The New Radar along with Apex Productions produced a video for The NY Slice a food truck taking the Indianapolis area by storm. The New Radar also helped The NY Slice with social media marketing by showing them how to change their username on Facebook and getting a Google Voice telephone number. The music was provided by 7th Universe Productions.
 

NEED TO GET A VIDEO PRODUCED FOR YOUR BUSINESS CLICK HERE

As a realtor selling a property, you want it to be as easy as humanly possible for potential buyers to get information about your property.  Considering 86+% of Americans have mobile phones, it seems logical to give those buyers the option to get information about the property sent to their phone. See the scenario below for an example of how a text marketing program might work for both commercial and residential real estate agents.

Example:

1) Potential buyer goes up to property and wants info for 1234 Jefferson

2) They text the address (Ex. 1234JEFF) to 90210

3) They get an auto-response message about the home and Realtor (3BR, 2BA, FULL BASEMENT, Enclosed patio, 2000sq ft. Call Mike 313-333-3333 for more info).  You can even put in a link to a mobile page with pictures and a video.

4) The leasing/real agent gets a notification via email or text (or both) that a potential buyer requested info for that particular property with the mobile number of the requestor so they can contact them right away.

Seem really simple?  Well it is.  Watch the video.

READY TO GET STARTED? CONTACT US FOR MORE INFO

At Earth House we support the arts, promote healthy living, and encourage sustainability by collaborating with local organizations and artists to cultivate community in action.  Housed in the historic Lockerbie Central UMC building, the Earth House experience includes all-ages concerts, films, performance arts, classes, social forums, volunteer events and Indiana’s only 100% fair trade/organic coffee shop. We believe that creating a healthy, sustainable community begins with you.

MISSION STATEMENT

Arts. Wellness. Conscious Living.

PURPOSE

We believe that creating a healthy, sustainable community begins with individual involvement. We believe empowering individuals and collaborating with local organizations are vital to community development. We commit to engaging in activities that encourage life-long learning and the exploration of culture, heath and community responsibility.

CORE VALUES

* Health

* Community Responsibility

* Arts

* Exploration of Culture

HOW CAN YOU HELP

Membership

• Earth House is a member based organization.  Get more info about individual and organizational membership.

Volunteer:

• Volunteer to help out with one of our many events

Donate:

• Make a donation online today!
• IN-KIND DONATIONS: If you have something that you would like to donate to the Earth House, please send the details to info@earthhousecollective.org.

EVENTS

Coffee Breaks DJ Nights w/ Twin Peaks - Wednesdays

Open Mic Nights - Thursdays hosted by Cam O'Conner

FULL EARTH HOUSE EVENTS CALENDAR

CONTACT:

Location: 237 N. East St. Indianapolis, IN 46204 USA  (see map)

Phone: 317-636-4060

URL: http://www.earthhousecollective.org

As a business owner, you’re probably thinking that if you send out messages on Facebook and Twitter that all your followers and fans are reading them.  We hate to burst your bubble, but they aren’t.

Most Facebook users are using Facebook and Twitter primarily to interact with their FRIENDS or follow celebrities or get news, NOT to interact with businesses.  Why?  The same reasons why people change the station when commercials come on…  they already get bombarded by marketing messages everywhere else they go.  The thing with Facebook you probably don’t know is that in order to enhance the user experience, they have an algorithm in place that makes it so pages (friends & businesses alike) that they don’t visit or interact with frequently don’t show up on their news feed.

People have already stopped looking at event invites and messages in their inbox from businesses because businesses, promoters and even some friends have spammed them to death.  Read “Quality vs. Quantity: Social Media Spam” for some tips on how not to do this.

Should you do away with your Facebook and Twitter page?  Absolutely not!  They are good tools for creating a community, branding, and for interacting with your loyal customers.  Run contests and special promotions that keep people engaged and wanting to come back to your page.  Don’t just send out the daily special because if you do that everyday, to be frank, it’s just not that special.  Find out the people who are interacting the most and focus on them.  Read 5 Simple Facebook Tips for Businesses.

