FliteHaus Creative Agency

Refreshing the Defense GameTech Users' Conference

mburnette — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:29:16 +0000

Posted by Marcus Burnette on January 5, 2012

A long-time client of ours, The National Center for Simulation (NCS), has recently become the new host of the annual military games and simulation conference known as Defense GameTech Users' Conference.

We had previously worked with the former hosts of the conference to setup a small subdomain of their site to showcase the conference and it's schedule. With the transfer of ownership, NCS asked us to move the conference website to its own permanent domain and redesign the site to give it the freshness it deserved.

The Result

Thus the recent launch of GameTechConference.com! With a redesign updating the brand of the conference and a permanent domain, GameTech is now ready to remain one of the simulation industry's top conferences for years to come!

Launch the Defence GameTech Users' Conference Website »

How We Helped

At FliteHaus, we have had years of experience working with the simulation industry through The National Center for Simulation. This experience paid off when it came time to redesign the GameTech site. NCS wanted the site to live on its own and shine as an example of what Central Florida has to offer the simulation industry.

We used a pre-existing logo and color palette to breathe new life into the annual conference website. Black and green 3D simulated boxes comprise the main feature area of the homepage and the bottom of each subpage. This added depth and dimension to a simulation site that had been very flat. (See our article, "Adding a Dimension: Using 3D Imagery For Projects")

To round things out, the new site was built on the Drupal CMS to give NCS and other contributors the ability to update the site in the days leading up to the conference, live updates during the conference, and a post-conference recap!

Come See Us!

We'll be hanging out periodically during the conference to take some photos and get ideas for next year's conference, so come join us and see what the conference has to offer!

Read More at Flitehaus.com »

MotionX-GPS Drive [iOS App Review]

mburnette — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:47:30 +0000

Posted by Marcus Burnette on January 3, 2012

The holidays are a time for family, giving, and travel. With over 2000 miles driving under my belt this Christmas, I wanted to take just a minute to review an app that I couldn't have done without! (Okay, I could have, but wouldn't have wanted to....)

The app I'm talking about is MotionX-GPS Drive by MotionX. The app is available on iOS for iPhones and iPads for a measly $0.99! Voice guidance and real-time updates costs a few bucks more, but it's just $9.99 for a year (holiday special) or the usual cost of $24.99 for a year.

What You Get

For less than a dollar, you get non-voice turn-by-turn directions from anywhere to anywhere else (at least, here in the US). You get a reliable GPS for your iPhone and listings of nearby stores, restaurants, or anything else of interest.

For the added year subscription (I paid $3.99 for the month to try it out, but will be getting a year for $9.99 while it lasts!), you get voice navigation, real-time travel and traffic updates, Facebook Places integration, and landscape/portrait support for mounting in your vehicle. MotionX-GPS Drive also supports a variety of in-car displays.

The down-side is only that it will drain your iPhone's battery fairly quickly, so it's best to plug it into a cigarette lighter.

Summary

I didn't want to do a full-feature breakdown, so the bottom line is this: MotionX-GPS Drive is awesome! I mounted it on my dash for over 2000 miles (plugged into the cigarette lighter of course) and presented me with a very accurate ETA, miles remaining, and estimated time of travel.

For less than a dollar and a $10 yearly subscription, there's no better (or cheaper) way to have a full-fledged GPS system in your car, right on your iPhone!

Read More at Flitehaus.com »

LegacyRx - Your Trusted Clinical Pharmacy

mburnette — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:04:37 +0000

Posted by Marcus Burnette on November 14, 2011

LegacyRx Pharmacy is a clinical pharmacy dedicated to managing patients that are undergoing high-cost, complex drug treatments. For patients or doctors dealing with Hepatitis C, Oncology (Cancer), Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriasis, Women’s Health & HIV/AIDS, there is no better solution than LegacyRx.

LegacyRx handles treatment paperwork for patients such as medical forms, copay assistance, insurance files, and utilizes prior authorization to keep track of patient data, from start to finish.

For doctors' offices, LegacyRx can provide pre-filled referral forms, information about disease states, and send prescription reminders, taking the load off over-worked offices.

As a new company with a vastly skilled staff, FliteHaus was taksed with creating a cohesive brand that would easily be recognized and remembered. From logo design to corporate brochure to website, we gave LegacyRx a brand they could be proud of and, more importantly, sell.

On October 10, LegacyRxPharmacy.com was launched and has been serving the staff very well in their efforts to market a complete brand.

