Creating a ‘Follow Us on Social Media’ Sign in Corel Draw

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About Corel Draw: If you’re a graphic designer by trade, Corel Draw may not be your graphics editor of choice. If you’re a small business owner without a lot of graphic design experience choosing to do your branding in-house, Corel Draw is a great choice. You can pretty much address all your web and print graphics needs for a fraction of the price of the typical designer preference, Adobe. Since you’ve landed on this page in your travels, you probably already know that. If, however, buying a copy has been on your to do list for a while, there’s no time like the present. You can buy yours here and support this blog in the process.

A Quick Note About Versions: I’m using Corel Draw 18. As long as you’re using a version in that same vicinity (i.e., 16, 17, 19, or 20), your view should look pretty similar to the screenshots included throughout these directions.

You’ve created your social media pages to reinforce and promote your brand, and you regularly dedicate your time to adding content, so you want to be sure you’re taking every opportunity to properly promote your social media presence. If your small business has a physical location (office, retail store, etc.), hanging a sign in a high-traffic area is a great option and relatively quick and easy. I’ll show you the steps to create such sign in Corel Draw.

1. From within Corel Draw, go to File > New. You want an 8.5 x 11” portrait page that’s RGB and 300 dpi:

2. Select the Rectangle Tool:

Draw a rectangle in any size and then make sure the Lock Ratio is unlocked:

Then switch to the Pick tool:

Change the size of the rectangle to 8” wide x 10” high and then press ‘p’ to center the object on the page:

Double click the Outline Pen at the bottom right of the screen and change the color to dark gray, the width to hairline, and the style to dashed:

3. With the outline of your sign ready, next you can include the social media logos of your choosing. Since potential legal issues associated with using other companies’ logos can be daunting, we’ve done the legwork for you and compiled the logos that the major social media outlet wants you to use along with the rules for each. Visit our post, A “Legal-Approved” Free Collection of Social Media Icons, and simply copy a logo you would like to use from the post and paste the graphic into your Corel Draw file. Repeat the process for each logo you would like to use. I’ve selected three and each image is on top of the other at this point:

With one of the logos selected, lock the Lock Ratio and change the height of each logo to about 1.4”. You may need to move the logos around using the Pick tool so you can access each of them.

4. Next, select the Text tool so you could begin adding content:

Click anywhere on the page and type your business’s information for one of your chosen social media outlets. Then, set the alignment of the text to centered and choose your font and font size. I’m going to use Calibri in size 20:

Repeat that process for the remainder of your social media outlets:

Now let’s add the heading. I’m going to do “follow us” and “on social media” in two different fonts so I will create them as two separate text objects. Using the Text tool, click anywhere on the page and type “follow us.” I’m going to use the Candelion font at 160 pts in size and center the alignment. Repeat the process for “on social media”, which I’m going to type in all caps, add a space between each character, and set the font properties to Calibri, 25 pts, and centered.

5. You’ll see your sign is starting to come to life. Now you just need to clean it up. Press Ctrl + A, which will select all the objects in your document and then press ‘c’ to horizontally center them all:

Then, move the objects around using the Pick tool till everything seems vertically balanced. (Once you select an object, press Ctrl and continue to hold the key down while you move the object to retain its horizontal placement.)

6. Save your file, print (be sure to set your printer Print Quality to the best available option), cut (on the dotted line, which is 8×10”), and frame!

A Note About Fonts and Colors:
While the instructions described above will achieve the simple and modern design pictured, you can (and should) customize the look for your business. If you’ve been brand building from the start, you already have a Style Guide in place, and everything you create for your business should reflect the guidelines you’ve set for your logo usage, fonts, and colors. If you’re new to branding, be sure to review our story on The Role of a Brand Style Guide.

Branding Through Blogging

If you haven’t considered starting your own company blog, you should, because that vehicle can be extremely useful in developing and promoting your brand.