WANT HELP WITH YOUR BUSINESSES FACEBOOK PAGE AND HOW TO ENGAGE CUSTOMERS? CLICK HERE

Here’s a video featuring The New Radar founder Douglas Bright.  It is a perfect example of the collaboration between members of the network.  The beginning animation was done by Chris Walsh/ DJ Ohbeone with Bleeding Edge, the background music was provided by 7th Universe Productions and the video was shot and edited by Kyle Heron with Apex Productions, LLC.  We’re glad to be able to bring these talented young minds together and show what happens when we all work together.

 

Watch video
 
Want a video like this produced for your business? Let us help with the project! Contact us today!

Knowing what to look for in a social media “specialist”/”marketer”/”guru”/”expert”/”rockstar” is a difficult thing to do.  There are a million people out there who are purporting themselves as experts in the social media and marketing space because they have a blog or have a 10,000 followers on Twitter.  Although having those things is a good sign, don’t let those be the sole basis of how you choose the person to manage your social media presence.  Here are a few skills, proficiencies, experiences and personality traits your social media (“fill in the blank”) should have.

SKILLS

1)  CUSTOMER SERVICE -  This should really be the number one thing that you are looking for.  Social networks are a two way, real time interactive communication medium that should be used to predict, address and manage issues that your customers have.  You can’t have somebody who forgets that the “likers”, “followers”, “friends” and “fans” are generally the people/customers who are paying their bills.  If somebody has a grievance or a problem that goes unresolved or wasn’t addressed at least…well you just got a person who is telling all their friends about how bad your service was.  You have a person who always posts on your page and raves about your service, you should probably reward them with something so they feel appreciated.

2)  SALES -  Unless you’re in some magical business whose goal isn’t to make money, you want to find somebody who has some sales experience and understands that social networks do you no good unless it results in increasing/maintaining sales.  What good are 1,000 likes if none of those people are buying your products or services?

3)  RESEARCH/ANALYSIS -  You want somebody who can find the appropriate tools to measure the effectiveness of what you are doing.  Your expert should be able to look at the numbers and analytics from many of the social networks to be able to see what effects happen when certain things are done?  What time are your followers interacting with your social networks?  What days?  What banners, images, videos, content are they clicking on?  What are people sharing?  Who is sharing?

4)  PROMOTIONS – Just a digital presence alone is not going to cut it these days.  Your specialist should be able to engage people both on and offline by creating special promotions that result in your customers having something they can take with them and experience.  They should be able to create special contests or events online that make people wait until their next chance to win.

5)  BRANDING – The social networks are extensions of the brand and things done online should mirror,  compliment and be consistent with the overall brand.  You can’t have somebody who doesn’t understand the core values, mission, goals image and brand of the business.  Choose somebody who understands what your business does and hopefully has some experience in the field.

PERSONALITY TRAITS

1)  OUTGOING -  Choose a candidate who is just as energetic and engaging in person as they are online.  You want somebody who likes people and likes interacting and networking.

2)  ADAPTABLE -  If your expert isn’t constantly seeking out the newest tools, apps technologies and information and adapting to integrate them into your plan…Houston, we have a problem.  The social media space is constantly evolving and you must be evolving at the same pace if not quicker.

3)  PROBLEM SOLVER – The expert has to figure things out and be able to make decisions quickly on the fly.

4)  PROFESSIONAL – People think a lot of the social media experts are either hippies or introverted IT geeks.  Not so much.  The social media expert should be able to able to work in a business setting and uphold the company image.  This does not mean they have to wear a suit to work everyday, but they should know when to.

5)  TEAM PLAYER – The social media professional has to be able to work with other departments and should have an understanding of what the roles and responsibilities are from CEO’s to the people in the field or the front lines.  By having an understanding of what they do, it will help all parties involved understand how they work together as a unit.

