MerchantCircle

I'm not sure if everyone is aware, but the MerchantCircle members ROCK!

Seriously. We LOVE our merchants.

And leading the pack of awesome business owners are our fabulous Community Leaders. You may have noticed them around the site- helping merchants in the forums, welcoming people in Talk-To-Me's, answering questions in MerchantCircle Answers... and of course, raving about the goodies from Cookie Central! :)

But they took it one step further...

Michele G is more than just an incredible cookie -maker! She got the ball rolling on a Community Leader led blogging contest. That month's topic was The Small Business Jobs Act. A tough topic for some, but winner and Community Leader Steve P of SEO Web Designs was not shy about sharing his thoughts.

Last month's topic was all about what March meant to your business?

The Staging Fashionista showed off her blogging styles with THIS winning entry:

"We are busy and we are growing thanks to MerchantCircle (MC) and many of the merchants that we have connected with here on MC.  We have gotten several leads, referrals and business partners through MC that have made our business the success it is today and for that we are thankful.  It just takes connecting and actually engaging in a conversation or a chat that can lead to bigger and better things for you and your business.  I'm grateful and look forward to a very prosperous March and the rest of 2011! "
(Read the rest here)

Up next is the April contest: Who is Your Target Audience?

Get in the game! You just might win yourself some MC SWAG!

MerchantCircle is one of the 2010 BizTechDay sponsors... And it's happening soon!

September 18, 2010, in Seattle, WA and September 24, 2010, in New York, NY

Imagine 200 of the most passionate and influential entrepreneurs and business leaders, gathered together in one place, to help YOU strengthen your business and ventures.

BizTechDay, is an intensive one-day experience where you'll get to network, learn and become inspired! Get fired up by stories and strategies from some of the country's most inspiring entrepreneurs. Seattle speakers include: Ben Huh, Founder of Cheezburger Network, Chief People Officer of Zynga, Founder of Biznik, Squidoo, Theo Chocolate, Teachstreet, Wildfire App, Madrona Venture, Fox News and Hotel Max. NYC speakers include Speakers include: Seth Godin, Clay Shirky, Founder of Meetup, Help a Reporter Out, Profounder, Gymboree, Ofoto, Dan Schawbel and Fox News.

Get your tickets for BizTechDay 2010. It is like Woodstock for Entrepreneurs. Use promo code MerchantCircleEarly and save 30% before August 31st! And from September 1st 'til the event, you can use promo code MerhcantCircle to get 20% off!

We're proud to help local business merchants and entrepreneurs by partnering with BizTechDay!

More good news to share! If you're already our fan on Facebook, or if follow us on twitter, you were one of the first to hear it!

Check out the press release for the all-star VeriSign team!

Largest National Community of Local Business Owners Will Offer VeriSign Authentication and Verification Process to Increase Trust Within MerchantCircle Network

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- (Marketwire) -- May 24, 2010 -- VeriSign, Inc. (: ), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure for the networked world, today announced a new alliance with MerchantCircle, the nation's largest social network of local business owners, to provide its 1.3 million members with a service to build increased confidence with consumers by displaying the VeriSign Trusted™ Seal, the most recognized trust mark on the Internet.

When a business in MerchantCircle's network purchases the VeriSign Trust Seal as a part of its membership, VeriSign will independently authenticate the identity of the company in a multi-step verification process. Only those suppliers who pass the VeriSign authentication can display the VeriSign seal on their MerchantCircle profiles.

Local and small businesses need an online presence to succeed; they have established their reputation in their neighborhoods but have yet to create that echelon of trust online. The VeriSign Trust Seal helps bring that same level of trust to these local businesses' online presence. By leveraging the Internet's No. 1 trust mark, businesses can establish consumer confidence and credibility, which can lead to increased sales.

MerchantCircle businesses will be able to provide potential customers with the assurance that comes from displaying the VeriSign Trust Seal in their member profile on the MerchantCircle web site. MerchantCircle small businesses displaying the VeriSign Trust Seal on their web sites will also benefit from the Seal-in-Search™ feature, which allows enabled browsers and VeriSign partnered sites to instantly recognize trusted sites displaying the VeriSign Trust Seal next to search engine results. Seal-in-Search™ ultimately helps businesses stand out from the competition and drive more traffic to their sites.

"VeriSign has been an industry standard of excellence for so many of the Internet's most popular businesses and we're looking forward to offering it to our extensive base of local business owners who are continually looking to differentiate themselves amongst their peers," said Darren Waddell, vice president of marketing at MerchantCircle. "We expect quite a bit of interest from merchants anxious to make their business stand out with a high quality seal of approval."

