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.
 

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. 

10 Tips to Developing a Cohesive Brand Online - {As shared on Jacqueline Whitmore’s call 1/18/2011}

I had the honor of hosting a social media call with Jacqueline Whitmore this week. What a wonderful group of talented folks!  During the call, I walked through my “10 Tips to Developing a Cohesive Brand Online”.  I’m sharing these tips with you below for our "Be Inspired Wednesday" together.  If you joined us on the call, don’t hesitate to contact me with any additional questions.  You'll notice my Twitter and Facebook info is found on the right-hand side of this blog (and on my contact page). I look forward to connecting!

10 Tips to Developing a Cohesive Brand Online

1.Carefully name your business and include your company logo where possible.  Your business name and logo will help brand you online. Work hard on these two things!

2. Develop a compelling and concise branding statement that clearly states who you are / what you do.  It will come in handy (big time) across many social sites, such as Facebook/Twitter/Blogger/Wordpress/Flickr/etc.

Your branding statement (think of it as your slogan) should identify what you do / what your work is about. I especially love Jacqueline’s:

Author ~ Etiquette Expert  ~ Certified Speaking Professional

Founder, The Protocol School of Palm Beach, Inc.

Jacqueline's Email Signature

Notice that it’s short enough to work just about anywhere, and truly describes who she is/ what she does.

3. Select a photograph of yourself that people will come to know you by. This will be used for your profile pictures. It’s ok to move away from a singular photo as you continue to build your brand online, but having one strong photo that showcases you is very helpful in the beginning. Use this photo on Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Wordpress, Youtube, etc.

Have you seen a profile photo like the one above?
It may be fun, but it won't get you nearly as far as a quality headshot or photo!
Photo credit.

Shy away from the more elusive photographs. I’m sure you’ve seen them around.  A woman in the shadows, a photo of a woman taking a photo of herself, a person’s child being used as their profile photo, or something random and lovely like a rose or beach photo.  These don’t do your business or brand justice!

4. Be consistent in your online identity/name and design. For example, try your best to make your blog address, twitter profile, facebook shortened URL, identical when it comes to your portion of the URL. If you are “BestySmithArt” on twitter, your Facebook Business page should also be facebook.com/bestysmithart. Likewise, your blog header, website, facebook biz page profile, and various other online spaces should look like they belong together and were designed by the same person. It is an extension of your brand. Everything from the color choices, fonts, and photos are all important. This is something I am working on, personally, too.

5. Develop a website for your brand/biz.  There are so many affordable website-building solutions and companies online today.  No matter your budget (big or small), you can have a professional-looking website! Here are a few helpful website-building tools:

http://drupal.com/
Wordpress.com (read my post about WordPress)

Squarespace.com (read my post about SquareSpace)

A website I designed using Wordpress.com.
It's easier than you may think! 

You can even develop a blog with blogger.com or wordpress.com and add up to 10 pages, making it appear like a true website. A great example of a blogger site modified to look like a true “website”: www.kellyraeroberts.com.  Another great example (and a previous post of mine) is www.thecharlestonrealestateconnection.com.

If you already have a website and aren’t happy with it, consider asking for a “complete content management system” as you approach new web designers.  This will give you full-access to update website copy on your own.  

6. Quite simply: BLOG.  I can’t say enough how helpful blogging has been in my design business.  Blogs help people FIND you/your biz, help you ENGAGE with others, and help GROW your online community and ultimately, your bottom line.  Consider using the blogger or wordpress SCHEDULER to schedule your blog posts.  I like to write my blog posts on Saturday morning for the following week. It usually takes me 2 -3 hours.  I then schedule away and enjoy my posts working harder for me during the week!

Visit my tutorial on using the blog “scheduler”

7. Follow other blogs. Consider using “igoogle” to follow multiple blogs, all in one handy place! www.igoogle.com.  Create an account, sign in, and click on “add stuff” to add the blog addresses of your favorite blogs.  Look for the orange “RSS” button on your favorite blogs to add them to igoogle with one-click ease.

8. TWEET.  Twitter is more than a place to update people on what you’re doing.  I talk about Twitter each and every Tuesday on this blog.  Here are a few links to those just getting started:
Getting started with Twitter
Finding like-minded professionals on Twitter
Twitter background design tips
How to create a list in Twitter

You'd be amazed at the network you can grow with Tweeting! Photo credit.

9. Create a Facebook business page and post 1X/day.  Suggest it to friends/family.  Promote it across all channels. 

Helpful links:
How to Create a Facebook business page
How to Create a Facebook “like box” or “badge” for your blog or website

10. Grow your e-newsletter list.  There are several inexpensive, great companies offering email marketing.  They offer everything from handy sign-up forms for your visitors to professionally-designed, ready-to-go templates. Even if you are not ready to begin email marketing, start growing your list today.  This way, when you’re ready to send your email newsletters, you have a great list ready to go! Overwhelmed? Consider a quarterly newsletter, then grow to a monthly and perhaps even a bi-weekly.  One step at a time!

I recommend www.ConstantContact.com and www.MailChimp.com.  

BONUS TIP:

11. Sign up with www.HootSuite.com to manage all your social media accounts in one place.  Here are a few helpful Hootsuite links to get started from previous blog posts:

How to set up your Hootsuite account
How to schedule tweets in Hootsuite
How to add your Facebook account(s) to Hootsuite

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!

Tips on Creating / Refining Your Mobile Website

Where are you with your mobile site? Do you have one? Even if you don’t per se, people are visiting your website using their mobile devices. I wonder if the need for a dedicated mobile version of your website will go away in a few years as mobile devices progress? Not to mention those who predict the web will be fully “appified” (as in apps) in the coming years, which is an entirely different ballgame. Until then, however, it may certainly be worth your time to develop a mobile site and strategy.

