December 27, 2011
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Susannah Bacon
Business owners can find their brethren through word-of-mouth and professional associations, but where can they gather in the virtual world? Now there’s a Facebook-like community for small businesses growing not in California, but in a Rust Belt office park.
Manta Media calls itself the world’s largest online community for promoting and connecting small businesses. Started in 2005, the website lists information on 89 million U.S. and international companies and counting—data that includes who’s in leadership, market research, business news—while offering tips on growing a business. The last is important, because Manta is more than a Yellow Pages: It’s a social network for business owners who want to meet, chat and learn. And earn. “It’s a unique way that a small business owner can promote himself online for free,’’ says Pam Springer, president and CEO of the privately-held firm in Columbus, Ohio.
The company, which originally provided data to business publishers, initially went live listing information about millions of businesses culled from company credit reports.
"As soon as we did it, all these small business owners found their profile on Manta, and said, 'It’s really cool and I’m getting promotion, but some of the data is wrong. Will you change it?'" Springer says. "That’s where the 'Aha!' moment came. We realized we could have the best data in the world, and have a relation with them [business owners] for virtually zero costs."
Manta encouraged business owners to provide their logos, association memberships, store dimensions and revenue numbers, even coupon information. The company inserted links, allowing businesses to post that information to Facebook and Twitter. Springer says that about 2,000 business owners a day join, up from 900 daily at the start of 2011.
Eighty percent of Manta’s business members do not have LinkedIn profiles, Springer says. “They see it as a white-collar network. They’re not looking for a career,’’ she says.
Manta drew 36 million visitors this month. The core audience is made up of business executives looking to outsource work or prospecting for talent, small business owners and consumers.
But the Yellow Pages this is not, Springer says. "What we’re offering businesses is a way to promote their business for free," she says.
Manta keeps businesses coming back by providing tips and forums. Some recent examples: good ways to use Groupon, does having a logo matter and whether or not a company should outsource its public relations. “We put a survey out there, and we get 3,000 responses in a week,’’ Springer says. Recent topics included President Obama’s job creation program. Manta also set up a "tweet chat," which drew 400 business owners in an hour.
Revenue to Manta comes from ads, but increasingly, from subscriptions. It costs nothing to join, but premium packages run up to $49. The fee lets a business rise to the top of a page and list under more than one industry, such as a tax accountant who is also a lawyer. This month, Manta invited business owners to showcase their products.
Karen Eckstrom, owner and clinical director of Edina Comfort Care, a for-profit life coaching and counseling service in Edina, Minn., says a year ago they were seeing perhaps 20 clients weekly. After the Manta listing, the service drew up to 200 clients weekly, many who have been attracted to the discounted rates.
While Springer wouldn’t discuss revenue figures, she says the business is “extremely profitable.’’ It’s done well enough to grow from 50 employees a year ago to 90 in December. And they’re hiring—developers, product marketers, project managers, marketers and those for HR and Web analytics. Springer says she expects to have 150 employees in 2012.
Why start an e-commerce company in Columbus? Springer laughs. “Why not?” She’s a Midwesterner, raised and educated in Michigan, and says Columbus has been able to attract a lot of talent because of the work at Ohio State University and other organizations.
She’s especially proud that in September, Manta was listed as the fourth largest business and finance web site based on monthly unique visits, following Yahoo Finance, Dow Jones & Co. and AOL Money & Finance, according to comScore. Manta drew more than Bloomberg, MSN Money and CNN Money.
"We’re right up there against the big dogs," Springer says. "And we belong there."
And, she adds, "We’re in Columbus-frickin’ Ohio."
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Susannah Bacon 4 months ago
I think this is very interesting and I would like to know more - but you have not once in the whole article put in a link to Mantra Media or mentioned their URL - so how am I to find out more? Google is no help.