Making people and ideas findable

January 2008 Blog Posts (68)

I Almost T-Boned the Statue of Liberty Today

We had the main event last night for Rainmakers.

As always, I was driving my STUNNING 1997 White Toyota Camry down

Keystone, heading towards 71st street. Out of nowhere bounds this

bearded Statue of Liberty. No joke, she/he is running across Keystone.

I swear on my chocolate labs life, I almost t-boned poor Ms. Liberty

right in the bible side. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure

this was a politically correct Statue… Continue

Added by Kyle Lacy on January 30, 2008 at 11:15pm — 10 Comments

Judging Direct Mail by its Cover

One thing we always preach to our clients is to keep their direct mail from looking like direct mail.

That is, don’t put lots of splashy graphics and text on your outer envelopes, because that just screams…

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Added by Erik Deckers on January 30, 2008 at 4:30pm — 2 Comments

What is Smaller Indiana like?

Somebody asked me tonight, "is Smaller Indiana like a combination of Facebook and Linked In".

It's a natural question. We humans need context to understand - or think we understand stuff.

Anyway, the quesiton got me thinking about the names we give to social networks.

MySpace - it's all about ME (Smaller Indiana is about US)

Facebook - it's about the surface of things (Smaller Indiana is about the head and the heart)

Linked in - it's sorta about who… Continue

Added by Pat Coyle on January 29, 2008 at 11:01pm — 5 Comments

Brand Swarm

In the December 17, 2007 issues of Advertising Age in an article titled "Trends to Watch in 2008," Bob Liodice President-CEO of ANA said:

"Marketers will move decidedly in the direction of DDB CEO Chuck Brymer's 'swarm theory'–the notion that people and their opinions coalesce to form critical forces that massively influence marketplace ideas and concepts. 'Swarm theory' will elevate social networking to new levels, confirming the immense impact that consumers have on each other.… Continue

Added by Nila Nealy on January 29, 2008 at 1:12pm — 1 Comment

Reading: No Longer Fundamental

A Protest

Tom Wayne, owner of Prospero's Books in Kansas City, Missouri, loves books. Looking to reduce his used book inventory, he found he couldn't even give them away. So he got a permit and burned them in protest.

Read a Book? LOL!!!

Apparently the 18-34, web 2.0, GenMe,… Continue

Added by Ed Illig on January 29, 2008 at 9:48am — 8 Comments

You Get What You Put In. Get Off Your BUTTS! :)

As many of you know, I attended Anderson University in the beautiful town of Anderson, IN. Because we were a private school they would not allow the "greek community" on the campus. We instead had what was wonderfully called: social clubs. I was involved with a group called Dativus: Delta Kappa Alpha. We had a rush that lasted a week and we were blessed to have around 90 members in the club.

Rush was always an amazing experience for all and after rush the club meeting (once a week)… Continue

Added by Kyle Lacy on January 28, 2008 at 10:45pm — 2 Comments

There's a new "500" in Indiana

Smaller Indiana just welcomed its 500th and 501st members.

What do you think about that?

Added by Pat Coyle on January 28, 2008 at 10:19am — 3 Comments

What you cannot do on "company" time.

Sarah Robbins asked a good question in her recent post (read it here). She asked are folks allowed to use social networking sites while at work? To this question I want to add another question:

Why would any boss let anyone use social networking sites while on the job?

Let's start with the name. "Social +…

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Added by Pat Coyle on January 28, 2008 at 7:20am — No Comments

Anderson, Indiana.. A Hot Bed For Musical Talent?

When I was in junior high and high school I was obsessed with the music industry. Everything I was involved in had to do with music. Whether it was planning a battle of the bands or playing in a band, I was obsessed with the art of music (later becoming obsessed with the BUSINESS of music).

Then the time came to apply for colleges. I had always known that Anderson University was a great school but for music business?? Nah, I was going down to Nashville to attend Belmont in order to… Continue

Added by Kyle Lacy on January 27, 2008 at 10:57pm — 8 Comments

Three Books

Last night at Barnes and Noble, a handful of "new to me" books caught my eye. I took note of the titles and upon reviewing them today, I realized that 3 of the 5 support my last post and philosophy in brand: that you have to both be true to who you really are and understand the emotional drivers of your market. The books...…

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Added by Nila Nealy on January 27, 2008 at 1:30pm — No Comments

Local food stop - Speedway, IN - Dawson's on Main Restaurant

Last weekend my family asked if we were going to eat at Lobster Hut (or some such chain), Olive Grove (or something equaly obsequious), or Texas Road Stop (with peanuts on the floor). I suggested we think local...