Read More at Flitehaus.com »

Social Guide: Leveraging Flickr for Business

mburnette — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:36:40 +0000

Posted by Marcus Burnette on August 1, 2011

To temporarily conclude our series entitled Social Guide (we'll be adding more social reviews/tutorials as time goes on), we'll look at social photo sharing site Flickr. (flickr.com)

What is Flickr?

Flickr is, basically, photo albums that can be followed by other Flickr users. The service is designed to allow easy upload of photos, categorization in any way desired (sets), and - based on privacy settings - certain other Flickr users have the ability to follow your stream and see your latest pictures.

Is Flickr for Me?

Flickr is a service that has untapped potential for so many of our clients. If you are a hospitality-based company, and many of our clients are, Flickr is a must. If you are a corporate or medical company, Flickr could be utilized if done well. In either case, it's worth taking a look at for a number of reasons to sign up. Here are a few:

1- Event Photos - If you are a hospitality-based company (restaurant, hotel, etc), you likely host and throw a handful of events each year. There's no better way to share the experience you had with current customers to potential customers than through photo albums! Flickr's batch uploader handles large amounts of images well and, as I'll mention below, you can even open an album up to event attendees to post their own photos to share.

2- Photo & Video Gallery - Don't want to mess with separate services for photos and videos? Flickr handles video too! Share your photos and videos from one place without signing up for a separate video account elsewhere.

3- SEO - The more you can generate interest and lure visitors to your site, the better. Your account also links to your site, so as an added bonus, you get a pretty legitimate site (Flickr.com) linking to your website.

Added Drupal Benefit

As with many other current popular CMS options, Flickr seamlessly integrates with Drupal. This allows Flickr albums to be displayed right on your company website. Users can see photo (and video) galleries without ever leaving your website!

How Do I Get Started?

Like YouTube, there's a chance you already have a Flickr account. Flickr is owned by Yahoo!, so if you have (or have ever had) a Yahoo! account, then you have a Flickr account. Simply login to your Yahoo! account and head over to Flickr.com to get started!

If you don't already have an account with Yahoo!, head to the Yahoo! signup page and get an account to get started. Once you've filled out the form and confirmed your account (if necessary), login and head to Flickr.com!

Alternatively, if you have a Facebook or Google account (maybe you just set up a YouTube account?), you can also use these login credentials to login to Flickr.

Posting to Flickr

Posting your photos (or videos) is extremely easy! When logged into Flickr, you will see an "Upload" link in the navigation area after "Explore."

Once you've clicked this link, you will be taken to a simple photo/video upload screen:

Simply follow the steps and you'll be well on your way to your first set (what is a set?)!

1- Choose photos and videos - Click the link in the grey box (on your Flickr upload page) and choose the photos on your computer that you would like to add to your Flickr account. Make sure that any video that you choose is less than 90 seconds in length and 500mb in size. If you need more than this for video, make sure to check out YouTube and how to get started with YouTube.

2- Upload - This is the easy one. After you've selected your photos, select your privacy settings and confirm by pressing "Upload Photos and Videos". Flickr will begin adding them to your account.

3- Add title, descriptions, tags or add to a set - It sounds like a lot of options, but it's easy. For each uploaded photo, you can add a caption and add it to a set. "Sets" are what Flickr calls photo albums. In addition, you can also add tags. These simply allow users to find the images easier by searching key words about your photo.

Alternate Upload Method

As another option, images can also be uploaded using Flickr's desktop application (called Desktop Uploadr for Mac and PC). The application requires Adobe AIR and can be found on the Flickr Tools page. We will not be adding instructions here, but the application is extremely user-friendly.

Customizing and Privatizing Flickr

Alas, there aren't many options for customizing Flickr beyond a user profile image. The one way Flickr can be customized is through its privacy settings. When using a Flickr account for personal photos, it can be important to determine who will see your photos. For business, it is best to leave the default settings so the greatest number of people have access.

A Little Bit More

Photostream - While this isn't technically an advanced feature, it is important to understand what a photostream is in Flickr. Your photostream is your entire collection of uploaded photos in chronological order of when they were uploaded. People can view your stream, and by notified when new photos are added, but the stream cannot be rearranged in any way. To organize your photos, you can use a combination of sets and collections.

Sets - Sets are Flickr's photo albums. Arrange your galleries by date, event, subject, product, or any other categorization desired. These can be easily accessed from any user's "Sets" page.

