Eight years ago Facebook was in beta, operating out of a dorm room. Last Friday it became the third largest public offering in the history of the United States. At $104 billion, Facebook's market value is higher than McDonald’s, Citigroup, Amazon.com and most American companies. Mark Zuckerberg is 28 with an 8 year old company of which his stake is worth around $20 billion. That's a lot of Powerballs.

Now, the question on every stockholder's mind is whether Facebook has an expiration date. It's easy to think of Facebook as joining a group of historically overrated draft picks; webvan.com, pets.com, etoys.com, boo.com. All of these late nineties, dot-com brands grew too fast, lasted about three years after IPO and all have essentially been replaced by Amazon.com now fifteen years later. Despite mismanagement, they were either ahead of their time or couldn't keep up with the time. As young as Facebook is, the internet is nothing like it was eight years ago, much less fifteen years ago. Facebook is very much a reason for that. It's certainly not just a good idea with 800 million friends worldwide and $1 billion in net profit last year.

Will it ever become "old school" to have a Facebook account? Social apps like Foursquare, Instagram, Spotify and Twitter are all much newer than Facebook and would seem to be more relevant. They're all designed around the assumption of social media rather than the invention and focus on one small piece of our social lives. We're OK with this because they're all available as apps on our phone and connected to Facebook. Mobile OS's have provided the platform for a social media mall. I'm sure Facebook would have loved to be the source for what these new apps provide but that's not what we want anymore. In the same way that Sears has become just a long entrance to the mall, we're moving from branded social media to individual social media brands. I wonder if the future of Facebook's relevancy lies in it's willingness to be just the halls of the social media mall. Not always a destination but a connection and place to talk along the way.

I don't think you can force conversations to happen in one place. Social apps seem to only complement Facebook rather than replace it. They fill the figurative halls with friends' whereabouts, photos, music, thoughts, etc. while leaning heavily on the social network Facebook provides. If this is right, then it's in their best interest to keep acquiring popular startups like Instagram but also to keep them independent. If Instagram is reduced to filters for Facebook posts I'd imagine the conversations would just move elsewhere.

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to spend the morning listening to some great speakers at Chick-fil-A Leadercast – And for someone as un-fashion-savvy as myself, I found speaker Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, to be surprisingly interesting. She spoke about creating a work culture that acknowledges the past, while pushing forward through trust and intuition.

Know your roots.
In the beginning, Burberry made trench coats for the British military. Their brand mark (above), developed in 1901, an illustration of a soldier on a horse carrying a flag, reads "prorsum" which is latin for "forwards". Simply put, the brand has always been British and has always had a desire to be progressive. Acknowledge your past and what you stand for. Put your egos and agendas aside. Don't do it for yourself, do it for the brand. It's bigger than you are.

Trust each other.
Burberry's internal structure is exactly the opposite of the traditional corporate structure. Their young creatives make the decisions, while their experienced veterans use their know-how to execute those ideas correctly. They do this so that they're actually speaking to this generation of consumers. Finding this balance has got to be challenging, but it's only possible by doing the job you're asked to do correctly, and trusting that the person next to you is doing the same.

Lead by intuition.
Once you know what you stand for, and your trust issues are out of the way, follow that little guy yelling inside you. It's so easy to get hung up here, trying to decide where to go, and then not really going at all. Trust your gut and move forward. You can't actually prove that something will be successful, you just have to trust that feeling.

"Be interested, not interesting." It's a popular saying and it's a powerful way to help people feel valued, heard, and appreciated – meeting very basic human needs. Similarly, brands need to feel human and meet human needs by injecting an element of this into their own DNA.

Simply asking people (or customers) what they like, love, and loathe about your brand is a great start. Mass surveys can work but what's best is a person-to-person conversation (on the phone or in person). Desiring feedback means the world to people, it connects you (and your brand) to them. After several conversations, you'll come away with groundbreaking or affirming insight on what's most loved and most problematic about your brand. Then, and only then, can you go about your work to solve any problems noted.

As mentioned in Dwain's presentation, imagine a giant scoreboard keeping track of the words you use (a brand) and the words they use (a brand's customers). At the end of a conversation if your score is higher than theirs then you lose. Customers want to feel heard and that means they don't want to feel like you are always trying to sell them something. They want to feel appreciated beyond the transaction. Today's marketplace desires authenticity and vulnerability over the veneer of perfection.

Just like people, brands aren't perfect. But their willingness to listen & help can greatly mend all imperfections.

See more from Dwain's talk at the April 2012 Creative Mornings.