"As a flagship member of the VeriSign Trust Seal Partner Program, MerchantCircle is helping expand the reach of the new VeriSign Trust Seal to small businesses," said Armando Dacal, vice president of channel marketing and strategy at VeriSign. "MerchantCircle will provide a significant distribution channel for the VeriSign Trust Seal, targeting the small business owners who have previously not been able to leverage the VeriSign seal of approval."

For more on VeriSign check out the complete release.

We just keep growing!
Check out the press release about our latest and greatest find!

We're excited to have Jeremy on the team...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - May 20, 2010) -  MerchantCircle, the largest social network of local business owners, today announced that Jeremy Kreitler has recently joined the company as Vice President of Product Management where he will lead development of new tools to help small merchants grow their online presence to reach local consumers on the web. Kreitler brings more than 15 years of local experience to the company, with a career that began at BellSouth Yellow Pages where he helped implement the company's first online products. Following BellSouth, Kreitler spent time at educational software developer eCollege.com and Mapquest. In 2002, he joined Yahoo where he led the maps division as Director of Product Management&GM; Yahoo Maps.

"MerchantCircle has big goals for providing significant new benefits to merchants and consumers this year," said Ben Smith IV, chairman and co-founder of MerchantCircle. "Delivering products that provide real value to both of our audiences is the key to attracting and retaining those users. Jeremy is a true innovator in the local space. His successful track record of developing successful local web products will benefit MerchantCircle in the short- and long-term. We are thrilled to have him on board."

Kreitler's past teams and products have won awards ranging from CNET's Editor's Choice Award to PC Magazine's top 100 Product Innovations. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and holds patents in Internet mapping and local search.

About MerchantCircle
Founded in 2005, MerchantCircle is the largest social network of local business owners in the nation, combining social networking features with customizable web listings that allow local merchants to attract new customers. More than 20 million MerchantCircle business listings across the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom and Australia are easily accessed on major search engines. Currently, 1.3 million merchants actively use the MerchantCircle network to upload pictures, blog, create coupons and newsletters and connect with other merchants. In addition to free services, MerchantCircle offers a portfolio of premium online advertising solutions including search engine marketing and instant website development.

Recognized by JMP Securities as one of the "100 Best Privately Held Internet Companies," MerchantCircle is based in Mountain View, Calif., and funded by Rustic Canyon Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Steamboat Ventures and IAC. Learn more at www.merchantcircle.com.

Great post from the Mashable team! We wanted to pass it along this excerpt as a reminder that you don't need a huge marketing budget to find success!

Ensure People Can Find You on the Web

This point may seem obvious, but it's a common misstep, especially for new businesses. If and when people hear about your brand, they will go straight to their favorite services — Google, Yelp, and other listing sites — to find out more about you. Take the time to ensure that your entry there is accurate, and that there are direct links to your website and phone number.

But there's more you can do to get your brand out there for free.

"Look beyond Yelp for free business listings," said Black. "MerchantCircle, Google Local Business Center, Angie's List, Yahoo! Local, YellowPages.com, SearchLocal, and SuperPages are some of the online directory services that allow businesses to create a free listing. Make sure that you're on these sites, and if the site already lists your business, you should ‘claim' it by adding more details to the listing, such as your company website URL, a map, phone numbers, or business hours."

Black also noted that many of the directory sites allow customers to leave feedback and reviews. "Encourage your customers to post reviews of your products or services, or provide incentives for them to do this. For example, one merchant applies an additional 10% discount to their coupons on MerchantCircle if the consumer leaves a review on the site. This encourages repeat business as well as reviews."

For the complete article check out
http://mashable.com/2010/05/19/market-business-no-budget/

For many years we've been asked the question of just when we would see MerchantCircle's platform expand beyond the borders of the United States? We're pleased to finally be able to answer that with a resounding TODAY!  Well, in reality it was late last week, but today we are happy to formally announce our new beta versions of the site that are operating in Canada, the UK and Australia.  We are very excited for the opportunity that is present in each of these countries and are currently in talks with potential partners in each region to help maximize the exposure for the platform.

Consider the following statistics about the prevalence of small business in our new locations:

- According to the UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 99.3 percent of the nearly 5 million registered businesses are small (0 to 49 employees).
- In Australia, 96 percent of the 2 million businesses in the country have less that 20 people, as reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
- In Canada, 57 percent of businesses have only 1 to 4 employees based on reports from the Business Register of Statistics Canada.