6)  BIG PICTURE VIEW -  There is no I in team and the social media professional should know that he or she is merely a piece of the puzzle, not the completed work of art.   They should be able to see how all the pieces fit together in the grand scheme of things.  If they only know about social networks, beware.  They should already be knowledgeable about mobile and traditional forms of media as well and make them all work together.

7)  FUTURIST/DREAMER -  This may sound contrary to what most corporate people want in their organization because most businesses want somebody who fits into a box.  You want/need somebody who sees only the limits of their imagination (budget and time too) because those are the people who will keep you innovative and cutting edge.

” COOL” MULTITASKER- Not Snoop Doggy Dogg cool, but cool as in they can manage and juggle multiple things going on at that same time without having a nervous breakdown.

9)  KNOWLEDGE HOUND - Your expert should know a lot, but should know that they don’t know everything.  The social media expert who doesn’t know that they need to continue their education and learn more about the field is a disaster in the making.  With the evolution of the social networking space moving so rapidly, you need somebody whose skills are not going to be dated in the next 6 months.

10)  COMMUNICATOR – This is a no brainer, but is often not a skill that is look at in a holistic view.  Your social media expert needs to have a high verbal and written communication prowess and needs to be able to communicate to internal and external stakeholders.

KNOWLEDGE BASE

1)  HTML – Your social media expert should have a working knowledge of html,  This will allow them to make your social networks more integrated and cohesive with each other and will increase the creative aspects of your presentation.

2)  CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (CMS) – Having knowledge of CMS will make everybody’s job a lot easier.  Rather than having to have a million logins and updating your website in traditional html, knowing how to use CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, etc.  will allow your social media expert to create articles and blogs and content that will show your expertise or special aspects of your business outside of the brochure/static aspects of your web presence.

3)  BLOGGING – Knowing what and when to blog is crucial.  Blogging is a part of marketing often overlooked.  Creating articles relevant to your business and highlighting some of the things that are going on in your business gives your customers and users a running update of what is going on in your business.  Blogs need to be more conversational in nature and rather than overtly straight selling your products.  With that being said, the blogs should have a call to action that leads ultimately to a conversion/sale.

4)  CONTENT CREATION – Check writing samples of your social media expert and make sure their writing is representative of the type of image you need to uphold.  They need to have good grammar, spelling and have a good writing style.  Being knowledgeable of your industry is definitely a plus, but not necessarily a requirement.

5)  PROJECT MANAGEMENT – Being able to prioritize projects and coordinate launches and deadlines with other departments is a huge skill.  Every project or addition to the social networking mix has effects on the other pieces of the puzzle.  You need to have somebody who knows when something needs to start, end, when things need to be adjusted and when they need to be scrapped.

6)  SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) – Search engine optimization is going to have your articles and your business showing up in the search engines when people search for your topic or business.  This is important to make your business and various social networks rank higher when people use Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.  There needs to be tags, keywords and certain phrases that these search engines pick up on that keep attracting new users to your cloud.

7)  ANALYTICS/MEASUREMENT – Any social media expert that doesn’t look at measure your campaigns effectiveness through data is NOT an expert.  There are so many tools like Google Analytics, Radian 6, Facebook Insights and more that translate what you’re doing into data and numbers that give you major insider info and will help you respond to what your customers and supporters are liking and learn how to engage them more effectively.

8)  MOBILE PLATFORMS -  Social media experts need to be thinking about users ultimately. As the numbers of people accessing and using social networks on mobile devices grow exponentially, your expert needs to be extremely well versed in mobile platforms and technologies.  They need to be able to build for mobile starting… now.  Any agency or business that doesn’t have a mobile website already is behind the times. Knowing how and where to use QR codes, text platforms and applications are going to keep your business relevant.

9)  BEST PRACTICES – There is a certain code of ethics and practices that social media experts should be aware of when writing, posting and interacting with your customers and counterparts.  The Golden Rule always applies, but there is more to to social networks when it comes to marketing online.  One rule that they should always follow is the NO SPAM Rule.  People want relevant, timely messaging and interactions , but don’t have the time or patience to be bombarded with your business.  Know when to say what, how to say it and where to say it.  This may fall into a legal conversation depending on what business industry you are in, so your expert needs to be aware of what will get your organization into trouble.