Specifically, a blog:

Creates a platform for defining who you are to existing and potential customers . . . as well as creating an additional regular need to further define yourself as you produce the ongoing content for your blog.
Provides an opportunity to promote specific products and services while giving you the opportunity to highlight differentiating qualities – your sales advantage!
Gives you a platform for telling your side of any story involving controversy or dispute.
Can help humanize your company – associating a name and face with your operations. (Toward that end, you might want to consider giving your key employees the chance to guest blog rather than assuming you need to produce all of the articles yourself, an approach that offers the added benefit of showcasing the depth and expertise of your organization.)
Establishes a venue for starting a dialogue with your customers, especially highlighting the customer service philosophy you want associated with your brand.
Provides a tool for generating new opt-in customer leads. (Collecting e-mail addresses as part of your blog also develops a mailing list to push out notifications of new articles being available.)
Adds valuable content to your website that can help boost your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because substantial amounts of fresh content have a beneficial effect.
Creates a platform for discussing your community involvements and charitable activities, which are elements of most company brands.
Forces an ongoing process of self-examination crucial to staying on course with your branding strategy . . . while providing useful frequency in keeping the visual elements of your brand in front of your audience.
Encourages the development of your online brand personality and social media presence as you repopulate content across those outlets.

Plus . . . you get to build new accompanying skills learned while managing your blog.

With so many potential benefits, what is the possible downside?

Full disclosure – the company that I worked for across many years never did start an official company blog during my tenure, though I was certainly a proponent and made the suggestion several times. That said, I understood the reluctance – with the main obstacle being the potential drain on resources. To be successful, a blog requires regular content; you have to assume many hours of talent will be spent:

Writing the articles.
Building and maintaining the web site presence that houses the blog.
Updating/removing/archiving out of date content.
Responding to any feedback . . . and perhaps retooling operations to address this market intelligence.
Monitoring impact upon SEO and social media activities.

Furthermore . . .

If you elect to highlight the efforts and contributions of key employees and make them part of your brand, any loss of talent to other companies (for example, an employee leaves your business to work for the competition) is magnified and becomes even more potentially damaging to your success.

The Bottom Line: To Blog or Not To Blog – That is the Question

While I understand the possible downside, I suspect the risk of committing to a blog might be greater for large established companies than small ones. If you have the necessary patience and commitment . . . as well as the required communications skills, I believe a blog can be a very useful tool in building and maintaining your brand identity. While you will certainly be devoting key resources, the content you create can provide many ancillary benefits, including support of your marketing, social media, and web development activities (among others). Just know that, like every other worthwhile endeavor – any payback is in direct proportion to the time, effort, and talent invested!

How I Learned Social Influencers Rule the World

It was a normal Tuesday evening a few days before Halloween. I was answering customers’ questions on my computer, and I heard the usual “cha ching” sound, letting me know I had a sale. I went to my purchases page and saw a vanilla extract label template was sold, and I sent the customer the customary thank you message that includes some basic instructions. Then, I heard the “cha ching” again and experienced a little deja vu, since the order was for the same product. Moments later, one “cha ching” interrupted another, creating an odd “cha cha ching” sound. All purchases were for the same product. At this point, I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t feel like I’ve had a lot of sales for that item before.’ A quick look at my product statistics confirmed that — since release — that item had only one or two sales per week. Interrupting my research, “cha ching.”

I started receiving questions about the item as well, and so I responded with answers to their questions along with a question of my own: “How did you hear about this item?” I learned that a social influencer on Instagram posted a video about making your own vanilla extract and included my label template.

I checked out her page (Daryl-Ann Denner at instagram.com/darylanndenner) and saw that she had over 600,000 followers (at that time; now her tally is getting close to 800,000!). I found the video and watched as Daryl-Ann and her mother (a very likable duo) show how to make vanilla extract and talk about my labels in the process.

(Complete video: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18125117938087853/)

I have to admit, I felt a bit starstruck. I acknowledged the silliness; a product of mine was shown on someone else’s Instagram page; big deal. Enter perspective. Still, this person had over 600,000 followers, and she included me in her little world. And in her world, when Daryl-Ann Denner says vanilla extract is a “Best DIY Christmas Gift,” her followers listen. In that first 24-hour period, there would be over 300 “cha chings” for vanilla extract labels. Since then, the total count has grown to 2,829 orders at the time of this writing (October 27th through December 29th). The total sales since originally releasing the item on January 1st, 2020 is 2,865, so a whopping 36 sales had occurred in the ten months prior to the product being featured.