Collections (PRO) - As a pro account member ($25/year at time of writing), users are given the option of creating collections. Collections are best described as a grouping of sets. As a personal example, I have sets of events (Disney trip pictures, Christmas pictures, etc) inside yearly collections (2011, 2010, 2009, etc.).

Upload Limit (PRO) - Also, with a Pro account, users are given unlimited space to upload photos. In addition, Pro users are allowed unlimited sets and collections.

Other PRO Benefits - With a Pro account, users also receive a few other benefits including access to original files, ad-free browsing, account stats, and HD video uploading.

Groups - Flickr allows the creation of groups which provides the ability for multiple users to upload to a single album or set. This is great for special events so that attendees can upload to a single album and share their experiences. Group creation can be found under "Groups" in the top navigation.

Contacts - Your contacts are Flickr's form of "Friends" (like Facebook) or "Followers" (like Twitter). You can follow other users' photostreams or they can subscribe to yours. You can see who your contacts are at any time under the "Contacts" menu option in the navigation.

Add an Inline Image Using CKEditor & CKFinder to Your Drupal Blog or Content

jrieckmann — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:25:47 +0000

Posted by Jay Rieckmann on July 28, 2011

Since FliteHaus has been building all of our Clients' websites on Drupal for the past few years (and for years to come :), it only makes sense that we take the time to educate them on how to use the Drupal admin interface to manage their content. That's half the point of adopting a cms right?

Well that being said, I thought it would be useful not just for our own Clients but for anyone out there wanting to learn more about content management in Drupal, if I put together a series of "How To" posts related to Drupal content management.

In this first post of the series, I'll tackle what for developers might seem like a basic task, but for our end Clients and those new to Drupal might not be so obvious. Adding in-line images to a content piece or blog article through the contributed CKEditor WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) module and CKFinder - the ajax based file manager (ie - image/file uploads).

Installation & Configuration of CKEditor and CKFinder to Your Drupal Site

This article assumes that Drupal has already been installed and configured, along with the contributed module CKEditor (as well as CKEditor.com and CKFinder.com applications downloaded from their sites). Installation and configuration of Drupal and the contributed module are outside the scope of this article, however Drupal and the CKEditor module itself both have excellent documentation for installation and configuration.

Here are a couple of excellent video tutorials from jesox.com for CKEditor and CKFinder installation:

Install CKEditor to your Drupal site

Install CKFinder to your Drupal site

So assuming Drupal CKEditor/CKFinder have been installed & configured properly, let's get on to showing you how to add an in-line image to your content.

Selecting Where to Add Your Image

The first step to adding your in-line content image is identify the content you want that image added to. In this post I'm assuming you're familiar with creating and editing content in your Drupal site. So, simply start creating a new piece of content or select an existing content post to edit.

Once you've chosen the piece to edit, place your cursor in the content window at the place you'd like your image to appear (as if you're going to type there).

Now locate the icon in the wysiwyg editor's toolbar (note that depending on CKEditor configuration, you may see more or less icons in the toolbar). You're looking for the one that resembles a tiny photo of a house (really small house that is).

Selecting and Uploading Your Image

Now that you've located and clicked the icon to add your image, you will be presented with a pop-up window that will allow you to select the image on your computer that you want to use.

There are a few tabs across the top of this window and unfortunately the one you want to select isn't chosen by default for you. No biggie, just click the "tab" that says "Upload" and you'll be on your way.

Ok, now that you're on the correct tab, you'll be presented with a simple dialog box that allows you to first browse your computer to locate the image file you wish to use in your content and second click on "Send it to the Server" to actually upload the image to your website.

You're almost finished.

Finalize Your Image Upload Information

The final step to inserting your image is to add some "ALT" text to it. This text is displayed to a user in the case that the image doesn't load in their browser or if the user has their personal preferences set to not load images. This is also used by screen readers for the visually impaired.

Here you'll also see some other information that Drupal has filled in for you such as the size of the image, the location of the image on the server along with some basic alignment choices and spacing that may be added around your image (be sure to speak with your creative agency regarding styles for alignment and space as they may have accommodated for this in the styles written for the website ;)

After you've added the alternative text you can simply click "OK"!

Image Alignment Once It's In Your Content

Now that you've selected and uploaded your image, you should see it in the wysiwyg editor in the context of your content (specifically where you originally inserted your cursor). Now depending on styles you designer may or may not have set for you, text might not be "running" around your image as you'd like it to.