10)  APPLICATIONS – Applications will help your social media expert manage all the moving parts of your communications more effectively.  Your expert should have used and tested multiple applications to see which ones work for them the best and make them the most efficient.  Dealing with all the different audiences requires being able to manage the various networks

The Ripple Inn, located in Indianapolis’ enchanting Broad Ripple Village, was established to provide the people of our community with the very best dining experience possible. Built in the 1890s by the Medsker family, The Ripple Hotel was originally built to service the Monon Railroad and housed many of the workers that worked on the Indiana Central Canal, originally designed to connect the Erie Canal to the Ohio River. Over the years this building has been used for everything from apartments to a brothel to a lawn mower shop to some of Broad Ripple’s best restaurants.

Great care is taken with preparation and we pay close attention to quality, using only the finest ingredients. We offer our customers an alternative to the mass produced by committing to our passion for the craft of creating good, wholesome food. We have a commitment to creativity and are inspired by the cultural diversity and layers of tradition our community offers us.

Unwind and share a meal in the Dining Room, or enjoy signature cocktails in The Lobby Bar, both located on the first floor. Located upstairs is The Lounge and Room 929 where we offer bottle service, excellent cocktails and dancing to music provided by some of the hottest DJs in Indianapolis.

FEATURES

We’ve created a unique space, whether you’re in jeans or a tuxedo you’ll be right at home at The Ripple Inn. We blend contemporary elegance and comfort with incredible food and excellent service. The innovative menu and unique decor make The Ripple Inn an ideal setting for business meetings, romantic evenings or a night out with friends.

• Fine Dining
• Bar Menu
• Vegetarian dishes
• Outdoor Seating
• Full Bar
• Signature Infused Vodka cocktails
• Online reservations
• Events

LOCATION

929 E. Westfield Blvd.  Indianapolis, IN 46220

PAYMENTS

Cash, checks, all major credit cards, EBT, Hoosier Works

HOURS

Monday – Thursday: 5:00pm – 10:00pm
Friday & Saturday: 5:00pm – 11:00pm
Lobby Bar opens Mon – Sat at 4:00pm

CONTACT

PHONE:  317-252-2600

EMAIL:  info@therippleinn.com

URL:  http://www.therippleinn.com

What makes a good father is something that so many men ask themselves.   At the Dads Inc. Hall of Fame Induction dinner there were a few great examples of men in Indianapolis who embody what being a good father is.  The purpose of the Hall is to honor those men who not only excel at fatherhood, but also set an example with their involvement in their communities. Past inductees include former Indianapolis Colts Head Coach Mr. Tony Dungy, Indiana’s Junior U. S. Senator and Former Governor Evan Bayh, Mr. Max Siegel, former President of Global Operations for Dale Earnhardt Inc., Mr. Ian Rolland, retired CEO of Lincoln National Corporation, and current Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. Induction into the Fatherhood Hall of Fame is meant to be a high honor and the opportunity to celebrate all that these men have contributed back to their children and their community. “It allows us to showcase a select few fathers as examples of what it means to be a responsible and involved man in today’s society.”

The New Radar was proud to sponsor this event that highlighted the accomplishments of five great men being inducted into the 2011 class including the father of The New Radar founder, Douglas Bright.  The awards were given to Willis K. Bright Jr. of Lilly Endowment (read more), Marco Dominguez of The Finance Center (read more), Michael S. “Mickey” Maurer of the IBJ (read more) , Ed Wenk of 93 WIBC (read more) and 2011 Father of the Year Winner Mr. Stan Howard, father of 10 and  Butler phenom Matt Howard.

