So, two St. Louis-based agencies teamed up and created a slick user experience for prospective homeowners. Slideshows, videos, Google maps and SEO-rich text fit together seamlessly to provide a mansion’s worth of info to anyone looking call STL home.

Marvel at the big, beautiful photos that greet you on each page better than any old welcome mat ever could. Use the interactive homepage map to explore in-depth community pages. And don’t forget to drop by the Robb Partners blog – the place to go for the latest in company news and market trends.

In short, Integrity’s web design expertise + Robb Partners’ unmatched knowledge of the real estate biz = one big house of awesome.

Then one day another job opportunity comes along, and you take it. You bid adieu to coworkers, clean out your desk and make your next career move.

What happens to that Twitter account?

A similar scenario played out in late 2010 and has become the foundation for a federal lawsuit over social media account ownership.

For nearly four years, Noah Kravitz of Oakland, Calif., was the editor at Phonedog, a mobile phone news and reviews website. During that time, he amassed quite a following on his Twitter account, @Phonedog_Noah.  Kravitz left Phonedog amicably in October 2010 but continued to tweet periodically on behalf of the company. He kept the same Twitter account but changed the handle to @NoahKravitz.

But when Kravitz sued Phonedog last year over pay issues, he sparked what now has the potential to become a landmark social media case. Phonedog countersued Kravitz in July, claiming the 17,000 Twitter users following him as of October 2010 comprised the equivalent of a corporate “customer list” – and that list was the property of Phonedog. The company wants $340,000 in damages, or $2.50 for each follower over an eight-month period.

(Both parties have published their own versions of the story. You can read Kravitz’s account here and Phonedog’s version, which was just posted today, here.)

So who “owns” the Kravitz Twitter space? Are all of its followers – legit or spam – really worth two and a half bucks apiece? The court of public opinion so far appears to side with Kravitz on these issues. He may have created the account because of his employment with Phonedog, but supporters argue that it was Kravitz’s own content that made the account popular. Besides, let’s face it: Nobody really likes being “owned” or told how much they’re worth, let alone the tweeting masses.

Depending on how a federal court in northern California rules, though, this case could set major precedents for social media rights. Just think of how many Twitter users tweet on behalf of their employers, often to oodles of followers. Journalists, bloggers, even CEOs – the list of occupations is long. Should they be required to relinquish ownership of their Twitter accounts if they change jobs?

A point of contention in this particular case is whether Phonedog a social media policy in place, and if so, whether it addressed this issue of ownership. Human resources departments of companies large and small should make room for such a chapter in their employee handbooks, if they haven’t already.

Social media have become important promotional and communication vehicles for the business world, but this case exposes a huge gray area. What becomes of that gray area is a big deal, so stay tuned!

Yep, looks like you’re all set for the holidays. Hey wait a sec: Have you been Santified?

The best mobile app team in St. Louis recently stuffed the proverbial web stocking with this holiday season’s merriest mobile experience: the free Integrity Santafy Me app for iPhone.

If you’ve ever wondered what you’d look like sporting Santa’s snowy beard or Rudolph’s signature schnoz, well, hold on to your jingle bells.

Simply snap a photo of yourself (or perhaps an unsuspecting Scrooge) or choose one photo from your iPhone’s library. Then it’s time to spiff it up! Choose from any of our app’s awesome accessories, including a Santa hat, reindeer antlers and, of course, that famous red nose. Finally, share your masterpiece with family and friends through Facebook, Twitter or email.

Santafy Me is the perfect memory maker for your holiday gatherings. Grandpa wearing a corny, oversized bowtie? Sweet. Crazy aunt flaunting a Santa beard? Hilarious!

So catch the next sleigh over to the App Store and download Santafy Me today. Also, be sure to Like our Facebook page so you can show us your photos!

Oh, how the times they are a-changing.

Today, WordPress boasts the largest OpenSource development community, powers almost 15% of Alexa Internet’s “top 1 million” websites and, as of August, it accounts for 22% of all new websites created*. Obviously—it’s a big freakin’ deal.

However, most large corporations, institutions and government entities have yet to grasp the far-reaching impact this platform could have on their business. Sure, most Fortune500 companies leverage WordPress to power their small affinity blog sites, but what about their primary web property? You know, that insanely massive content juggernaut with dozens of disparate application integrations with crushing security and accessibility requirements? What is powering that puppy?

WordPress can absolutely scale to meet the needs of these complex corporate web properties—it just takes a little custom development and a team of whiz-kid programmers. Not only does the WordPress platform provide superior content management functionality, but the underlying structure provides a programmatic consistency that internal support teams salivate over post-launch (cause it’s easy, yo). And the search engines lap it up like a kid in a candy store (time for mixed metaphors, anyone?).