I don’t believe any advertising could have yielded anything close to these results. So, that’s how I learned that – as the title of this post suggests – social influencers rule the world . . . or at least the small piece of the world in which they reign.

So how, as small business owners, do we benefit from this recognition? Obviously, I would love to replicate this success. And sure, it would be wonderful for another social influencer to simply stumble upon one of my products and decide to feature it, but I don’t think I’m lucky enough for lightning to just strike twice. I also don’t know if I have the ability to compel lightning . . . but I’m definitely going to try. I will be spending a good chunk of time researching and doing some trial and error of my own on the best ways to approach social influencers. If I come up with a winning combination, you will be the first to know! Stay tuned!

Branding and Marketing, Promotion, or Advertising Campaign (Re)Launches

Whether you are in the early stages of marketing, promoting, and advertising a new business or are about to reintroduce yourself to the world (a necessity that could be created by a variety of circumstances ranging from a great new product or service to a need to come back in a somewhat altered form from a national pandemic), a typical group of activities are usually considered:

Advertising via online and/or print publications
Press releases announcing your presence and/or highlighting a change
Direct mail/e-mail to existing and/or prospective customers
Social media postings to highlight important details and communicate news
Special events

To reach out to the largest possible audience in a coordinated way with a consistent message and visual component, basic branding practices are key. As you embark upon your campaign, we suggest you read the following blog entries . . . and keep checking back as we post new material on topics such as: building your own ads; properly preparing artwork for various print and online media outlets; understanding the role and use of paid search and ad words as an advertising tool; etc.

When read together, the articles shown below provide a branding tutorial relevant to marketing campaigns. (By the way, we are always interested in hearing from you and will carefully consider special requests to cover specific topics; either use the form at the bottom of this page to deliver your message or send us an e-mail at brandbuildingforsmallbusiness@gmail.com.)

General –

Important Branding Background

The Role of a Brand Style Guide

BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING EFFORTS, take the time to create/review a style guide that puts into writing the most basic rules that must be observed to properly build the visual elements of your new campaign.

Note: Helpful downloadable tools/templates are included.

Create a Branding Activity Calendar (Template Included)

Your marketing/advertising campaign is almost certainly going to involve a variety of multi-media components – many of which are already included on our sample Branding Activity Calendar that could also be used to coordinate the various elements you’ve incorporated into your promotional campaign. (The template we’ve provided allows you to add the specific activities associated with your effort.)

In Search of the Holy Grail (of Branding)

Why does branding matter when your current focus is to launch your new sales campaign? Why get distracted by the time, effort, and resources needed to make sure your advertising and marketing efforts reflect your chosen branding? This article (as well as the one below) answers that question!

Is Brand a Scam . . . or the Real Deal?

Free (and Needed) Tools

Design Resources

These articles provide tips on finding some of the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) tools needed to build your own ads and other marketing and promotional materials.

FREE Pictures Are Also Worth a 1,000 Words (and Can Help Promote Your Brand)!

Finding the Right Font: A Review of the Best Available Font Viewers

Overview of
Marketing and Promotional Activities

Direct Mail/Email

These pieces discuss the content and crafting of your direct mail message (including the document to be mailed/emailed) as well as the mechanics of obtaining your list and building your database of recipients.

Press Releases

These blog entries discuss the topics, voice, audience, format, and outlets to utilize in incorporating press releases into your marketing activities. Samples are provided.

Social Media

The following articles cover various aspects of building a social media presence – from creating profiles on platforms such as Facebook and Pinterest to strategies used to identify appropriate content. As an added bonus, we provide tools helpful in promoting your social media accounts, including templates. (Last but not least, we address tools for requesting customer reviews so you won’t forget the importance of that aspect of social media.)

Worth Another Look at this Time

Branding involves far more than just creating a few recognizable visual elements. Customer Service is always at the heart of your brand. Taking a close look at this time helps identify those branding qualities that will resonate with your audience and are, therefore, worth promoting. Then, be sure to take all of the necessary steps to ensure that your customer service systems are properly tuned to support the front end of your sales efforts. Once you are successful, remember the value of repeat customers by immediately thanking them for their business.

