Pro Blog Service specializes in ghost blogging and social media management. They are pioneers in a growing technology landscape in the Broad Ripple community changing the way companies interact with customers.

Erik Deckers is vice president of creative services at Pro Blog with President Paul Lorinczi. He describes blogging as "publishing articles in reverse chronological order. A blog is a collection of those articles. We write blogs for websites to increase their consumer traffic."

Deckers' writing gradually evolved into blogging from a weekly humor column he started in February of 1994 called Laughing Stalk (www.laughing-stalk.blogspot.com) that can be seen by being redirected from his website, www.erikdeckers.com "People were asking me about my writing. Basically, I started working at Pro Blog as an employee and after a few months, the owner didn't want to do it anymore and gave ownership to me and Paul," he explained. The company started in 2008 and Erik joined in February 2009.

Lorinczi discussed his work at Pro Blog where he helps clients understand quantitative data and interpret the results: "Blogging and social media isn't a writing or marketing exercise, it's an exercise in conversation. The beauty of the Internet is that you find out what people are interested in and the data will tell you. A link to a web page can track consumer information. The Internet can track data. Blogging is always a part of a recommended social marketing strategy for clients because it produces fresh content for the search engines to find and use. What prompted us to start the business is, as a strategy, blogging is a great way to generate traffic through content distribution. The challenge is, no one has the internal resources to get it done, effectively and consistently. Content has to be written and distributed. The advantage of the Internet is that you can try things, fail at them and fix them because the numbers will tell you what works and what doesn't," he explained. His background includes working in sales and business development (and developing web sites) with Bitwise Solutions.

Deckers also writes travel articles for the Indiana Insider, the Indiana Office of Tourism Development's blog covering the Hoosier State.

"I took a two day trip to Evansville and visited their museum, three art galleries, saw the Otters minor league baseball team and had some great lunch and dinners there. I also visited Fort Wayne where I saw the Tin Caps (a AA affiliate baseball team for the San Diego Padres) game and the children's zoo. I take day trips around the area that included a three day excursion around Orange County in Southern Indiana," he added.

Pro Blog Service has been a mobile concern this autumn prior to their eventual return to 5348 North Tacoma Avenue near Broad Ripple. Coining the term, "entrecommuter," Erik noted that "basically, our offices are where our computers are. We moved because we wanted to be downtown for a while and share some office space with a friend. We had to move out because he was expanding his employee base, so we decided to return back here because it lets us be more mobile," he added.

Their clientele are found around the country. "We have two clients in the travel industry, one in Florida and one on the east coast. We have clients in the heavy equipment industry on the west coast, a life coach and an Internet marketing agency in Texas," he said.

"Our primary focus is ghost blogging, (similar to ghost writing), but we also do social media management, which is managing someone's Twitter account, their Facebook account or both," he explained.

Deckers described some of the rewards of blogging: "Straight up blogging is democratizing. It's hard to do well, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't try it. It gives people a voice who might not otherwise have one. I've known people who have become activists. Bil Browning, who runs the Bilerico Project, is the largest LBGT news blog. It started out as an e-mail newsletter and then became a once in a while blog. Bil now has four editors, 90 contributors and enough advertising to pay five full-time staffers," he mentioned.

In addition to his own blogging, Deckers serves as a mentor at New Tech High School that is connected to Arsenal Tech as part of the Common Goal mentoring program run by the Indy Chamber of Commerce. "I talk to kids about life after high school, letting them know that college is not just an option, but a reality. I've been doing this for four years. My freshmen are seniors now," he said.

Deckers is also working to grow his public speaking career, looking for any opportunities he can to talk about blogging and social media as it relates to personal branding and corporate branding. He travels around the region, speaking at different conferences and will soon begin promoting his upcoming book Branding Yourself.

A native of Muncie, Deckers studied philosophy at Ball State University. He also earned a master's degree in higher education and completed his graduate coursework in speech communications. He met his wife while in graduate school. They moved to Indianapolis in 2006.

One of Pro Blog's partners and friends, Dick Davis, specializes in social media and marketing content with his company, Primary Concepts. His personal blog, www.greatburgerquest.com, covers the Hoosier landscape in search of the ideal hamburger. "People ask me, 'What's the best hamburger?' I tell them, I don't know, because I haven't tried them all," Davis noted. He began his culinary odyssey about two years ago. "I also write quarterly burger reviews for Indy TravelHost magazine which is distributed in 13,000 hotel rooms across the city," he added.

"My writing background stems from being a marketing director for a construction company where I authored numerous bid proposals (largest being $.5 billion), statements of qualifications, award nominations and quarterly newsletter. I have authored articles on marketing for a regional construction newspaper and a national marketing magazine. I have authored white papers for the University of Indianapolis School of Business. The Great Burger Quest was just started for fun as I like a great burger and I enjoy telling people about my experiences," Davis explained. "Bill Good and I met at Amazon.com where we both still work. We started the same night on the same crew and have worked together nearly every shift. While working together and talking, we found out that we had similar career goals and complementary talents," Davis said. Good provides administrative support for Primary Concepts. Davis is from Indianapolis. He graduated from Carmel H.S. and Indiana University in Bloomington.

Another of Erik's friends is social media entrepreneur and Indianapolis native Kelly Karrmann, whose website, www.klevergirlpr.com includes public relations and marketing. "I write public relations, mainly for small businesses, focusing on their social media like Facebook and Twitter. I went to Purdue University and graduated with a graphic design degree and moved to Chicago where I worked in a company's marketing department. I returned to Indianapolis and joined a small business' marketing department. That's how I got into marketing," Ms. Karrmann explained. One of her clients is Just Pop In, located at 6302 Guilford Avenue in Broad Ripple.

Nila Nealy is another friend of Pro Blog. She is Central Indiana's only certified brand strategist and designer. "I am an experienced business leader and entrepreneur and owner of TwentyTwo (www.twentytwo.biz), a business consultancy specializing in brand strategy, identity and communications. We help businesses inspire their people, influence prospects, make meaningful connections with customers and pursue profit with purpose. I take a cross-disciplinary approach to personal and business brand strategy that connects influences from business, marketing, visual communications, psychology and social sciences. I work with my husband, Steve Nealy, an experienced creative director who earned a bachelor of fine arts from Herron School of Art and Design," she explained.

Describing her work ethic, Ms. Nealy mentioned, "I'm an empathetic listener and a critical, creative, conceptual thinker. I sift through mountains of information to identify valuable themes and make recommendations that, when implemented, create positive change for individuals and organizations. While my eye is always on the bottom line, I encourage a sense of wonder and joy in work. My desire is to promote insight and understanding that humanizes business and work life," she concluded. A native of Anderson, Indiana, she earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in visual communication from the Herron School of Art and Design.

"What companies like Dick's, Kelly's, (Nila's) and ours are doing is becoming more important. We're starting to run into the slow season, because most business tend to mentally shut down for the holidays, but the smart businesses use this time to plow ahead while the rest of the competitors are slacking off. Then, come January, those savvy businesses are running full steam while everyone else is jump ramping up again. So, we have been focusing heavily on new business development for these last few weeks," emphasized Deckers.

As the dynamics of marketing have impacted business since the Internet first appeared, these "entrecommuters" have established personal niches in their area of expertise. Pro Blog Service and their colleagues utilize varied social media helping clients and customers become more interconnected in an ever-changing technological world in which we live.