New logo and website design to share: Life, Love and Waffles

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of working with a smart, sassy and savvy college grad named Teddie.  Fast forward to just a few years later - we have both grown so much.  Teddie is on quite an adventure right now - in Belgium! - and I know you'll want to come along and learn more about her fabulous journey.
I had the pleasure of designing her logo and blog.  She was a dream client and I really felt like knowing and "getting" her guided me in the design process.

Allow me to introduce you to Teddie's blog: Life, Love & Waffles.  Stop by for a visit, and tell her I sent you! xo

Laura is a marketing professional and blogger who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn.
 

New Facebook Business Page Design to Share for the Napkin Wizard

I have a new Facebook business page design to share on this “Facebook Friday”.  It’s one I recently created for the Napkin Wizard (@NapkinWizard) Jimmy Ng.  

I love how creative Jimmy is! He has created more than 200 napkin folding designs, and wanted to start a website and blog to share the designs with others who share his love for entertaining.  Jimmy has seen first-hand the ice-breaker / conversation-starter that a beautifully set table with a one-of-a-kind napkin fold can be. After we created his website and blog, Jimmy was ready to enter the Twitterverse and Facebook community.  I was able to use many of the same design elements, but with a new spin, over on Facebook.  You’ll notice his website background became the background for his Facebook welcome screen.  

If you’re looking for creative ways to “wow” your party guests, be sure to “like” Jimmy’s Facebook page.  He’s new to Twitter, too, and is lovin’ it! 

Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston and Columbia, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Surprise: A Blog Redesign and Website Launch!

If you're reading this post on my blog today, you may be surprised (hopefully pleasantly, smile) by the updated look.  It's something I've wanted to do for months! I've spent so much time on other projects and knew my baby (this blog) was in need of some updating.  I wanted it to be something that didn't feel forced, and man, oh man, it's really hard to take a step back and look at your own blog/brand.  Creating inspired design for others comes much easier!

Since most of my business is referral (not to mention staying busy with my part-time job, jewelry/art, family, etc.) I was hesitant to have an "official" website for myself.  Talk about ironic! I knew I needed one, and one that I was proud of.

Magic happened this week and I quietly worked away at the updated design and website launch late into the evenings.   I'll be updating my FB and Twitter pages this weekend to reflect the new design.

For now, please visit my official website and be sure to comment below on the updated look.  Also, I want to do something special to celebrate when this is all done.  I'm thinking about a Facebook sweepstakes to give away some design work to one of my lovely readers!

XO


Laura


Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

The Facebook Sweepstakes Journey is Wonderful!

Last week on “Facebook Friday” we talked about Facebook sweepstakes.  You may recall something caught my attention as I was researching the ins and outs of holding a sweepstakes on facebook…

“The facebook business page that offers contests/special promotions has (on average) twice as many fans as the facebook business page that does not.”

Wow! This continues to impress and amaze me. Even better, running a sweepstakes on Facebook doesn’t have to be expensive! Sure, there are always the total bells-and-whistles upgraded features for top dollar amounts (thousands), but you can run a week-long sweepstakes with Wildfire app for less than $50 (at the time of this post). I wanted to run a sweepstakes, and I was buzzing with ideas on how I could try this awesome application out!   The timing just happened to be perfect (totally meant-to-be) for me to create a facebook sweepstakes for my dear friend Kelly Thiel.

Kelly launched her new logo and look this week. I had the privilege of being the designer behind her new look (thank you, Kelly!).  Of course, her beautiful art speaks for itself and really helped pull the graphic elements together so nicely!  The new look was cause for a real celebration! She’d already been working on a special giveaway, since we’d discussed it during one of our weekly meet-ups a month or so ago.

The original plan was to hold a giveaway on her blog.  With this new sweepstakes revelation I’d been having, though, she was game to give that a go instead!  We created an account with Wildfire app, and within minutes were working on building her sweepstakes! Best. Idea. Ever!

I’m including links to her sweepstakes. Please visit today! It ends Monday, so you won’t be able to view and experience the features for long.  I’m including screengrabs below as well, for future reference.

How Did We Build the Sweepstakes?
We built the sweepstakes using Wildfire. 