Branding Through Customer Service

How to Create a Branded Thank You Card for Your Business in Microsoft Word

A “Legal-Approved” Free Collection of Social Media Icons

When looking to promote your social media presence, you want to include logos for each outlet, but you don’t want to be on the receiving end of legal issues with Facebook or Instagram. So we’ve done the legwork for you and compiled the logos each social media outlet wants you to use along with the rules for each. If you had a legal department, their ‘approved’ rubber stamp would be inked up and ready!

Facebook

Brand Resources – https://en.facebookbrand.com/facebookapp/

Use the “f” logo to promote your business’s presence on Facebook.
The color of the icon can either be facebook blue or white.
Include a call to action and link with the logo.
When using along with other icons, ensure they are all equal in size with adequate space in between each and maintain the shape and proportions of the “f” logo.
Don’t change the logo in any way.
Don’t make the logo the most prominent feature of your piece.

Instagram

Icon (and instructions) – https://en.instagram-brand.com/assets/icons

Use the Instagram glyph (or outline) in black or white (though you can place on a pink background when showing with other social media icons in their brand colors).
Use the logo with a call to action unless including in a lineup with other social media icons.
The glyph should be surrounded with clear space – specifically 50% of the glyph’s size – on all sides.
Make the glyph no smaller than 29×29 pixels.

Twitter

Brand Resources – https://about.twitter.com/en_us/company/brand-resources.html

While Twitter prefers you use their icon free of any container, they provide versions with the icon enclosed in a square, a square with rounded corners, and a circle.
When pairing the logo with an account name or hashtag, scale the text to 100% of the logo’s height.
Only use the logo in Twitter blue or white.
Don’t change the logo in any way.
Don’t surround the logo with other creatures or accessories.
The empty space around the logo should be at least 150% of the logo’s width.
Make sure the logo is at least 32 pixels wide.

YouTube

Brand Resources – https://www.youtube.com/about/brand-resources/#logos-icons-colors

Surround the icon with free space of at least 50% of the icon’s width.
The icon should be a minimum of 24dp in height (digitally) and .125 in (printed).
Don’t change the logo in any way.
Only use the icon in your social media assets when linked to a YouTube channel.

Snapchat

Snap Kit Design Guidelines – https://docs.snapchat.com/docs/design-guidelines/

Use the Snapchat app icon (shown above) along with other apps. (Otherwise, use the Ghost logo.)
The icon should be a minimum of 18 px (digitally) and .25 in (printed).
The empty space around the logo should be at least 150% of the logo’s size.
Don’t change the logo in any way.

Brand Guidelines/Downloads – https://brand.linkedin.com/downloads

Only use the logo in LinkedIn blue, all white, or all black.
Make sure adequate space surrounds the logo.
Don’t change the logo in any way.
The “in” should be a minimum of 32 px (digitally) and .25 in (printed). The ® symbol should be clearly visible.

Brand Guidelines – https://business.pinterest.com/en/pinterest-brand-guidelines

Use the Pinterest badge (above) and not the wordmark.
Always include a call to action and your Pinterest URL with the logo.
The logo height should be proportionate to the call to action text.

TikTok

Brand Guidelines – https://tiktokbrandbook.com/d/HhXfjVK1Poj9/legal

TikTok’s logo can only be used with prior written permission.
Use TikTok’s name in text ONLY to refer to their platform or services
You can say things like “uploaded on TikTok” or “follow us on TikTok”
Don’t include a space between “Tik” and “Tok”.
Both Ts in TikTok are upper case, and all other letters should be lower case.

We hope this guide simplifies the use of social media logos for you. However, please keep in mind that this collection does not replace the full guidelines provided by each social media outlet, and those should be reviewed in full as well.

If you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you! Post in the comments section below.

Creating a ‘Follow Us on Social Media’ Sign in Microsoft Word

You’ve created your social media pages to reinforce and promote your brand, and you regularly dedicate your time to adding content. Now, you want to be sure you’re taking every opportunity to properly promote your social media presence. If your small business has a physical location (office, retail store, etc.), hanging a sign in a high-traffic area is a great option and relatively quick and easy.