One of the great Atlanta traditions is that we have signs at the entrances of neighborhoods and then again above street signs signifying what neighborhood you are in. They serve as identifiers. Many a time have I been lost in Atlanta and, after seeing of those signs signifying that I was in "Inman Park" or "Cabbagetown", found my bearings and gained a sense of where I was and the personality of the community I was in.

Brand marks are, at their very essence, the same thing. They are identifiers–street signs–that tell our audience ‘where they are'. When clear, identifiable, and distinct, a brand mark can be enough to help someone find their bearings and a sense of what to expect from our brand.

But just like neighborhoods, brands are only as good as their reputation. As an Atlantan, I have a sense about the neighborhoods I visit throughout the city, based on past experience and word of mouth. Perhaps Atlanta's neighborhood festivals this spring can serve as a reminder to make the continued effort to invite our neighbors in, show off that which makes us great, and invite them to fall in love.

Recently dubbed "Ted for the rest of us", Creative Mornings takes the propriety and hassle out of attending a large scale conference. That's one reason why I wanted to start a chapter in our city. Conferences can be expensive and time consuming. Sending your entire staff to a destination event can easily cost $5,000+. Creative Mornings however is a simple format that lasts around an hour and a half and is 100% free of charge. Amazing sponsors, like Mail Chimp, make the event free and amazing speakers like Ben Chestnut, make the content incredible. There's also an incredible community forming that makes every event like a Friday night with friends (even thought it's at 8:30am).

This Friday we have our March event with Doug Grimmett of Primal Screen. The event is sold out but if you'd still like to attend sign up for the waiting list and add "I <3 Matchstic" after your last name. You might have a decent shot of getting in.

If you can't make this Friday's event be sure to catch the upcoming Month's lectures:

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April 27th – Dwain Cox, Director of Innovation @ Chick-fil-A
Location: 112 Gallery

May 25th – Tod Martin, President of Unboundary
Location: Unboundary

June 29th – Katie Hawkins-Gaar, CNN's iReport Lead Editor
Location: Unboundary

July 27th – Andy Levine, Founder/ President of Sixthman
Location: Unboundary

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Registration opens for each event the Monday before. Keep up with us on twitter: @Atlanta_CM for the latest ticketing info.

I'd like to thank Ron Dawson of Dare Dreamer Media for graciously creating the above video.

This past week we had what we call a Lunch ‘N Learn, a short lesson and discussion over lunch regarding best practices in design. It's a wonderful time for us creatives to geek out while we pig out. Topics have ranged from scintillating pre-press protocol to diplomatic ways of navigating client feedback. This past week we talked about grids. Which, for our more right-brained readership, are the proverbial "cells" in which you put the "numbers" which become the "spreadsheet" that is your brand identity. There are ways of achieving uniformity in deisgn and it's not just using the same layout, colors and typefaces. At the risk of putting some to sleep I'd like to share a quote from Tim Samara's book Making and Breaking the Grid which we used in our discussion. I found his perspective on creating order to be rather insightful.

“A grid is truly successful only if, after all of the literal problems have been solved, the designer rises above the uniformity implied by its structure and uses it to create a dynamic visual narrative of parts that will sustain interest page after page. The greatest danger in using a grid is to succumb to its regularity. It's important to remember that the grid is an invisible guide that exists on the "bottommost level" of the layout; the content happens on top of it, sometimes constrained and sometimes free to move. Grids don't make dull layouts – designers do.”

“By creating a rhythmic or sequential logic among the spread in the way they relate to the grid, each spread can have a distinct visual presentation but still work as part of the whole. The parts have unity imparted by the grid working underneath them.”

At our last Creative Mornings, Matt Rollins from Iconologic shared a little about an initiative called Good Thinking Atlanta. This is a new "volunteer creative service organization that provides communication tools to qualified NPOs that provide health, education and/or welfare services to Greater Atlanta families."

Last year on a school field trip, I heard Erin Huizenga of gravitytank talk about EPIC, a stratagem for social change in Chicago. They have designed a process of eight week project rallies that bring together a conglomerate creative team to design deliverables for nonprofit clients dedicated to education, children and families.

A friend of mine did a tour with Project M a few summers ago. This is a unique, design-centric spin on Rural Studio founded by Samuel Mockbee. It is "a program for creative people who are already inspired to contribute to the greater good, and are looking for a platform to collaborate and generate ideas and projects bigger than themselves."