Sign-up takes just a minute, and then you can start building your sweepstakes!

Campaign creation is a 6-step process:

1. Enter Campaign Details
2. Establish a Timeline
3. Customize Your Entry Form
4. Upload your Banners/Graphics
5. Create your sweepstakes Rules
6. Publish your sweepstakes (lots of handy tools in the publish feature!)

Screengrabs of Kelly's Sweepstakes (for future reference...the contest ends Monday, March 7.  Hop over and enter before then!):

Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

A New Facebook Biz Page Design to Share from My Portfolio on this "Facebook Friday"

It's "Facebook Friday" together.  This week has truly flown by! I wanted to share a new Facebook business page design that I recently created for the talented author B.J. Welborn.  I'm not sure if you are a Civil War enthusiast/history buff.  Personally, I'm becoming more and more passionate about history now that I work part-time with a Historic Foundation and have had the pleasure of working with B.J.  

B.J. is writing a book about her Civil War Odyssey, and it's unlike any other take on the Civil War that you may have read.  She's edgy, asking the tough questions, and an all-around bold and brave lady!

Here's a sneak peak at her Facebook Biz page and blog.  I hope you'll consider stopping by.  I can barely wait for her to share her amazing odyssey with us, and I truly mean that!

Her Facebook page...

Her blog...

Have a great weekend!


Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

A Facebook Welcome Page to Share (from my portfolio)

I recently had the privilege of creating a Facebook business page for Coastal Community Church in Charleston, SC. 

Coastal already had an awesome looking website, which gave me plenty of color and design inspiration to draw from.  Add to that, an awesome, fresh logo that was also new for the church, and I had more than enough to get me buzzing with ideas for the Facebook page design.

The welcome screen/profile banner I created is seen below.  If you live in/around Charleston, SC, be sure to stop over to see the Coastal page on FB. Thanks for visiting!

click to view full size, or better yet, visit the page LIVE on Facebook. 

Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

A #NewTwitter Background Design to Share on this "Twitter Tuesday" Together

It’s “Twitter Tuesday” during an incredibly busy holiday week for many of us! My family is no exception, but I still wanted to stop by and share some Twitter goodness with you.

I’ve shared a few Twitter background designs with you recently, and wanted to share one I designed today. This one is extra-special to me.  I'll be writing about the reasons why tomorrow in a "Be Inspired Wednesday" post, so please come back for the details. :)

This one is for Historic Columbia Foundation. If you visit the HCF website, you’ll see that the Twitter background is very similar in terms of design. The neat part is how I was able to move things around just a bit to really “fit” well with the #NewTwitter specs.

For those who Tweet, please consider following Historic Columbia Foundation http://www.twitter.com/histcolumbia).  Don't forget to follow me there, too @LauraCatherineO). Also, as much as I post about Twitter, I’m still learning new things! One of those is that you can customize design colors (for your column, text, links, etc.) to match your branding. Pretty neat! I’ll post step-by-step instructions this week during our “Tutorial Thursday” time together.


click image above to expand (use your back button to come back to this post)

 In the meantime, I hope you find some inspiration from this latest design. Have a wonderful Holiday Week!


Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston and Columbia, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

How to Change Your Twitter Background: A "Tutorial Thursday" Post

It's been quite a busy week for us on this blog! If you visited on Tuesday, you noticed that my #NewTwitter background design post was updated with a handy new guide and example for you. I can't say enough about how much fun my first "Be Inspired Wed" spotlight interview with Jescalyn was yesterday. A must-read (here)!

Onto today's post...
If you've designed your new background, you may find yourself needing a quick refresher on how to update your twitter background (meaning, now that you've designed a new background, how to you upload the new background to Twitter). Today's "Tutorial Thursday" is short and sweet. Be sure to visit tomorrow for an exciting "Facebook Friday" post. I feel a little silly with my themed days, but they are truly proving to be helpful for me and for you.  Thanks for reading!

PS - You may notice the comments on this blog have changed.  I'm testing out IntenseDebate.  It allows me to reply to individual comments, which is an area blogger is lacking. If I like it, I will post about it in an upcoming "Tutorial Thursday".  So far, so good!