The event had a family feel and included an opening comments and prayer from Indianapolis Auxiliary Bishop Christopher Coyne who just days before had given the opening prayer at the Indy 500.  He said, “I just got cheers from 200,000 people, let’s see if I can get a round of applause from 200.”  Needless to say, the attendees did not let him down.   After a few other remarks from board members and a nice dinner, the real fun began.  Each of the inductees children were given the chance to introduce their father and tell both humorous and sincere stories about how their father was instrumental in their success  and some of the lessons they had instilled in them growing up.   It was interesting that a common theme was that none of the inductees were great handymen, but we don’t think that is a necessary requirement to be considered a good father.  After the speeches were done, the silent auction winners were announced, followed by some networking and connecting.

 

Dads Inc. was founded on June 17th, 2005 (the Friday before Father’s Day) by a small group of fathers and community activists dedicated to advancing actively engaged fatherhood in Central Indiana. As an independent and innovative voice in a rapidly expanding field, Dads Inc. has quickly become a nationally-recognized expert and leader in the field of fatherhood development and involvement.
 

For more info on Dad’s Inc., go to www.dadsinc.org

Photos Courtesy of Tammy “Blingy Chick” Hornek

As the social media and social networking landscape is increasing the number of ways that we can “connect” with people, is it taking away from people actually connecting?  We see people with 10,000 friends on Facebook or 10,000 followers on Twitter, but do they know all of these people? Unlikely. At some point, the relationships are no longer genuine and the person with all those connections starts to view people as fans rather than friends.

Having lived in the days before email, cell phones, the Internet, social networks, social media, etc, we remember the days when to meet people, one had to actually meet them. Aside from pen pals and phone calls, there wasn’t too much interaction with people you hadn’t actually met in person.

Friends or fans?

Social networks, blogs and online communities allow a person to create an image for themselves that is worlds apart from the actual person, but being able to control the message, comments people make, who can view certain pictures, information on a profile make it so anybody can become a God in their own right… at least online.  Would we actually want to hang out with the person on the other end of the virtual connection in person or are they only marginally as interesting in “real life” as the persona they have created online? People often times connect with as many people as they can because they feel like it raises their actual social status or worth. Have we gotten to the point where we  base our value on the number of connections we have on social networks?  We sure hope not.  We do we believe that all people are connected and that we should use social networks and the other communication mediums as a means to connect, spread messages of positivity and positive change.

Get Connected

Arin Vahanian wrote on Super State, ”Believing in the theory of connectedness brings us: fruitful discussions with others, an avoidance of violence and wars, believing in the goodness of oneself and others, creating and keeping good friendships and relationships, and ultimately creating a better world for oneself and for others….You can be your own person, have your own interests, desires, and goals, but also realize that you are in some way connected to everyone else on this planet. This way, you can have your own life, and also ensure that others have their own lives, but also contribute to a safer, more peaceful, more accepting, and more positive world.”

We couldn’t agree more. So keep connecting and keep sharing.

CONNECT WITH US!

How many times have you heard a song on the radio or in the club and wondered who sung it or what the song title was?  If you’re a music lover like we are, it happens all the time!  Shazam is the perfect application to discover new music.  The New Radar has been using Shazam for the HTC EVO (Android OS) about a year now and it has opened up a whole new world of artists, bands and songs that we wouldn’t have found without it…or at least without some major searching on the internet.

To make a long story short, when you hear a song, you stick your phone up and seemingly by magic Shazam (tags) picks up what song is playing and delivers the song title, artist name, the album and genre.  To make things even easier for people, the app also has links to buy the song directly on Amazon, share, buy artist merchandise on Ebay, Lyrics, Youtube videos, tour info, recommendations, discography, Pandora, ring tones and more.  Shazam supports most of today’s platforms: iOS (iPhone and iPod touch), Android, BlackBerry, BREW, J2ME, Symbian and Windows Phone.  It saves a list of songs you’ve tagged and you can even connect and add friends.

Right now, until January 1, 2012, Shazam Entertainment is offering unlimited tagging, so don’t wait!

It’s pretty much like having a dj best friend that knows pretty much every song in your pocket! It’s a must have app for the music lover!

Shazam Android Screenshot

For more info on Shazam:  www.shazam.com