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.

“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.