One fine day, you woke up and decided to have a logo designed for your newly started business. You went out of your bed, searched for logo design companies online and extracted some top ranking links from Google’s search engine. You called them up one by one and finalized one logo design company for your logo and felt relaxed. Your job is not done here!

Hiring a logo design company is not enough. You need to do your homework before asking your logo designer to design a logo for you otherwise all your money and your designer’s time and efforts would go wasted in the end.

Logo creation is a delicate process; therefore, you need to make it easier for your logo designer by clarifying few facets before asking him to start your project.

Write down a detailed Creative Brief:

You as a business owner, must know what exactly you require in your logo because your logo designer is only the creator of the image, you should be the one to guide him what your logo should look like. Prepare a creative brief and clarify the following points to your logo designer to avoid disagreement in the end.

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So I came across this page featured on the West Virginia Surf Report via Twitter and couldn’t help but to laugh. As I took I quick skim over the site, it became pretty obvious what the images represented. The photos are basically fast food concoctions that many of us are familiar with - e.g. Wendy’s Chicken Club, Arby’s Beef ‘n Cheddar sandwich, etc. The ones on the left side represent what we see when the commercials or the billboards try to lure us into the restaurant to quench our stomach churning hunger (induced by the said advertisements, of course). The photos right next to those represent…what we actually get when we open up the wrappers. Now, depending on how much you like any of these foods will determine how much you shake your head in disgust or sigh at the glaring difference in what you actually pay for. The bottomline here is that there is a big difference between what you’re shown/told you are going to get and from what you actually wind up with.

In life, there are plenty of opportunities for us to be duped into believing that everything we see on television or on the Web will be exactly what is shown. It’s tough sometimes but after awhile, you learn from your mistakes. On the flip side, there are even more opportunities for us to tell someone we are going to do something, add on some verbal fluff about what it will be and how much it will help them do something and then it turn out to be a soggy, 2.5 star version of what it should have been.

Whether you are applying this to business (working with clients), social life (helping a friend move) or in relationships (picking her/him up on time) - it is always important to follow through on what you advertise to someone. You’ve pegged yourself as someone who wants to make a difference, who wants to put their energy into making something great and moving forward. How are you going to do that when people expect greatness from you but get mediocre results at best? Each time that happens, you undermine people’s ability to trust that they will get what you tell them and eventually they will look to another establishment/individual for their needs (or hunger!).

You’re better than that. Give your best and you won’t ever have to worry about websites popping up making a mockery of you or your product.

By now, I’m assuming most of you have gone through and added all of these amazing entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. Hopefully, some of them have added you back. Now, your mission is to make sure the people following you on Twitter keep following you. You don’t want to be the victim of someone’s spring cleaning of their following list.

How can you improve your follower retention on Twitter? Start by following these 10 tips.

1. Remember Why People Follow You- This is the first thing you have to figure out. Unless they’re just desperate for more friends, people usually have a specific reason for following you. If your Twitter account is for professional networking, they most likely want to hear your thoughts on relevant industry topics. In other words, they don’t want to read about you clipping your toenails or getting in a fight with your significant other.

2. Determine Why People Quit You- It’s a sad fact of Twitter life, but people will unfollow you at some point. You need to figure out why they’re doing it. One handy tool for doing this is Qwitter. This will send you an alert letting you know the exact moment someone stops following you. It will show your most recent Tweet with the hopes that will shed some light on the situation. If that doesn’t help, ask yourself if you’re living up to your expectations from tip #1.

3. Interact with Your Followers- Twitter is a social tool. So, you need to be social. Don’t just send one-way Tweets. Interact with the people you’re following. Someone is much less likely to drop you if you engage with them on a regular basis. Remember, social networking is about building connections. The only to build strong connections is to chat it up.

4. Don’t Over Tweet- Maybe I’m being anal, but one of the things that leads me to unfollow someone is when they drop 50 Tweets in the span of a few short minutes. It’s like the guy at the conference who tries to take over the show by asking 10,000 questions. Let everyone share the floor. Tweet your heart out, but just be careful not to overdo it.

5. Don’t Under Tweet Either- If you don’t give your Twitter account any attention, you’re begging to be wiped away when someone starts trimming their following list. It goes back to tip#3—if people don’t know you, they’ll have little problem dropping you like a bad habit. Keep your visibility up by making at least a few quality posts each day.

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Are you still waiting to see if social media marketing is worth your time? It’s understandable to be hesitant of this new style of marketing, but entrepreneurs in particular have a lot to gain from getting involved with social media. It’s a free way to get in touch with your target audience and other leading figures in your industry. Even if your contacts don’t go on to become paying customers, you still get direct insight into your target audience’s mindset.

Still not convinced? Here are 7 companies making big strides through social media marketing.

Note: Thousands of companies use social media. Don’t think of this as a “Top 7” list, but rather as a sampling of companies from all industries and of all sizes making social media work for their unique needs.

1. Whiteflash- Whiteflash.com is an online diamond jewelry retailer. The owners of this company believe that buying a diamond is an interactive experience. That’s why they focused on social marketing techniques to engage potential customers. With live chatting on their website and numerous relationships with top bloggers, the company has increased their revenue by 15 percent, and most recently, they were featured in Entrepreneur magazine for their social marketing success.

2. Eastern Isles- Eastern Isles Teas and Tonics is a company headed up by two twenty-something young adults with a strong sense of Internet marketing. A key part of their marketing strategy is social media marketing. Through sites like Facebook and MySpace, the company generates about 30,000 unique visitors to their site each month.

3. Dell- Long gone are the days of the stoner gracing our television screens with “Dude, you’re getting a Dell.” Today, Dell is taking full advantage of social media marketing. In addition to over 20 Twitter accounts, they also have several company blogs that attract millions of visitors each month. However, most impressive to me is their Ideastorm website. This interactive community allows users to submit and vote on ideas. Well over 10,000 ideas have been created here. A truly great idea in and of itself.

4. Doritos- Dell isn’t the only company getting its users involved in the process. Remember the Super Bowl promotion that Doritos ran earlier this year (and last year, too)? Fans were allowed to create and vote on ads to appear during the Super Bowl. Thousands of submissions and millions of video views were generated by this overwhelmingly successful promotion.

5. Zappos- This online shoe retailer is always one of the first companies mentioned when it comes to social media. While they have a host of blogs and video blogs, what has really captured consumer interest is their Twitter presence. 198 Zappos employees maintain active Twitter profiles, and a page on their website is devoted just to this. By enticing the public to “See what Zappos employees are doing right now” the company generates tons of interest in their Twitter campaign.

6. Crafty Chica- “Crafty” is the perfect word to describe site owner Kathy Cano-Murillo’s marketing strategy. When her book Art de la Soul was coming out, she used MySpace to connect directly with her target audience. By staying committed and being social, she was able to get nearly 2 million visitors to her website each month.

7. MTV- Hate them all you want for not showing music videos anymore (it’s not like the ones they played were good anyway), but you have to give MTV credit for knowing its target demographic. In addition to their widgets and blogs, MTV also promotes The Hills (gag) in Second Life. Furthermore, you can connect with their “reality” stars through the MTV website. 14 year old girls throughout the world are rejoicing!

Like I said, there are far more than 7 companies doing a great job of taking advantage of social media. I just don’t have room in this blog to cover every single one. Hopefully, this gives some of you who are still skeptical about the validity of social media some useful information.

Which companies would you add to this list?