I’ll show you the steps to create such sign in Microsoft Word.

1. Open Word, create a new blank document, and insert a rectangle. (When your cursor turns into a plus sign, you’re able to draw your shape.

By default, mine is blue. Right click the rectangle and select More Layout Options.

Set the properties to . . .

Size: 10” in Height and 8” in Width
Text Wrapping: Behind Text
Position:
- Horizontal – Absolute Position of .25” ‘to the right of’: Page
- Vertical – Absolute Position of .5” ‘to the right of’: Page

Set the Fill to No Fill and the Line to a Solid Line, Black Color, and .5 pt Width, choosing the Dash Type selection shown below.

2. Click inside the rectangle and type “Follow Us on Social Media”. Set the font to one or more choices that work as your heading and size to appropriately fill the space. Set the Alignment to Centered. I went with the font Candelion Regular in all lowercase at size 160 for “follow us” and (on the next line) Calibri in all caps at size 25 and added a space between each letter.

3. Next, decide which review platforms you would like to feature. We are currently active on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest and will be highlighting those. Then, go to Google to find logos. Most social media outlets will have a corporate page that makes their logo available to the public along with instructions for proper usage. For example, Facebook has a Brand Resources page easily found when searching “facebook logo” on Google.

As you find the appropriate source for each social media outlet, save the logos to your desktop.

4. Press enter within your document to advance to the next line space and then insert each of your saved logos (from the menu at top, press the Insert tab, and choose Picture) in the order you want them to appear on your sign.

Inserting each of mine took me to the bottom of a second page. So, the first step in adjusting sizing is to crop any excess space from the logos. (As you can see above, the outline of the Pinterest image is directly around the icon, so no need to crop that one.) That’s not the case for LinkedIn . . .

To crop, click Picture Tools (at the very top of the screen), click the Crop icon (at top right), drag the outer edges of the box tight around the logo, and press enter. Once all the logos are cropped as needed, try to match their size to about and 1.4” in height. (This will ensure you have adequate room for text.) To do so, click Picture Tools again and enter a height at top right.

Repeat for the other icons.

5. Click in the space after your first icon, press enter to add a line space, and type your profile name/URL for that platform; repeat for your subsequent logos. This process once again took me onto a second page.

Therefore, decrease the font size as needed. I went with size 20.

And then adjust the spacing a little for each line of text (so you have additional room between each social media outlet).

And you’re done!

6. Save your file, print, cut (on the dotted line, which is 8×10”), and frame!

Happy designing!

Social Media: One More Reason to Bother! (Betting on the Long Shot)

Recently, my blogging partner published an article about getting started on Facebook, and she also set up a page for our blog – Brand Building for Small Business. If you followed our lead and did similarly (creating your own site), you’ve probably posted several messages by now . . . and seen little tangible reason for continuing this exercise.

Well . . . the entire message of this article is “Stay the Course!”; you never know who might be paying attention and the kind of impact that person might have on your ultimate success.

Who knows? One day, you just might get kind words from the Oracle of Omaha or some other noteworthy individual that you’d like to pass along!! Keep posting to get your social media platform ready.

My best real-world example that offers proof of the wisdom of this advice happened just a few short years ago. I was working for GUARD (my employer at the time and an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway). We were just getting started with social media (an intentional delay on the part of our company), and we were experiencing slow growth in the numerical results usually used to measure success – likes, followers, visitors, shares, etc.

We had established a regular schedule (at first weekly; then twice a week shortly thereafter) for posting new content. At that time, my employer was in the middle of a five+ year stretch of 25% per year growth and had new infrastructure needs to accommodate hiring. As part of that process, the company had applied to the state for a significant economic development grant. While that request seemed to have a decent chance of success because many new jobs would be created, lots of viable projects were competing for the same dollars.

Fortunately, we had just closed the books on a very good year. In fact, our run of success had been good enough that the Chairman of our ultimate parent company (Berkshire Hathaway) had elected to give us a “shout out” by name during the heavily publicized and well-attended Annual Meeting of the Shareholders in Omaha, Nebraska. Turns out that when that gentleman, an individual by the name of Warren Buffett, chooses to praise you, people stop and take notice.

