Apps need to be part of an integrated message Utility, frequency and viral distinguish long-term success  People find apps through other people Use existing assets to market your app App marketing needs to be targeted Don’t discount the iPod Touch For details, case study examples and to read the whole article head...

Posted by Kris Colvin | Sep 21st, 2009

How to Wreck Your Brand in a Single Weekend...

I witnessed a train wreck this weekend. Not a physical one, but an online version involving a social media company, a respected business consultant, an advice video, blog comments and a Twitter battle that led to harassment via direct messages and support tickets being filed. I don’t want to call out the particular players in this incident and add fuel to the fire, but I do want to talk about this because the whole thing was completely avoidable. A video and graphic formula was posted on a niche site that focuses on selling social media and online packages to a particular audience, on the subject of social media ROI. It was the opinion of some folks I know, that it was not accurate or sound in its...

Posted by Kris Colvin | Jun 7th, 2009

What’s Your Body Saying About Being Fearless?...

A little bird on a wire informed us yesterday there was a thought-provoking new post over on The BrandBuilder’s blog (thanks Reza!) “Be fearless!” Blanchard instructs us, in his inimitable style. How I wish I could, some days. He says that “courage is one of humanity’s greatest gifts” and that is such a beautiful observation. But what if persistent, underlying fears and hidden emotions are getting in our way, despite our best intentions? I don’t know if any of you suffer from the same issues I do when it comes to business risk, taking chances, stepping out on a limb or going for what you truly want… but sometimes I am fearless, sometimes totally...

Posted by Kris Colvin | May 13th, 2009

A Study in User Experience: Twitter & #fixreplies...

I have found that being a user experience person has often meant arguing a lot. Your role in the company, is to be the user advocate, not the company advocate, so that your voice is a reminder and constant reflection of a product’s users… you represent them, and are paid for doing that. But that means having to speak up, be confrontational at times, and be as persistent as you can possibly be when you passionately feel bad decisions are about to be made without being fired. So this Twitter issue of removing a certain setting regarding seeing your friends reply to folks you don’t know, and the subsequent user experience fallout is the most beautiful train wreck a girl like me could...

Posted by Kris Colvin | Apr 21st, 2009

Are You Getting To the Heart of Your Brand?...

Two well-known brand strategists engaged in a conversation on Twitter yesterday that caught my attention. Olivier Blanchard, The BrandBuilder and Gabriel Rossi were discussing some of the problems companies have, in their opinion, with marketing and branding. Gabriel said “People who criticize Marketing & Branding need to learn to see the value of brands as a powerful socio-economic force“, and Olivier’s response was like a glass of cold water in the face: “… as opposed to looking at Marketing and Branding as the discipline of putting together ads, brochures and mailers.” I’ve worked with so many companies on branding and marketing and that is what I do...

Posted by Kris Colvin | Feb 15th, 2009

Is Your Agile Software Process Handcuffing the User Experience Design?...

I’m running across a new problem with a number of clients and wondering if my user experience colleagues are having similar issues. The advent of web applications has resulted in a change for many software providers in the way they release software today. Agile software development is a method in which software is designed, examined and delivered to the market swiftly, so that end-users can provide feedback and more feature changes can be made and adjusted within a few months time, rather than once or twice a year. For off-the-shelf software, such as Adobe, Apple or Microsoft products, this is not as practical a method as it is for web-based services. I’m not sure if large corporations...

Posted by Kris Colvin | Jan 8th, 2009

Pick Passwords That Protect You Online...

The UX Booth, a neat new usability site, has an excellent article that could help so many users if they see, so I’d like to point my readers there: How To Pick Passwords That Protect Your Online Experience. Since the phishing incident at Twitter that I recently wrote about, another issue happened this week where a hacker was able to use a dictionary cracker to get inside Twitter’s back-end, and he promptly started messing with celebrity users accounts, naturally posting the most immature tweets his feeble brain could come up with. The culprit was one employee who had used a dictionary word without altering it in any way. Ironically, the word was “happiness.” This is a huge...