There's a quick and easy solution for this. Select your image by clicking it once, and then in your "Styles" drop down menu you can choose to align your image to the left of the body of text or the right.

By doing this, some html code will be added for you - moving your image in the direction of your choosing and also adding some "margin" around the image so it's not right up against your text.

That's it, you're done!

Love to Hear Your Feedback

While the CKEditor/CKFinder/Drupal combination is, to us, the best choice for implementing a wysiwyg editor into Drupal, we've gotten some feedback that the process of adding in-line images in this way isn't the most intuitive process in the world. Hopefully this article helps to clarify the process.

If you have any feedback, find this helpful or would like to help make this post more useful - let us know!

Read More at Flitehaus.com »

Social Guide: YouTube for Businesses

mburnette — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 01:30:39 +0000

Posted by Marcus Burnette on July 27, 2011

Continuing the series we've entitled Social Guide, we're reviewing, educating, and providing some simple guidelines for the uses of several social media platforms. Today we'll look at YouTube. (youtube.com)

What is YouTube?

YouTube is a unique kind of social media. It doesn't rely on status updates or full-fledged conversations. Instead, it is a place for companies (or individuals) to post relevant video into their channel. Other users may follow that company, getting notified when a new video is available to see. Other YouTube users may also comment on videos or rate them on a scale of 1-star to 5-stars.

Is YouTube for Me?

It depends on your company. If your company sells a product, having product demonstrations or quick tips is a huge added value to your customers! One of our recent clients, a local restaurant, will soon be starting a quick cooking tip channel. What a great way to show customers that you are an expert at what you do!

Here are a few quick ideas that may or may not apply for your business:

1- Quick Tips - Want to show the world you're an expert and only take 10 minutes to do so each week? Start a quick tip channel! In a quick 30 second video, you can win over a lot of potential customers. You don't have to spend a lot of time on camera to make an impression... make it a good one!

2- Product Demos - If your company sells a product, a video demo is a great way to show customers just how easy your product is to use. Create an engaging 1-2 minute demo video about your products, features, or ease of use. You'll have new sales in no time!

3- Help Desk/FAQ - I haven't seen many people using YouTube for this purpose, but many people (including FliteHaus) use their blog in this fashion. If you get the same questions time and again, you can write a blog article to direct curious customers. If the problem you want to solve could take a long time to write, why not create a video showing the solution?

Where Do I Start?

Setting up a YouTube account couldn't be easier. If you already have a Google account (GMail, Picasa, Reader), you already have a YouTube account. That is because, as of October 2006, Google owns YouTube. If you don't have an account (or want to separate your personal and professional channels), simply head over to google.com/accounts/newaccount and fill out the short sigunp form.

Not only will you have a YouTube account, but you will also have access to GMail, Picasa Photo/Web Albums, Google RSS Reader, or any of the other Google products - including Google+ soon.

After you have completed the signup process - and any verification required by Google - head over to youtube.com and login with your new username and password (if you aren't already logged in).

Posting to YouTube

Adding video content to YouTube is a breeze. Once you've logged in, you will see a link in the top right corner of your screen that says "Upload".

When you click this link, you will be taken to an upload page. Here you will complete the following steps to add your video to your channel.

1- Add Video File - Drag (or browse your computer for) a video file that you wish to add (make sure it's original material!).

2- Add a Description - Add as much, or as little, as you wish to say about this video. A title is required (and will be the file name if you choose not to add one), but little else is necessary.

If you wish to elaborate on this video, post an explanation or recipe, or add links to your site, now's the time. You can also add categories, select preview images, and allow access levels.

Once your video has completed uploading, you will recieve a message where your video can be seen! That's it, you're done!

Customizing YouTube

Unfortuntely, there are few options for customizing your YouTube channel. The choices presented are literally a background image and color change to background, links, and text.

To edit any of these options, simply head to your YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/username, making sure to replace username with your YouTube username). You will be presented with a large bar atop the page with tabs. Click on the tabs that reads "Themes and Colors" and then on the link that reads "show advanced options."

You will then be presented with a listing of all the items on the page that can have a custom color and a text box to change the hex value. You can also click the small color box next to the text field to visually choose a different color. Lastly, you can choose a picture on your computer to use as the background image for the page. (See image below for where these options exist.)