Recognizing an opportunity, we transcribed the sound bite and posted a social media mention of the message, quoting Mr. Buffett’s generous remarks. While this content generally got more attention than our low norm at that time, the first person to “like” our message was the individual who would be responsible for evaluating our worthiness for the grant we were seeking!

Did our social media posting make a difference? While we will probably never really know, I can’t help but believe some good was done that more than justified the entirety of the time and effort we had devoted to date to social media.

So . . . the moral of the story (especially during the early stages) is this: you don’t have to produce eye-popping numbers for your effort to be worthwhile and totally justify the invested time and energy. You just have to keep using the platform you’ve created to communicate your message (. . . AND YOUR BRAND!) in a number of new ways . . . and hope that somewhere along the line the right set of eyes will read your words. (Rem: Strong preparation creates opportunity.)

Frankly, I’m an optimist . . . so I’m always imagining all sorts of interesting people reading my words on the other end. Every once in a while, the imagined even becomes reality (and that IS fun)!!

I hope you have a happy and successful New Year in 2020. My partner and I would love to hear from you and explore suggested ways in which we might be of help.

How to Create a Facebook Page for Your Business

Your first step to your business’s social media presence on facebook is quick and easy. In the five steps below, you’ll see how to create a page for your business.

1. Log in to your personal account on facebook. Go to Create > Page.

Select Business or Brand when asked to choose a category.

2. You’ll then be prompted to input an address, or you can click “Don’t show my address. Only show that this business is in the City, State region.”

3. Next, you’ll need to add a profile photo. You’ll want to use one that can be squared, the corners rounded/cropped, and at least 170 x 170 pixels in size (which is pretty small). We would ideally like to use our logo, but it’s not one that would work well in facebook’s profile frame:

If uploaded as is (as I did above), portions would be cropped. If I added white space to the top and bottom so the sides wouldn’t be cropped, the logo would be very hard to see when displayed at 170 x 170 pixels and smaller. As a result, I went with an icon version of our logo, created for purposes such as these. White space has been added all around to accommodate the round frame.

If your logo doesn’t work for your profile picture or you’d prefer to use a photo of yourself or some other image representative of your business, just be sure to regularly include your logo in your posts (preferably as an overlay on pictures related to the post).

4. Next up is your cover photo, which displays at 820 pixels wide x 312 pixels tall on computers and 640 pixels wide x 360 pixels tall on smartphones. The minimum size is 400 pixels wide x 150 pixels tall. Since the dimensions of your cover photo will vary somewhat in different environments, a simple landscape photo is your surest best – as opposed to including your logo or other text. (If you do go the route of including your logo or other text, be sure to include lots of white space, so the text does not get cropped regardless of the environment.)

A Quick Note About Graphics Software: If you’re not quite sure how to go about creating a cover photo that includes text or how to add white space to your logo, you may want to check out Inkscape (https://inkscape.org/), which is a free graphics editor that also makes a number of tutorials available: https://inkscape.org/learn/tutorials/.

For our facebook cover, I just used the main image included on our home page for continuity purposes.

You can “drag to reposition” if desired.

5. Finally, you’ll be asked whether you want to “invite friends to like your page,” which is recommended since pages with 10 or more likes get more engagement. If you want to wait until you’ve been regularly posting for some time before inviting a lot of people, you can start off with a small group of your close family and friends until you get better established.

And you are done! You have a facebook page for your business. Unfortunately, that was the easy part. The challenge is creating a regular posting schedule and sticking to that plan. How often . . . ? A number of sources cite one facebook post per day as optimal. If you can commit to that, great. If you feel like twice a day is better for you, just pay attention to your engagement. If those posts aren’t getting sufficient attention, facebook may decrease your visibility and put your posts into a “spamming” category. If you’re like us, once a week is a much more reasonable goal. Do what works for you and your business, experimenting a little to find your optimal posting schedule.

Good luck! Stay tuned for more posts about facebook. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a reply below.