The School of Visual Arts has an intensive workshop on the subject of design in social advocacy. I took a class last summer at SCAD called The Role of Design in Social Awareness. Design Ignites Change is a Worldstudio program which supports designers and architects who desire to use their skills for social change.

In an age with such high value on social activism, it is not surprising to see a general consciousness around how design might be leveraged for social betterment. However, the proliferation of these programs (and many more) beg the question, "what are best practices for giving away of energy, time, and talent?"

What processes should guide the work you do in order to ensure sustainability and solid results?
What boundaries need to be in place for the sake of the benefactor as well as the cause organization?
What benefits are derived from practicing this type of charity?  What are the dangers?

And Most curiously, What is the innate human drive to give away what we do best?

As much as I love the work of Jessica Hische, her Should I Work for Free? flowchart only gets me so far in answering these questions.

One of the things I respect most about working here at Matchstic, is that there is always a push to make things better. This goes for On the House. Over the years and looking into the future, this is the primary way that Matchstic gives back to deserving non-profit clients. (Be on the lookout for a case study of 2011′s recipient, Beltline Bikeshop).

I am excited to see how the process improves as we tee up 2012 and hope to get some answers to these questions as well.

Feel free to chime in if you already have the solution(s).

Oh yeah, to be more on brand, Happy Valentine's Day.

Recently I've seen the power of video storytelling first hand for the Atlanta chapter of Creative Mornings. Our video sponsor Ron Dawson of Dare Dreamer Media has generously produced some amazing pieces that have elevated the perception of our chapter to new heights. Creative Mornings is great, but not everyone in Atlanta knows that. Atlanta is great but not everyone in the international Creative Mornings communities (20 chapters world-wide) knows that. Through Ron's work they now know more of the story and our results have been fabulous. Our last event of 200 people "sold out" in less than 4 minutes and our videos have had a ton of national attention (with over 26K views).

Enjoy a few of his works:

Interview with founder of Creative Mornings Tina Roth Eisenberg (aka Swiss Miss).

Promo for the Atlanta Chapter

There's nothing new to the power of video. Commercials have been around since the dawn of time (atleast it seems like). What is new, however, is the accessibility to quality professional equipment or affordable professionals. The walls have been broken down and no longer should prevent any brand from leveraging such a powerful medium. That is why we launched Matchstic Stories. We couldn't always tell the full story of the value we present to clients through our case studies, so we wanted our clients to tell the full stories for us and they've been wonderfully successful.

Hopefully your brand has an interesting story to tell. If it does, find a way to capture it and leverage such a powerful storytelling platform.

PS- Be sure to make our February's Creative Mornings here in ATL with photographer Zack Arias:

The past couple of years brought us the emerging trend of "handmade." In the last decade, the craft movement made sense. It was reactionary, a move away from low quality, big brand goods and services of the 90s. Our lives were getting too technological, too automated. The consumer sought to get their hands dirty again. Thus in the last decade, the artisan was reborn.

Fast forward several years, and the trend is still going strong. "Farm-to-table" is now the bare minimum, cars are built with pride (and by humans) again, and once ordinary items get designery treatments and are sold at a premium.

What's a big, mainstream company to do in the new artisan age? Play along, of course.

In the past several months I've come across three of the big guys touting dedicated bakers, legendary beginnings, and hand-signed delivery pizza. 2010 may have been the peak of the artisan, but with Burger King now selling "chef-driven, artisan-style" burgers, we've hit bottom, unable to do anything but  laugh at ourselves on the way.

New York Magazine has a more in-depth report.

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• You're extremely shy (hermit-like really) & don't like meeting other Atlanta area Creative Professionals.

• You already know everything there is to know about being Creative and could careless about what distinguished industry professionals have to say (if so email me, we probably would want you to present and teach us).

• You (being part vampire) are a nocturnal only creature and sleep all day.

• You get violently ill at the slightest smell of hand-crafted coffee.

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If you can't claim any of these three then you should attend. Still need more convincing? Check out our event photos or watch December's lecture with Ben Chestnut below:

Watch all of the Atlanta Creative Mornings lectures here.

Registration opens @ 11am the Monday before each event and tickets go fast (first three events sold out in less than 10 minutes).  Be sure to follow @Atlanta_CM for updates on the Atlanta Creative Mornings chapter.

Our Upcoming Lectures:

January 27th- Presenter: Matt Rollins

February 24th- Presenter: Zack Arias

March 30th- Presenter: Doug Grimmett

April 20th- Presenter: TBD

May 25th- Presenter: TBD

June 29th- Presenter: TBD