Other than the content on your YouTube channel, these are the additional options to make it your own. For a couple great examples of customization (and admittedly very little video), check out the channels for GOALS and TJ's Seafood Shack.

Advanced Features

Subscribing/Subscriptions - As a YouTube (or just Google) user, you can subscribe to other users' channels. This allows you to be notified when someone you subscribe to posts a new video. If you are a business using YouTube, this is a great way for customers to be notified of your newest videos. Post great videos and customers will be sure to subscribe!

Playlists - YouTube users can create playlists of their favorite videos. This allows videos to be played sequentially without having to manually click on the next video. Although this is most useful for music videos, a series of quick tips or tutorials may be a great way for users to see your content back-to-back.

Hospitality RFP Site Launch by FliteHaus

root — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:24:18 +0000

Posted by Jay Rieckmann on July 27, 2011

The Crew here at FliteHaus is very stoked to announce the launch of Hospitality RFP's new website!

Hospitality RFP specializes in the preparation of RFPs (request for proposals) for the food service & hospitality industry. Bill Dingwell and Tim Shepardson (the Company owners) bring over 50 years in food & hospitality industry experience to their clients and, through their unique 4-step process, are able to assist in the preparation of food service RFPs faster and more affordable than ever before!

Hospitality RFP is one of the first companies to ever specialize in the production of RFPs specifically for the food service & hospitality industry. As specialists in their field, Bill & Tim are able to leveage their expertise and experience to create an RFP process that is more streamlined and user-friendly than the traditional RFP process. And that means saving time and ultimately budget!

Check 'em out at www.HospitalityRFP.com

Read More at Flitehaus.com »

Social Guide: Facebook

mburnette — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:11:48 +0000

Posted by Marcus Burnette on July 18, 2011

Continuing our series entitled Social Guide, we'll be reviewing, educating, and providing some simple guidelines for the uses of several social media platforms. Today we'll look at everyone's favorite, Facebook. (facebook.com)

What is Facebook?

Facebook has grown so much since its inception that a better question might be "What isn't Facebook?" In any case, we'll keep it pretty light here. Facebook is a social media platform that allows for personal and business use.

For personal use, Facebook is pretty straight forward. You sign up, look for people you know, add them as friends, and have online conversations.

On the business side, Facebook can be a little more complex - note that complex does not mean complicated! Facebook has taken every precaution to make sure that it is an easy-to-use service for everyone. The idea here is to sign up as a business, create a page, add features to your page, get customers to interact and talk about your products/services.

Is Facebook for Me?

In short, yes. There are very few instances, if any, in which signing up for a Facebook account is not a good thing. Personally, it helps you keep in touch with people you ordinarilly wouldn't otherwise talk to.

But you're not here to read about personal Facebook profiles, right? Let's talk business.

As a business, the most important thing you can do, speaking in terms of marketing, is to get your name out to as many people as you can. The beauty of how Facebook works is this: when someone talks about you on your page, the comment is also posted on their page. This allows anyone who is friends with your customer to learn more about your company!

To keep people up to date on what is happning with your business, it is ideal to attract other users to "Like" your page. When you post messages to your wall, it also appears on everyone's page that has chosen to "Like" you. This is a great way to remind people that you're still around.

What If Someone Says Something Hurtful About My Business?

It happens. There will always be someone out to get you. It hurts, but it's a reality. But here's the great news: Facebook is designed to stimulate conversation. When someone decides to take a shot at your business, that's the time for you to respond in a polite, peaceful way and come to a solution. If you can solve the problem in the public eye, you've done more good than they could do harm!

Okay, Where Do I Start?

Great news! It's as easy as filling out a short form on the Facebook homepage and clicking "Sign Up". If you are signing up as a business, head to the bottom of the signup form and click "Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business. (we've added the orange arrow in the image below.)

Simply follow the steps Facebook requires and you'll be done in just a matter of minutes!

Customizing Facebook

Though Facebook does not allow a change in background color, text color, or any other user interface modifications, there are still several ways to make your page reflect your business.

Whether you are using Facebook personally or for your business, the best place to start is a new profile picture. Hover over your default thumbnail and click "Change picture". You'll be directed to a screen to upload a picture (under 4mb in size) or even take a picture if your computer has a camera!

The next best thing to do is create a custom "Welcome" tab. This will be displayed as soon as someone comes to your Facebook page. It is a great opportunity to show off a branded piece. This makes your company feel trustworthy and gives the customer incentive to poke around a bit more. It will also likely make your customer more willing to "Like" you, thereby receiving future notices or promotions from your page.

