New Year’s Resolutions in a Digital World
With the new year come New Year’s resolutions. People tell themselves that this will be the year they go to the gym three times a week, or this will be the year they stop smoking. As with many things in our world, resolutions have changed with the times, and now many of the resolutions I’ve been hearing about relate to the internet and social media. Whether it is a pledge to not check Facebook during work, or to learn how to use Twitter, the internet has altered what we place importance on and what we want to change about ourselves. This fad has rubbed off on me, and I too am making a resolution that I wish I could take credit for thinking of, but in fact WordPress proposed. I am going to do my best to write a new blog post at least once a week. Anyone else want to join me?
So what will I write about? For the most part, your guess is as good as mine. Since this is Chamber INsider, basically everything I write will be related to Bloomington, The Chamber, or a business issue. My goal is to give readers a peek into how things work here at The Chamber, what we are focusing on, and how what we do can help your business. When what’s going on in the office isn’t very exciting I’ll spice up the blog with some posts about great things going on in Bloomington, and occasionally I’ll discuss a new website or piece of technology that I think will have a profound effect on how people do business.
Want to join me in my weekly blogging? Have a suggestion for topics? Any questions about The Chamber that you always wanted to ask? Let me know in the comments below or e-mail me at drose@chamberbloomington.org and I’ll be happy to discuss anything and everything (within reason of course).
The Combine: Bringing Great Minds to Bloomington
When I opened up my Twitter feed one day and had a message from @TheCombineorg suggesting that I blog about them, I wasn’t sure how to react. I had no idea what The Combine was. So I tweeted them back, and asked for some details. They sent back their website, and as soon as I got through the front page I was impressed. According to their website, “The Combine is a display of talent, entrepreneurship and innovation. It’s an event about tech, specifically the people, ideas and environments that drive technology.” Impressive right?
As I dug deeper I saw a talented roster of speakers and entertainment for the event, September 9-12. Some people, such as Sloane Berrent, I had never heard of, while others, such as Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter, I recognized from one of my favorite movies, Wet Hot American Summer. Read more
Social Media, Scotty Wise, and his Brewhouse
The following is a guest blog from Scott Wise, a Chamber member and owner of Scotty’s Brewhouse. All of the views and opinions expressed in this post are solely Scott Wise’s and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. To submit a guest blog e-mail DeJohn Rose for more information.
Since opening the first Scotty’s Brewhouse in Muncie in 1996, I have experienced the highs and lows of the restaurant business. After the initial success of Scotty’s, I opened a fine dining restaurant in 1998, where I lost nearly a million dollars in three years. Needless to say that was one of my low points, but I think I learned more from that failed venture than I’ve learned from any of my successes. When we closed that restaurant down, we opened our Bloomington Scotty’s Brewhouse location in 2001. West Lafayette opened in 2004 and the northside Indianapolis (96th Street) location opened in 2007. We opened our downtown Indianapolis location (at Virginia & Pennsylvania Streets) in 2009. Scotty’s Lakehouse just opened this summer and we’ll be opening our Brewpub, Three Wise Men Brewing Company in Broad Ripple in late 2010. We also have a project we are planning to launch in 2011 in Fort Wayne. We’re looking to locate in left field of Parkview Field, home of the Minor League Fort Wayne TinCaps.
A big part of our recent success and expansion, despite the down economy, can be attributed to our presence on social networking websites. A year and a half ago, when the economy crashed, we were looking for ways to cut costs without laying employees off. At the same time social media was really taking off, so we eliminated every single piece of outside advertising, no print, no radio, no other types of traditional media, and shifted our focus to e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. In the past, we would spend about $250,000 each year in football ads, newspaper, and radio during Christmas time to promote gift cards. We eliminated all of that.
I realized that without a marketing budget, my use of social media was the only way to get our message out. You can’t walk into a business and say, “If you spend $500 on this ad, I can promise you that you’ll generate X amount of dollars back”, that’s why marketers rely on impressions and views and all of those similar metrics. The reason that social media has been so successful and the reason I jumped on board was not just because I had to, but I felt that the world had already shifted over to social media. Recently I gave a talk to a young professionals group in Muncie about social media and I asked the attendees to raise their hand if they subscribed to the newspaper. Of the 50 people I was talking to, only 2 raised their hand. Then I asked them to raise their hands if they had a Facebook account. Every single person raised their hand. I said “You guys just made the point for me – I could leave right now and this would be a successful talk”. The world changes and you have to change along with it. Read more