How to Update Your Twitter Background:

1. Logon to Twitter

2. Click on "settings" after you've logged into Twitter

3. In settings, click on "design"

4. Click on "change background image"

5. Click on "choose file" and locate your new background file that you saved

6. Click on "save changes"

Your new background will appear!

Here's another look at the background I designed for the Charleston Wedding Studio this week...if you haven't updated your background for the #NewTwitter yet, now is a great time (spec post is here)

click to enlarge (to full size) this Twitter background I designed for Charleston Wedding Studio

Sneak peek of the new Charleston Wedding Studio Twitter background before it goes LIVE

Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

She is accepting clients in need of:
Website Design ~ Social Media Management ~ Facebook Business Page Design
Twitter Profile Design ~ Blog Design ~ Logo Design ~ Print Design
Press Release Writing and Distribution ~ Email Marketing ~ And More

Contact Laura to discuss your unique marketing needs!

How to Create A WordPress.com Blog or Website in 12 Easy Steps

I built a website/blog using WordPress.com recently. In this post, I will talk about the reasons I chose to use WordPress.com, as well as the process you can follow to create and customize your own WordPress.com blog.

The WordPress.com
Website/Blog I Created

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I try to build & maintain a working knowledge of the most popular/widely used online website building/blogging services available online…some are free, others are paid.   Although my longtime comfort zone/preference has been to build websites using Adobe products (Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, etc.), I have found that more and more clients are looking for the freedom/ability to easily manage their own content.  This is a fair request and has lead me to exploring just how much I can customize/tweak a website or blog on SquareSpace, Blogger, and now WordPress.com (hooray!) to give the website a professional  “look” while still offering the client the benefits of content management.  In summary, I’m mastering the art of customizing/designing around/tweaking a template so it doesn’t look like a template anymore…

Why Wordpress.com?

1. Search Engine Optimization…My friends Brian & Trevor (SEO experts at Synactable), told me that WordPress sites in general are much easier to optimize for search engines, and are intrinsically built (coded) cleaner overall when compared to Blogger.com, making WordPress.com websites/blogs more favorable for SEO. 
2. Content Management with Ease – the “dashboard” is your one-stop source for editing just about everything on your blog/website…everything from blog posts to pages to side navigation and widgets.
3. Pages.  WordPress.com comes with the ability to create a multiple pages on your blog/website without having to know html.
4. Cost.  WordPress.com is free (or inexpensive if you choose to upgrade for even more features).  I do recommend spending the $12/year to hide the “.wordpress.com” portion of your URL, so your web address (URL) is simplified. 

Before I share my experience, you may want to quickly read over the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.  There are real differences, and I am writing about my experience with WordPress.com for now.  The next step will be for me to dive into WordPress.org…can’t wait!

How to Create Your WordPress.com Blog/Website in 12 Easy Steps

1. Account creation…couldn’t be easier! Visit https://en.wordpress.com/signup/ and fill in the 4 required fields and voila! 
2. On the next screen you’ll name your blog domain, title your blog, choose your language, and choose to make your blog public or private
   
   
3. Now it’s time to create your profile.  Enter your profile info (first name, last name, about)
   
   
4. Check your email to confirm your registration
5. When you confirm your registration, you’re taken to the WordPress.com website.  Login and select “dashboard” from the “my blog” button
   
   
6. Let’s start customizing your blog by clicking on “appearance” (on left-nav while in your dashboard)
   
   
7. Browse the themes to choose one that has the features/layout you like.  Be sure that the template you choose offers the features you require, such as “pages” before you make your decision.  Select your template and click “activate”. I chose the “Ocean Mist” look for The Charleston Real Estate Connection blog.
8. Design and import a customized header to be placed at the top of each page of your WordPress site (if you so choose).  If you choose the Ocean Mist theme, your header will need to measure 736 X 229.  Regardless, once you click on “header”, WordPress will give you the dimensions for your header.  To upload your header, click on “choose file”, “upload”, and “save changes”.
   
   
9. At this time, you may wish to remove the “just another wordpress blog” from below your blog title.  Do do this, click on “settings” from your dashboard and then “General” to pull up your General Settings screen.
   