We ended up at "Dawsons on Main" in the heart of Speedway (on main street) and were delighted by the local food, fare, and friendlies.

Dawsons is what I would call new American fare with a spicy underpinning that can't decide between creole and/or southwest.

We…

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Added by Grant Z Price on January 25, 2008 at 8:29pm — 2 Comments

Project Please Kill Me Now

I hate myself for what I'm about to say:

I've been watching Project Runway.…

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Added by Erik Deckers on January 24, 2008 at 11:00pm — 5 Comments

IPhone Kewlness!: Your logo on iphone home pages

This makes me giggle! Ah the wonders of technology. The iphone firmware upgrade lets you bookmark webpages on the phone’s front page. A little file magic and Voila! My logo is the bookmark icon for my homepage!

Added by Sarah Robbins on January 24, 2008 at 8:35am — 1 Comment

Magicians and Jugglers: Why Education is an Important Part of Marketing

Web 2.0, Second Life, blogs, wikis, APIs, social networks, SEO, SEM, SMS, widgets, microblogs…if you find any of these confusing or think that if you hear another geeky-acronym that your head will explode know

that you’re not alone. For those of us in the tech industry this is all

shop talk. It’s easy for someone like me, an expert on emerging

technologies and an uber-nerd, to think that everyone knows what all of

these technologies are. But the bottom line is that the…

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Added by Sarah Robbins on January 23, 2008 at 4:14pm — 2 Comments

How To Create Your First Wikipedia Article

Have you ever wanted to create a Wikipedia article, but weren’t

entirely sure of the proper steps involved? Or maybe you’ve created an

article in the past, but it keeps getting deleted by Wikipedia admins?

In this article I am going to explain in detailed steps the correct way

to create a Wikipedia article.…

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Added by Brad Williams on January 23, 2008 at 3:12pm — 1 Comment

I live in Pittsburgh, yes, but I am a Hoosier

I thought I might say a few words about what brought me to Smaller Indiana. I’m a Hoosier native. I’m a writer (both my books are about Indiana) and a college professor. My academic teaching career has taken me all over the United States: Alabama, Minnesota, Baltimore, New Jersey, and now Pittsburgh, which (believe it or not) was as close as I could get to home. I often joke with my…

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Added by Cathy Day on January 23, 2008 at 2:48pm — 2 Comments

Target: So Many Things Right, One Big Thing Wrong

Disclaimer: I'm generally a fan of Target®. I appreciate the turn

around they've implemented and I applaud their belief that general

consumers (read: the rest of us as the unwashed masses) appreciate good

design and want to own it, even if we don't want to pay an arm and a

leg for it.

So it was with some alarm and a great deal of surprise when I learned that they seem to be so far out of touch with

the reality of the world in which they do business. Here's the… Continue

Added by Jim Cota on January 23, 2008 at 1:15pm — 1 Comment

Social Networking and Brand Management

Yesterday I was interviewed by the American Marketing Association's Marketing News for a story on how social networking is affecting control of a brand. I told the interviewer that managing a brand is like dancing. As a marketer you have to let your customer lead. But, the dance takes two. Assuming you've done the right foundational work, you'll be dancing step-by-step to the same song.

In other words, do this:

Discover the essential truth about your company or…

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Added by Nila Nealy on January 23, 2008 at 1:14pm — 3 Comments

Is "social capital" worth your time?

Smaller Indiana's population passed 400 last night, and while I'm excited about that milestone, I realize it's still relatively small number. Still, the community is growing and most of the folks who join seem to "get" that this is a place where we're building "social captial" for personal and for common benfits.

Wikipedia serves up a thorough explanation of socal capital here: Social capital.

(Excerpt:…

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Added by Pat Coyle on January 23, 2008 at 6:59am — 9 Comments

Small Pox and Smaller Indiana

Seth Godin has another great blog on gimmicks. I didn't pull much from the actual blog pertaining to gimmicks but he had a great thought at the end:

As you sit down to consider ways to be more remarkable, the challenge is to

be worth talking about... at the same time you are adding value for the person

who's talking about you.

I encourage all members…

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Added by Kyle Lacy on January 22, 2008 at 8:43pm — No Comments