Why I joined Smaller Indiana.

As I proud member of Smaller Indiana, A social media community created by Pat Coyle, Communications Director of the Indianapolis Colts, Doug Karr of Compendium Blogware and Kyle Lacy of Brandswag. I thought I’d write just a few words to tell about this awesome community for Indianapolis and Indiana.

I first became aware of SI through a coworker at Fusework Studios. After I signed up for the group, I was immediately notified with a personal message from Kyle.

“Hey Justin! Welcome to Smaller Indiana and congratulations on becoming a SMOOSIER! Let us know if you have any questions about the site and remember to have some fun!”

I was also invited to the 3000 member party, which has now grown to over 6000+ members in the the past 6 months.

Since becoming a member, I have met with several hundred of it’s members, joined several networking groups, both on-line and off-line. In fact, I created my own group the Social Media Lunch Club which has nearly 100+ members!

SI is a great resource for any local Marketer, Designer, Web Developer or  just about any small to medium business or entrepreneur.

Sign up, check it out and add me as a friend. Don’t forget to join the Social Media Lunch Club while you’re there!

It’s great to be around the ‘who’s who’ of Indianapolis media.

Check it out

Take Social Media Off-line

I always enjoy talking with people concerning Social Media topics. I thought it would be great to discuss taking Social Media and actually moving it into a ‘real world’ situation.

I first met another Indianapolis New Media Marketer on Twitter. We first began our conversation about Harley Davidson bikes.  Our passion for things in common, led us to more discussions about New Media challenges we both face in our respective companies.

Upon meeting in person, we found we had more in common than we originally thought. The one disadvantage to keeping everything on-line is that you can’t read the tone of the person entirely.

Upon further discussion, he knew of a company that wasn’t a great fit for his company but he felt may be a great fit for our company.

After our meeting, I received a contact from the person he mentioned. We met for lunch ( I love food!), and decided to meet in our office and discuss further.

After the lunch discussion and discovery, I’m proud to say that we now have a ‘raving fan’ client that we offer our full service offerings. All because of one ‘tweet’.

Through this discovery we not gained not only a client, but gained a new friend in the Social Media community.