Here are a few examples we've created for clients:

Posting to Facebook

Posting messages on Facebook happens in a number of ways. Posting to the Facebook wall is the best way to reach the most people. When you post a message, anyone that has chosen to "Like" you (see "Is Facebook For Me?" above) will also recieve the message on their page.

Other ways to post to Facebook, which we won't explore too much here, are within additional apps that can be installed to your page. These can allow you to do a number of things, including starting discussions, posting job opportunities, or holding online contests. These really just scratch the surface of additional apps.

Below we'll look at just a few other apps and potential business-benefiting tools.

Facebook Apps (For Businesses)

Discussion Boards - Start discussions (or let fans start discussions) on a specific topic related to your business. This can also be a great place for customers to get questions answered, a la help desk support.

Static HTML: iframe tabs - This app gives you the freedom to put (almost) anything you can think of on a Facebook page. With the ability to add iframes of content from external sites, the sky's the limit!

Networked Blogs - This app allows you to publish to your Facebook wall any of your blog posts or posts of any other blogs that your customers may find interesting.

IEndorse - Allows your Facebook fans to publish testimonials right to your page.

My LinkedIn Profile - Creates a LinkedIn badge from your LinkedIn account to display on your Facebook.

Other Apps

There are thousands of other apps that could be beneficial to your business, depending on your own unique situation. These are just a handful of the basic ones we think everyone should have. If you have an idea of what you may want, don't be afraid to just go look around the apps for a while. Maybe the app already exists; maybe there's a service you could bring up in an iframe?

Social Guide: Twitter

mburnette — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:33:37 +0000

Posted by Marcus Burnette on July 14, 2011

As part of a series we've entitled Social Guide, we're reviewing, educating, and providing some simple guidelines for the uses of several social media platforms. On deck today: Twitter. (twitter.com)

What is Twitter?

Twitter is, simply put, the world's easiest blogging platform. Technically speaking, it falls in a category called micro-blogging.

When Twitter began, it was essentially the equivalent to a Facebook status update. It was a system designed to allow users to broadcast a single short message to the world and then move on. The idea was to share quickly, so that everyday life could be gotten back to.

Though things have changed over the last few years, some things remain the same. Twitter users still follow each other and each "tweet" is still limited to 140 characters.

Is Twitter for Me?

Admittedly, Twitter is not for everyone. That being said, Twitter can aways be useful in some way if you use it correctly. As a business tool, Twitter can be a help in a number of ways. Here are just a few ways to use Twitter to the benefit of your customers:

1- Promotions - If you are a company that sells products and runs promotions, Twitter is perfect. Twitter-only promotions encourage followers by word of mouth or retweet (see below). And the more followers you have, the further your promotions - and other tweets - reach into cyberspace.

2- News/Change of Plans - Every company has news. How much someone else may care about that news varies, but Twitter is a great place to throw out a quick update. Whether it's directed toward customers or employees, it's great to have an easy way to let people know what is happening and if plans have changed. You can always write more interesting articles in your website and link to them from Twitter!

3- Help Desk - Twitter is a great way for customers to ask for support about your products! Customers keep their questions short, you can help them quickly!

Where Do I Start?

Twitter is one of the easiest social platforms to become a part of. To get set up, simply head to twitter.com and click the big yellow "Sign Up" button. After filling out a short form (your full name, desired username, a password and an email address), all you have to do is agree to the Terms of Service and you're done!

Customizing Twitter

With such a simple platform, there are only a few ways to make your Twitter profile your own: a customized background, custom color scheme, and profile picture. Even so, these are a great way to expose your brand, personal or professional, to your audience of followers.

Background images can be any dimensions, but the file size must be smaller than 800k and be one of the standard web formats: GIF, JPG, or PNG.

Profile pictures follow similar rules, allowing the same formats, but limit the filesize to 700k.

Posting to Twitter

Each twitter post, or tweet, can be submitted in many different ways from your computer, tablet pc, or smartphone. The most basic of these ways is directly through twitter.com. Simply login to Twitter using your account information. If you aren't already on your home screen, click the "Home" link in the top navigation bar.

At this point, you should see a text box labeled "What's happening?" that should look like this:

Fill in what you want to say and hit "Return" on your keyboard. It's that easy!