In the spirit of being transparent, I haven’t built a mobile website before, and don’t claim to be a mobile expert. That said, in my former life at WIStv.com, I would help clients develop a mobile strategy and would also oversee their mobile ad campaigns. I’m sharing 4 things I learned below, and encourage you to visit my friend’s blog (Tim Gluth) for his tips as well. He’s built a mobile site and is quite brilliant, too!



A few things to consider when building your mobile website…
1. Make your mobile site easy to navigate. Some things that work well on a traditional website don’t translate well onto mobile. I found a great article on mobile website building and some excellent examples over on Noupe.com here.

2. Place your phone number(s) and other important contant information clearly on the homepage (if applicable)…people visiting via mobile may very well want to contact you for more info!

3. Have fun with your content, and by all means, keep it up-to-date! If you are a programmer (or know a talented one), consider setting up a different mobile banner to top your page each day of the week. I know this is possible, because it’s something we did for clients at WIS. For example, if you are a restaurant and have a different daily special each day, create 7 banners to reflect those specials, and have the automatically change out based on the day a person visits your mobile site. Make sense? Even if you aren’t a restaurant, there are still many fun things you can brainstorm and execute similar to this.


4. Events rule – If you are a local business hosting an upcoming event, your mobile site is a great place to promote it. Even better, enable technology that will allow the person to add the event to their calendar on their mobile device (anyone reading this have a good recommend? – Comment below, please. Thx!)

Don’t forget to visit Tim Gluth’s 4 great tips on “going mobile” over here…enjoy!

PS – If you are a mobile-website-buildin’ expert, comment below or contact me at lauracotero (at) gmail (dot) com. I would love to expand the list above and will link to your site/blog. Thanks!

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I’m a SquareSpace Believer! My SquareSpace Customer Review…

I built a website using SquareSpace last night and wanted to share the experience in case you haven’t checked SS out yet. It was the first time I’d used SquareSpace to create a website (I usually build websites using Dreamweaver).

Quick background on my typical website project….I’ve designed 15 or so websites in the past few years. Most are 5-15 page websites and the build-out/design/launch takes me a few weeks. If I really push it, I can crank out a website in a weekend, but it’s one of those “didn’t leave the house, lived at the computer” kind of weekend that isn’t much fun at all (I don’t recommend this approach…stop the madness!).

I’d contemplated building my own website (web design/social media consulting) on SquareSpace, but somehow felt like that would be “cheating”. After all, a “real” designer/programmer would never do such a thing, right? Would I look less legit in doing so?

This week a client needed a website fast, and I mean “can you have it up by tonight?” fast. They are attending a tradeshow this weekend and will be handing out biz cards/flyers with their site on it, etc. I decided it was the right time to give SquareSpace a whirl!

You know I love a good list, so here goes…

Top Ten Reasons You Should Build Your Next Website On SquareSpace

1. You can create your website 10 times faster (seriously) and won’t compromise on quality.

2. It’s so user-friendly a tutorial isn’t even needed! It does help if you do take their tour, though, and it’s short and sweet.

3. Your website won’t have the dreaded “templated” look, really. I designed my graphics in photoshop (including a nice sized header) and uploaded them into my design. It was easy and felt familiar, since I often do that when using Dreamweaver, too.

4. Their photo galleries are divine and ready-to-go. Enough said!

5. You can add “widgets” using html code. This may remind you blogger a bit, in a good way. Go ahead, bring in your twitter widget & facebook badge! Don't forget your Google Analytics, too.

6. Your clients will LOVE you for making their lives so much easier. Don’t be the kind of webmaster who has an iron gate around your client’s website. It just doesn’t fly anymore. With SquareSpace, you design it, and then can share the username/password with your client in the event that they want to update copy or add more photos, etc. You aren’t putting yourself out of a job, I promise. Trust me on this.

7. SquareSpace adds new features/tools that you can easily implement on your SS sites. This makes your SS websites look great and stay great looking (make sense?).

8. They “get” social media (@SquareSpace) – this is huge.

9. You can seamlessly import your blog

10. You can’t beat the cost! Free for 14 days, then as low as $8/month.

PS - If you want to see the site I built, it's here. I'll be adding more features over the weekend. :)

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Looking for a Striking Website or Blog Background?

Your website or blog background is often underestimated in terms of what a striking effect it can have on your overall design. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this inspirational post that features 25 beautiful websites with striking backgrounds: http://dzineblog.com/2008/06/25-websites-beautiful-bg.html

As you begin your search, don’t get too discouraged when you come across site after site of dated backgrounds. When I did a search today for “website backgrounds” I found more than my fair share of dated designs. Now that I've found these great designs, it's time for me to upgrade my own blogger background. :)

Website Backgrounds:

• http://www.dinpattern.com/ - I like how you can test the background out on their website to get an idea of the effect.
• http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/40-beautiful-patterns-and-textures-for-ornate-backgrounds - if you like patterened/antique/scrapbook type paper, there is potential here
• http://citrusmoon.typepad.com/citrusmoon/ - this website hasn’t been updated in years but still has some striking designs
• http://www.backgroundlabs.com – a little cutesy for me

Of course, if you’re looking for blogger backgrounds, there’s lots to choose from! A few of my faves below.

Blogger Backgrounds:

• http://www.shabbyblogs.com/
• http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/
• http://hotbliggityblog.com/
• http://simplychicblogs.blogspot.com/