About the project

The site is anchored around weekly “endless deeps,” user-submitted quotes and original one-line sayings that offer perspective on a particular topic. Weekly video blogs explore the nature of each endless deep query, which is a prompt for users to submit their quotes on a particular topic (miracles, forgiveness, work security, etc.).

The blog is connected to a ning social network, an open, many-to-many forum where people can further discuss quotes and provocative features found on the blog, create their own groups, and more. We cull the social network for new feature topics and potential endless deep “winners” and prompts for the week. Users drive the site’s content and agenda.

The blog is also a springboard to related charitable events, like another social network we’re developing for an upcoming celebrity pancake-eating contest. Participants will keep blogging notes online—such as their “training” diary—and people can submit their pledges online. Proceeds will benefit St. Luke’s food bank beneficiaries.

twittershirt1There isn’t a whole lot out there on Twittering for businesses who are selling to consumers, whether they’re boutiques, restaurants or Fortune 500 companies. The way B2C outlet owners should utilize Twitter varies with their services, but there are some general guidelines most can follow to generate business from the explosive social network, which grew almost 1700 percent from February 2008 to February 2009.

1. Know your audience.

Twittering from the hip is like thrashing in a swimming pool when you really want to swim—especially if you want to move beyond networking to driving sales. Start with who you know—the consumers, that is.

Use the search tool to look for people in your area who are tweeting about phrases or services that speak to your offerings, and follow them in hopes that they’ll follow you. Having a targeted audience makes it more likely that your enticing tweets will send them scurrying to your store.

2. Turn your offline customers into online ones.

When you’re collecting e-mail addresses for your Web or blog updates, collect Twitter handles, too (and Facebook URLs, while you’re at it). Or have an in-store Twitter handle party for a weekend where you collect all the identities you can. This can help turn biweekly customers into people that visit you every few days.

3. Don’t just spew into the Twittersphere. Sell.

Random thoughts often make their way onto Twitter, and that’s fine. But the majority of your tweets should drive followers directly to your store. If you are a restaurant with 500 followers in your area, and you start tweeting your lunch specials at 9:30 — 10:30 a.m., you can bet on getting direct business from that.

4. Search for—and plug into—trends.

Twitter is, above all else, an information goldmine—If you know how to filter it. Simply hitting the search button shows you several “trending topics” people are talking about. Want to make a kitchy, timely event that’ll draw customers and possibly magazine editors? Theme it according to the trends—“AIG Bonus Return Bust”; “SXSW in Indianapolis Music Festival,” etc. (Not sure if the latter would be legal, but you get the idea.)

5. Combine and conquer.

Have a couple of competitors in the same area that are on Twitter? Get together with them to offer your collective guests Twitter-specific coupons. Send the tweets out several times a day with the handles of all participants (@your store name @participant store No. 1 @participant store No. 2, etc.) and a TinyUrl to the printable coupon. All the links will show up prominently, and you’ll probably get your competitors’ clients to discover your own Twitter presence.

6. Use plugins.

There are literally hundreds of plugins that help you filter and extend Twitter’s results and capabilities. The Web Pitch has a great list of the “Top 100 Twitter Tools.” Try TwtQpon to create savvy looking coupons on Twitter; track click-through rates with Twittertise. There are also tons of plugins on this list and beyond that help organize and prioritize your tweets.

7. Follow the right people.

Your followers should be your potential customers. You should be following them, of course. But keep tabs on your competitions’ traction, too. And if you know the Twitter handles of some local editors and station producers, you might engage them and land some free press.

8. Be consistent.

This is the hardest part. Once you start tweeting, you have to do it regularly. If you start sending out promotions and specials, make it at the same time of day every weekday, or on the one day of the week you want the special to run. Driving business through Twitter takes time and dedication.

Of course, if you’re too busy, you can always let us do it.

jennifer-at-bruggeWe target specific businesses who are already on an upward trajectory. We just help them reach critical mass and go viral.

“But who in the world is growing these days?” you ask. Simple: craft breweries. Inexpensive gourmet eateries. (I love it! I’m a food writer!)