   
   
10. Create pages (if the template you choose offers pages).  To do this, click on “pages” from your dashboard.  You may notice that a default “about” page has already been created for you.  This is usually a good place to start.  You can add, rename, edit, or remove pages as you wish.  Simply click on “add new” button to create a new page, or hover over existing pages to view your editing options.  After naming your page and entering your content, be sure to click “publish”
    
    
11. Customize your sidebar by clicking on “appearance”, then “widgets”.  Drag the available widgets of your choice over into your sidebar by clicking and dragging them one at a time.  You can re-arrange their order as you go.  Now is a good time to evaluate your blog-building progress by clicking on “My Blog” from the top of your dashboard.  Are you happy with the appearance thus far?  Ready to add more pages or widgets in your sidebar?
    
    
    
12. Create and publish your first blog post. Click on “posts” and edit the default “hello world” post.
    
    WordPress.com took a little getting used to for me, but I am so happy I took the time to learn my way around it's dashboard/features/benefits.  I hope you feel the same way! Look for more WordPress.com posts to come on this blog.
    
    

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Laura Catherine is a marketing professional in Charleston, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or RSS below. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO) and LinkedIn. 

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A Logo Will Be Born...Your Feedback is Valued!

A post from my heart today...ready to make things a bit more official regarding this blog and my freelance work. Excited and scared, am hoping you can relate.

Here goes....

I'm creating a logo for this blog, and launching a new website for my freelance work. In the past, I felt a bit silly about this. Maybe I still do, just a little. It's quite ironic, actually, because if I were my own client, I would have told myself to do this long ago! There's that thing called self-doubt that nags away at me, and I'm ready to push forward and stop listening to those fears!

Why now?

Well, it's the first time I've felt that I can officially accept most freelance work without it being a conflict of interest with my employer. When I worked in tourism, it would have been a bit of a conflict of interest to seek out freelance work from our area partners. The same goes for my time in internet sales. I also have more time to manage clients and balance my time, thanks to a wonderful husband and supportive family. Love love love them. I also owe a tremendous amount of gratitue to my fellow "flyers"...a group of 700 or so artists from around the world. We all took Kelly Rae Robert's e-course (called Flying Lessons) together recently. WHAT A LIFE-CHANGER! Click on the "You were Meant to Dream Big" banner over on the right column for details (or here).

I've been designing websites, printed marketing materials, and logos since 2004 (freelance), all while holding a formal marketing position as my day job, where I also put my skills into practice. Social marketing came around 2007 for me...so glad I jumped in and embraced that when I did! It's time that I formally creating a business identity (via a logo and updated website).

I had great practice in creating a logo/biz identity/online presence that was "mine" just a few months ago. I created a logo, launched a blog, created a facebook biz page, created a twitter page, and last but not least, launched my etsy shop, all for my jewelry business. It was an amazing time for me...totally felt overwhelmed and excited and like I was "flying", as Kelly Rae Roberts would say. You can read about this time here.

Let's Do This!

You'll notice I've already created my first draft for the logo, as seen in my updated blog header at the top of this page. You may also notice that I expanded the size of this blog, thanks to the handy blogger design tool. It was a great time for a little housekeeping over on the right, while I was at it.

As a refresher, I didn't have a "logo" before, but had the name of the blog in a font called "beautiful", seen below.

I figured a soft-launch with you, my favorite friends and followers, would be quite appropriate. We have connected and I value your opinion.

~Do you like the draft logo (top of this page) with the lightbulb?
~What other icons make you think of "marketing" without being too cheesy (smile)? An idea bubble?

~ How do you feel about the font choices? Lane Narrow and Sketch Block.

~ Do you like the sketch-i-ness of the word "marketing" and the light bulb, or should I smooth it out/polish it way up?

~Along these same lines, what would you put in the header next to my logo (on the right). It's photos of Charleston, now, because I love this place, but that doesn't convey everything about me/my work. I just hate to use stock photos of puzzle pieces, www (guilty as charged), etc. SO not personal, plus they are everywhere.

~Any other ideas?

Here are a few other logos I've designed...it's a different experience when it's your own that needs designing!

Thank you advance for your thoughts (via comment below, by email lauracotero at gmail dot com, or DM me at @lauracatherineo)...and thanks for being kind with my special dream.

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