It’s been 3 months since United Airlines was dragged into social media. There are hundreds of social media sites a big brand could use to connect with customers. Twitter, as the real-time queen of social media, is a good place to look for evidence of social media savvy and evolution.

Here’s a current snapshot of @UnitedAirlines:

“Twanksgiving Tware” says a lot about where United is with their understanding of how Twitter works. I feel for them like I feel for the baby boomer who uses ancient surfer lingo in attempts to connect with today’s youth. It’s awkward.

And what about the page design? If United Airlines offered deals on deep-sea expeditions through their Twitter page, the gradient would make sense. The logo hesitantly bobs above the heavily-cropped portion of an airplane. If you breathe deeply, you get a hint of mothballs as you

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Oh, yeah! Papyrus on a busy background brings all the designers to the yard!

Designers, here’s a scenario:

Coca-Cola is launching a new energy-regulating beverage in early 2010 called “Sublime.”

The team in charge of creating a graphic identity for the new brand is hip, open-minded, and–to be quite honest–desperate to create a winning logo.

They decide to try crowdsourcing.

What do they fear?

• A pool of inferior entries.
• Wasted time, effort, and money.
• Backlash from a design community put on edge by the crowdsourcing efforts of other organizations.

What do they hope for?

• A top-notch pool of thoughtful and creative entries.
• Superior return on time, effort, and money invested.
• An enthusiastic response from a design community that willingly participates in the project.

Execution:

The Sublime team decides to blend what they know of co-creation from inter-agency efforts with a crowdsourcing element to lure in a few outliers.

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