Beyond the Basics

At Mentions (@) - At mentions allow users to communicate with each other directly, but still publicly. When you are mentioned by another Twitter user, Twitter notifies you so that you can respond appropriately.

Retweets (RT) - You will likely come across other users' tweets that you enjoy or find interesting. You can retweet what they said back out to share with all your followers! Hopefully, you will write something others want to share with their followers as well!

Hashtags (#) - Hashtags, the number symbol, are Twitter's form of categorizing tweets. When people are interested in certain topics, they can search Twitter. Hashtags make finding relevant information even easier. As a rule of thumb though, don't use more than 3 hashtags per tweet.

Shortened Links - Because Twitter only allows 140 characters, long links can cause your tweet to go over its allowed number. For this reason, among others, services have popped up that allow users to input a long URL and get a short one in return. This shortened link simply forwards to the original link. Although there are numerous services like this now, one of the earliest (and still most popular) is bit.ly.

Why does such a small logo image cost so much?

mburnette — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:42:21 +0000

Posted by Marcus Burnette on July 13, 2011

As a branding company, we stand by the statement that "your website is the cornerstone of your brand." That statement, however, doesn't mean that your website is the ONLY important part of your brand.

Often, new clients will approach us to create a website for them. They may need some business cards or a brochure. Maybe they also want us to help them develop a social presence, because they've heard that's important these days.

Unfortunately, many new clients see their company logo as a side thought or necessary evil to accomplish the other projects. With the importance of a website a given, listen carefully:

Your company logo is an extremely important part of your brand.

How Can My Logo Be That Important?

Logos create brand recognition. When people can spot your brand at a glance, it builds trust: "If others are using your products, I should too!"

Recently, I came across a collection of logos that had the name of the brand removed. With the exception of one company I had never heard of before (Chupa Chupas), I was able to immediately identify them all. Here are 4 of these logos:

Highlight the black boxes below to see if you recognized them all correctly.
1-Coca Cola 2-Mastercard 3-Levis 4-Kodak

Why Do Design Agencies Charge So Much for Such a Small Image?

Firstly, logos are rarely, if ever, the most expensive part of brand construction. Yes, it is a small image, but the importance of the logo plays a huge role in pricing.

If an agency can create you a logo that is immediately recognizeable and that translates to a few hundred thousand dollars in sales, then the logo is worth more to you than $10. If the logo grabs the attention of an international market (that's a lot of companies to compete with), then why shouldn't the agency be compensated?

In addition, the logo will be used more than any other piece of marketing material (on your website, letterhead, business cards, the list goes on...), so it just makes sense that the agency be rewarded for your success.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, and I heard Jay say this earlier today, we're here as your agency to MAKE you money, not SPEND it. And when you do well, we can do well together.

Read More at Flitehaus.com »

FliteHaus Creative Agency

Refreshing the Defense GameTech Users' Conference

The Result

How We Helped

Come See Us!

MotionX-GPS Drive [iOS App Review]

What You Get

Summary

LegacyRx - Your Trusted Clinical Pharmacy

Social Guide: Leveraging Flickr for Business

What is Flickr?

Is Flickr for Me?

Added Drupal Benefit

How Do I Get Started?

Posting to Flickr

Alternate Upload Method

Customizing and Privatizing Flickr

A Little Bit More

Further Reading

Add an Inline Image Using CKEditor & CKFinder to Your Drupal Blog or Content

Installation & Configuration of CKEditor and CKFinder to Your Drupal Site

Selecting Where to Add Your Image

Selecting and Uploading Your Image

Finalize Your Image Upload Information

Image Alignment Once It's In Your Content

Love to Hear Your Feedback

Social Guide: YouTube for Businesses

What is YouTube?

Is YouTube for Me?

Where Do I Start?

Posting to YouTube

Customizing YouTube

Advanced Features

Further Reading

Hospitality RFP Site Launch by FliteHaus

Social Guide: Facebook

What is Facebook?

Is Facebook for Me?

What If Someone Says Something Hurtful About My Business?

Okay, Where Do I Start?

Customizing Facebook

Posting to Facebook

Facebook Apps (For Businesses)

Other Apps

Further Reading

Social Guide: Twitter

What is Twitter?

Is Twitter for Me?

Where Do I Start?

Customizing Twitter

Posting to Twitter

Beyond the Basics

Further Reading

Why does such a small logo image cost so much?

How Can My Logo Be That Important?

Why Do Design Agencies Charge So Much for Such a Small Image?

The Bottom Line