Don’t believe me? Articles abound on the craft beer growth phenomenon. This AP report references Mount Carmel Brewing Company in Cincinnati, who just starting selling 6-packs in January 2009. When it was time to restock their stores, they were shocked to find that their brews had all been bought up. They project 3,000 barrels in 2010, up from 1,000 last year.

Andy Crouch’s popular Beerscribe blog summarized a 5 percent increase in craft beer sales and a general downtrending for macrobrewers in 2008.

As for food—if it wasn’t wildly apparent from Top Chef’s ratings, America is taking comfort in gourmet during this time of economic hardship. But they’re making it as frugal as possible, cooking at home and indulging in small, inexpensive treats like Whoopie or Moon Pies and, yes, craft beer.

Who is poised for growth locally? My bet is places like Gourmet Frank’s, an upscale Chicago-style hot dog hawker set to open in Indianapolis’ Broad Ripple in about two weeks (the original location is in Palo Alto, CA, but I’ve intercepted a manager who said this one won’t be quite the same). And, of course, Brugge Brasserie, which gets so packed on weekends (even at 10 p.m.!) they’ve started sending downstairs diners to the newly built upstairs bar to dine.

The biggest problem for businesses like these right now are not necessarily attracting local customers (although social media will certainly speed that up for Frank’s) but raising awareness in ways other than regular marketing and advertising campaigns. Print media are losing market share and readers by the boatload as consumers flock to the Web to research and find goods and services.

If Brugge Brasserie wants to penetrate the national market—raise awareness and distribution—a space-spanning, SEO-amping, connection-making campaign involving a blog integrated with meaningful updates, Twitter, and Facebook is the way to do it. That goes for any of the small businesses on this page.

About the project

This 12-year-old mom and pop coffee shop in the heart of Broad Ripple Village, Indianapolis, sees a diverse crowd of regulars. In a town full of transient Starbucks drinkers, that’s a marketable commodity.

Owner William Powell had signed up for a blogging program that concentrated on keywords to optimize search engine results. He had begun to feature his regular customers in posts. But Powell, like many busy business owners, rarely had time to blog regularly.

Now that we’re in charge of content, our goal is to capture and channel the shop’s character. Creating a new page spotlighting the shop’s exhibiting artists is one way we’ll achieve that.

Another is the blog’s new “Weather Willy Wednesdays” campaign to make Powell’s previously coffee-shop-bound weather forecasts an interactive draw for coffee drinkers. Regulars know–Powell uses Weather.com’s “weather in motion” map to predict conditions, and he’s usually right on the money. But if he’s wrong more times than not in a month, blog readers will know when he’ll give away free drip coffee at a particular time of day. They’ll also get to see his predictions online via embedded video. It’s also likely something that local weather affiliates might cover, once we’ve developed a following.

The key to achieving regular blog readers, however, will be consistent, on-target posts for local coffee drinkers. And we’re here to deliver.

About the project

Culinary Institute of America graduate and Locally Grown Gardens owner Ron Harris is very particular about how his colorful, quality market is portrayed. But we do his Pink Pie baked goods and Indiana-grown produce justice with our “gorgeous food photography,” as many readers have called it. We’ve emphasized the pictures’ popularity in bountiful galleries and navigation.

This site gets updated about twice weekly to let readers know about inventory; upcoming events; and history of market offerings. The goal is for customers to be able to know what’s at the market on any given moment, and if Harris has what they’re looking for on their drive home to cook dinner.

Most entries are greeted with a bevy of comments—mostly gushing thanks for Harris’s offerings. (We’ve been spoiled with great clients.)

B4B also helped conceptualize Harris’s popular weekend outdoor hog roasts. His pulled pork sandwiches became so popular, they’re now a daily offering.

As for Harris’s want to communicate with the public, we think he’s succeeded: Since the blog, LGG has been covered by Indianapolis Monthly, WTHR’s Treeboy, Nuvo, The Indianapolis Star, Indy.com, the Broad Ripple gazette, and more. LGG is also well-connected in the blogosphere—everything from Indy’s famous foodie Feed Me/Drink Me blog to national sustainable food site Civil Eats has a link to Ron’s virtual real estate.