We already have some early adopters that are pretty excited about us being in their country.  Lindy Asimus, owner of Design Business Engineering in Newcastle, NSW, Australia told us "Fantastic! MerchantCircle Australia! This is the very best news for small business owners in Australia. The tools that MerchantCircle provides are like nothing else available in this country for small business. Now there is absolutely no excuse for businesses not to be online."

You can read our full announcement here. And this is just the beginning. Don't be surprised to see MerchantCircle sites for other major countries later in 2010.

MerchantCircle UK - http://uk.merchantcircle.com/
MerchantCircle Australia - http://www.merchantcircle.com.au/
MerchantCircle Canada - http://www.merchantcircle.ca/

If you are like me, you've seen quite a few of those posters that talk about corporate principles...lofty ideals printed across a background of blue skies....clouds...birds... you get the idea..

For most of us these things really make us cynical about the 'touchy feely' side of things... especially when in most cases they are the farthest thing from what is really going on in a business... people don't really work that way, right?...Right.

So I joined this company a few months ago and spent the first several weeks trying to figure out what did matter to the people who worked there. I asked them to tell me what was important to them and I observed what they did (which we all know is much more telling about the character of a business and its employees). Finally I got what it mean to be a part of MerchantCircle!

They begged me not to try to put this on a poster...and I promised I wouldn't do that....so I decided to talk about it in a series of blogs instead--- so here goes...

MerchantCircle is about a 24/7 Sense of Urgency...best explained in the words of one of our employees as he describes a colleague.

"From her first day at MerchantCircle, she hit the ground running. G immediately dove into three main issues and took action creating new product flows, testing them and pushing marketing initiatives to support the existing products. With limited resources and time, she seamlessly worked with the team to execute and implement these strategies. She pressed the team with a sense of urgency and commitment, backed up with hard analysis and because of her efforts, we were able to meet an important revenue milestone."

Small business merchants understand what "sense of urgency' means. It's not a poster or a slogan. They live it every day. They know that without it, small businesses do not thrive and grow. And because it's part of MerchantCircle's DNA, we are the perfect partner for the small business merchants we serve.

President Obama has recently been pushing for banks to lend more to small businesses - especially the banks that were bailed out by taxpayer dollars.


While President Obama has been publicly pushing the banks to lend more, there has been no word on whether the banks have acknowledged his statements or will do anything about them.

So far, $5 billion in tax breaks has been made available to small businesses from this year's $787 billion economic stimulus package. Congress has also been pushing for immediate relief. Senator Mark Warner has made a proposal:


You can read the entire article here. You can also find out more about programs available to you at www.sba.gov or get answers from other business owners here.

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

Labels: Congress, Merchant Circle, MerchantCircle, MerchantCircle.com, President Obama, sba, Senator Mark Warner, USA Today

Janet Rothstein, owner of Rothstein Jewelers in Beverly Hills and recently appointed MerchantCircle moderator, was featured in the Los Angeles Times this week! As part of becoming a moderator, in return, we give our moderators any press interviews and opportunities that may arise - meaning free exposure for your business and ours.

Janet was quoted as saying:


Great job, Janet! We are still looking to increase the number of moderators in our forums - so please, first become a Top Merchant (click here for requirements), and then start actively contributing in the Forums.

Here are some of the news articles that feature some of our members - also, don't forget to check out our corporate press page.

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

Labels: Janet Rothstein, LA Times, Los Angeles Times, Merchant Circle, MerchantCircle, MerchantCircle Moderator, MerchantCircle.com, Rothstein Jewelers Beverly Hills CA, Top Merchant

The amount of deals and coupons that MerchantCircle members create every single day far exceeds any other network, with more than 930,000 members dispersed in every state and almost every county in the U.S., consumers stand to benefit the most. Currently, more than 20 million consumers a month visit MerchantCircle listings. Those that create Neighbors Profiles get the benefit of following their favorite merchants and seeing all the latest LOCAL deals in real time, you'll also see any good LOCAL deals you've missed in a weekly newsletter!

Below is a sample of what you'd get in your inbox.




For merchants, this is added incentive to keep your deals fresh by creating new coupons and/or sales and promotions each week. You can create coupons here or start a sale here or create a promotion here. Consumers will also get the latest business reviews and uploaded pictures - so, don't forget to keep your listing up-to-date!

As a consumer, be sure to join the neighborhood and create a Neighbors profile today here!

Sincerely,
Kevin
Community Relations

Labels: consumers, coupons, deals, Merchant Circle, MerchantCircle, MerchantCircle.com, Neighbors, promotions