BETA Launch of MerchantCircle 'Neighbors'

Greg Sterling, of Sterling Market Intelligence, recently profiled on his blog, Screenwerk, our "quiet" launch of MerchantCircle 'Neighbors' - which will allow consumers to create consumer profiles and 'follow' their favorite local merchants. This launch, which is still in BETA, gives our merchant base a stronger connection to offer deals directly to their customers.

Sterling writes:

In much the same way that MerchantCircle has sought to create a social network of merchants, it has now begun that same work on the consumer side. But the object here is not so much to link consumers to one another as generate more interaction between consumers and merchants and stimulate demand, further activity and content creation. .....

If MerchantCircle is successful in getting consumers to join, create reviews, clip coupons and follow businesses, it will build considerable additional value for its merchants at no cost to itself.

Read the rest of Sterling's post here or create your Consumer Profile now! Click here to get started.

Consumer profile features:

My Coupon Book: Consumers can clip deals and coupons created by you!
My Reviews: Consumers share their thoughts about the best businesses in town.
My Merchants: Consumers can “follow” local businesses to get updated news and events.



Tell us what you'd like to see or improve in our 'Neighbors' program, here, in our forums.

Sincerely,
Community Relations

Building a better MerchantCircle

It's been great to see all of Kevin's posts over the last few months on MerchantCircle's blog. Whether it's him talking about what's going well or what sucks, he is always funny. But, I suppose not everyone thinks so, here is a post mentioned that says maybe we are not humble enough. I think honestly some people are taking Kevin's tongue in cheek style a bit too seriously. Now, I love Sack's blog, I also love the blogs of a lot of other people who share their company story (Check out skrenta.com, rp0229.com, and munjal.typepad.com).


We are very proud of what we do, we have grown by 1000 merchants (A couple of our latest - P2000 Insulation, LMS Video Surveillance Systems, and Happy Tails Pet Care Services) in the last couple of days and that is not even close to being a great period for us. We like the growth but we are driving to get more merchants to use more of what we have already built for them. We just did a big customer survey and found that 40% of our users did not know of some of our features.

We definitely have work left to do.

For example, you can

* Publish your company blog
* Create coupons and have them distributed around the web
* Upload pictures and videos
* Send out a weekly, biweekly, or monthly newsletter

We're constantly striving to improve and will keep asking for your input as to make MerchantCircle the best it can be.


Best,
Ben Smith
Chairman, MerchantCircle

The Death of a Tie

I have a pretty nice collection of ties leftover from my days as a news reporter and I'm sad I haven't worn a tie in almost a year. Those darn things cost a bundle and now, thanks to those darn techies and their tattered jeans and hoodies, I have to dress like a pauper! Gone are the days when I could hide my battered ego and self-esteem behind a well placed tie-shirt-suit combination. Gone are the days when I'd lie in bed giddy about the possible combinations and permutations. Gone are the days when I felt better than everyone else.

Oh, so sad. Now I get the feeling that my mom thinks I don't have a job because of what I wear to work. (A lot of people still live with their moms - of course most of them are under 18....)


Although I've lost my ties, and my self-aggrandizing ways, I've gained much more in terms of story quality. I use to chase the stories everyday, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Now I know I've got a great story to tell everyday.

It's nice to tell people I work for a company that provides a web presence free of charge to any business owner that needs one. It's nice to be able to tell people that search-engine-optimization isn't only for the Big Box retailers and the rich. It's nice to be able to say that the local web space is full of consumer reviews and we make sure business owners have a chance - MerchantCircle.

Now if only I could bring back the tie......


Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

P.S. Check out this tie-less guy. At least he doesn't have a pocket protector.

MySpace Stalking, Bondage and My 5th Grade English Teacher

When I first joined MySpace it was the result of an overzealous friend who insisted that she would create the account for me. As I continued to refuse, she proceeded to add all of our mutual friends as ‘friends’ on my new MySpace account. In a few short months, I went from standoffish to MySpace stalker.

Growing a community on the web these days is full of MySpace knock-offs; ‘It’s MySpace for college students,’ or ‘it’s MySpace for xenophobic anemic Republican doglovers’. A lot of the experts said, successful online communities are driven by the young. When we first started MerchantCircle, a lot of the critics said we were dealing with an older generation, that we couldn’t sign up merchants without an off-line sales force, and that we couldn’t do it without spending a lot of money. Well, guess what?

They were wrong.

Since we launched in June, more than 85,000 business owners have signed on – making us the FASTEST growing company in the ‘local’ online space. We’ve gone from making fun of the Yellow Pages for being outdated (see the bondage pic) to getting straight to the point.



One day, Yellow Pages will not exist. Customers will have instant access to the internet where they will search for the services and products they’ll buy before leaving the house. We’re the only site that’s already built your business listing and allows you to upload pictures, blog, build coupons and see all the reviews written about your business on the web – free of charge.

We continue to add more awesome, easy-to-use services that’s sure to make my 5th grade English teacher mad. My sentences about everything we do is becoming dangerously close to being a run-on. Oh well, rules are made to be broken and we’ve been proving the experts wrong for some time!

Sincerely,

Kevin
MerchantCircle Stalker