INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—Did the refs make the right call at the Colts game? Did judges vote the right person off of The Voice? These are all debates that now can be decided with the click of a button and shared on social media. Kelley School of Business alum Marcus May (BS ’03) co-developed a new smartphone application to put these arguments to the test.

“Everyone has debates, no matter how big or small,” said May. “Debate Decider came out of a desire to settle scores—to finally know who is right.

This app is couched in Twitter so users can distribute polls and post the results online.

“This app lets you frame your debate then blast it out into Twitter so your followers can quickly vote,” he explained. “The Debate Decider app does the rest, tracking vote/replies as they come in live time and aggregating votes. The app then shoots the results back into the Twitter world automatically.”

So far the biggest clients to use Debate Decider are radio stations.

“RadioNow 100.9 uses it to engage with their listeners and followers,” said May. “WFNI ESPN 1070 The Fan also has also used our app.

“We want everybody using this app. I want competition TV shows like American idol and The Voice using it. Every company wants to increase their social media awareness and using Debate Decider will help build Twitter followers.”

The marketing and distribution major says he learned lessons in time management and teamwork during his time as a student at Kelley Indianapolis.

“Teamwork is very important,” said May. “When creating an app, there are a lot of moving pieces. You deal with designers, PR firms, developers, etc. So you have to be a team player and understand how to make everything come together and run smoothly. When it comes to time management, you immediately have to understand what’s taking too much time and not giving the desired results.”

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