So can a mature corporation expect to deploy a standard theme and have it meet their aggressive business, technology and security needs? Not gonna happen—off-the-shelf themes are for neighborhood bike shops and your babysitter’s cookie blog. But if you happen to be a billion dollar healthcare firm or financial institution, take a closer look, my friends. In the right hands, WordPress can do just about anything (except fix your bike or bake you cookies).

WordPress is all grown up and well worth your time.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress

And while his first love is obviously design, Mitch spends his free time sharpening his mad Super Mario Bros skills and keeping his Siamese cat, Walter, company. There’s no doubt this Hillsboro, Illinois native is game for any interactive design project here that comes his way.

It’s on like Donkey Kong!

The maelstrom started after the “Mayor of Twitter” naively tweeted an uniformed protest against the firing of Penn State’s Joe Paterno—his defense was he had no inkling as to what really motivated the firing, just that he had walked by the TV, saw the headline flash on the screen and reacted online in front of 8 million of his closet followers (he assumed the coach was axed due to some ageist propaganda). Cue barrage of virulent virtual voices all spewing nuggets of hate at Mr. Kutcher.

He quickly deleted the post (mistake #2), made a string of self-deprecating apologies acknowledging his blunderful outburst and then rolled over and relinquished control of his account to his swarm of publicists.

First of all, isn’t one of the points of the Twitter-sphere to quickly disseminate real-time (knee-jerk?) opinions about the news du jour? I’m not sure if I blame Ashton as much as the ill-crafted news headline he saw that played off the sensationalistic “Joe Paterno was fired” reaction it obviously solicited. The news media has increasingly become a doomsday machine for grabbing attention with five words or less (Is your water killing you? Tune in at 11…). But I digress…

Second, lighten up, AK’s tweeps! We are all human. I double-dog dare any of you to show me a Twitter feed (especially one manned by a celebrity) that is unblemished by drunken rantings, uninformed musings or grossly negligent exaggerations. That’s frankly why most people tune in—to see the high and mighty say stupid crap.

It’s one of the biggest worries companies have about social media—what if we look stupid in a public forum? But looking stupid means you’re real. You’re relatable. That’s actually not a bad thing in terms of branding if you handle it with grace.

Kutcher actually did followed the number one rule of social media: when you mess up, publicly (and humbly) apologize (though he shouldn’t have deleted the original post as that makes him appear less sincere by trying to artificially influence the impending conversation).

Jack Dorsey has said Twitter was created with the simple idea to know what his family and friends were doing and thinking. Ashton was thinking something stupid. It wasn’t the first time and, no doubt, won’t be the last.

Doesn’t abandoning the unedited, instantly-updated platform go against the whole idea of Twitter? For a celeb that’s pioneered the concept of connecting directly with fans with his honest, up-close (and often outlandish) comments, we say yes. Yes, it most certainly does.

She’s wasted no time digging in to a number of projects, doing research, creating press releases and filling our plates with web-friendly and search engine optimized content. As a former magazine editor, she knows how to see a project through from inception to launch with a keen eye for detail, a clever turn of phrase and a creative outlook. Not to mention her writing is quite a treat to read!

We’ve also discovered that Cristy is a big fan of the symphony and always on the hunt for a new restaurant that can satisfy her relentless cupcake addiction.

Here’s hoping she’ll share!

As Project Manager, creative consultant, developer and SEO strategist, Joshua Ray redefines the term ‘multi-task.’ He’s recently made his triumphant return to the Lou after four years working as an account manager in Portland.

Primarily self-taught, Joshua has agency and freelance experience developing, consulting and all-around creative management. He even finds time to play disc golf after a long day of web domination.

Welcome home Joshua…and welcome to Integrity!

Hired by International Foods to create an online resource for ingredient buyers to get the latest news, events, and information about their respective commodity markets, Integrity crafted the yummy goodness that is Ingredientnews.com.

There are a variety of mouth-watering features on this site, from product-specific stock market updates to upcoming industry events like workshops and expositions. There are also bushels of freshly picked content written by ingredient news staff and commodity experts including informational articles as well as a streaming news feed with up-to-the-minute industry info, weather alerts and more.

For extra flavor, we added helpful webinars and a video section as well as a community forum for users to ask questions, give advice and share information with others in their industry.

Our design team did a beautiful job of setting a sleek and simple table while the development team worked their magic in the kitchen.  We served up usability as a main course with a side of SEO and a dash of well…integrity.

Come and get it!