May 18, 2011

When first launched back in 2007, OPEN Forum was created with a single goal in mind – to help small business owners.  Initially, it was designed to offer an online networking opportunity similar to those we had seen at so many in-person events and trade shows.  We knew from our customers that networking helped them get answers, develop partnerships, and find customers.  So we wanted to build more of those opportunities for them in a digital setting. 

Since then, we’ve continued to evolve OPEN Forum, looking to your ideas, needs, and feedback for inspiration.  And this recent re-launch is no exception.   I’m sure you’ll notice a number of changes, a few of which I’ll highlight here, each of which is the product of suggestions and careful consideration:

• The new home page, article, and video page designs. These changes provide more visibility into the breadth of information and resources available on OPEN Forum, as well as an easy means for quickly seeing what’s new and most popular on the site.  This should help make OPENForum.com a resource you can go to daily for new tips and insights from experts and other business owners.

• Content recommendations have been added throughout the site.  Whether you are on an article page or watching a video you can easily find related links, what is most popular, and featured information on OPEN Forum.   

• Facebook & Twitter commenting.  You can still add comments using your OPEN Forum or LinkedIn profiles, but you can now also use your Twitter and/or Facebook credentials.  We’ve streamlined commenting, making it easier to participate in the community.

These are just some of the changes, and there are more to come – which is where we’d like your help.  We want to hear what you think of these recent changes, but also about what more we can do to make OPEN Forum even better and easier to use.  You can add your comments below or e-mail me at scott@openforum.com.

We’ve always considered OPEN Forum to be a platform to help business owners build connections and do more business, so your suggestions are essential to how we continue to evolve and enhance the site.  

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Join the conversation ( 17 )

• ALEXANDER KALENDARIOV 10 months ago

  

  This forum is a very big help for business owners like me. I have very limited time to spend online and almost everything I can find in open forum. Thanks a lot, especially now when is business is not booming people short on money and trying to cut on almost all expenses.

• Drewry News Network 11 months ago

  

  American Express OPEN Forum is a wonderful place for business-minded individuals to share creative thoughts, collaborate, and be innovative!http://www.DrewryMedia.comhttp://www.DrewryNewsNetwork.com

• Scott Roen 1 year 0 months and 4 days ago

  

  Suzanne, Joel, TJ thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it. To answer Joel's question, the counts are the numbers that show above the share buttons at the top of the article. For example, there is a three above the tweet button at the top of this article because three people have tweeted it. Unfortunately, we found a bug that resulted in all share counts that occurred prior to the relaunch of the site to be lost. TJ is an author on the site and not being able to see how many times his articles were shared makes it difficult to know how he is resonating with all of you. I love seeing the counts, too. It is probably the biggest bug that we have and one we are still working hard to fix. Hope that answers your question. Please keep the feedback and questions coming!

• SUZANNE MUUSERS 1 year 0 months and 4 days ago

  

  Scott, love the changes. Especially the ease of navigation and increased responsiveness!

• SUZANNE MUUSERS 1 year 0 months and 4 days ago

  

  Scott, all the changes are for the best. The site also seems easier to get around and more responsive!! Thanks, Suzanne

• Joel Libava 1 year 0 months and 4 days ago

  

  I'm starting to get used to the look. At first, I thought that the light blue color didn't do a strong site like this justice.I'd actually like to see a darker, more powerful blue theme, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it, if it doesn't happen.What is TJ referring to?The Franchise King®

• TJ McCue 1 year 0 months and 5 days ago

  

  I was sad to see that we lost all of our twitter and facebook counts.

• Esteban Contreras 1 year 0 months and 9 days ago

  

  Thanks for the response Scott. You're doing great here and on Facebook. Simple tabs are definitely the way to go, but it would be interesting to add all content so your 200K+ fans can enjoy the full OPEN Forum experience while on Facebook. Since tabs are now iFrames, you could measure all that engagement and hit your KPIs.

• Scott Roen 1 year 0 months and 10 days ago

  

  Thanks Esteban, great feedback! Stay tuned, this release is just the start, I hope to get some of your suggestions live soon. Our OPEN fb page has a tab dedicated to Forum, but we can do more.

• Esteban Contreras 1 year 0 months and 11 days ago

  

  Great job Scott. Some ideas: Consider game mechanics, enhanced commenting functionality (ie. threads, link to users' accounts/profiles, content sharing), ability to connect/follow other users, and basic personalization using Facebook's social graph. You could also consider adding all of this content on Facebook using an iframe tab (similar to the mobile version of openforum.com).

• Scott Roen 1 year 0 months and 11 days ago

  

  Thanks Matt and keep up the great work at SmartBrief. Glad we've been able to work with your team to help get some great information out to business owners.

• Matt Kavney 1 year 0 months and 11 days ago

  

  Scott & Team,Great job with the redesign! The key difference for me is that users can now see the most recent articles on the home page without having to dig into each channel. Also like how the look/feel aligns with the rest of the AMEX properties. Good Work!Matt Kavney - SmartBrief, Inc.

• Scott Trahan 1 year 0 months and 12 days ago

  

  Great resource. Very useful information.

• Scott Roen 1 year 0 months and 12 days ago

  

  Thanks for the feedback, great to hear! I love to see the three comments were posted thru 3 different log ins (linkedin, Amex, and twitter). I'll add a fourth!

• Mike Brice 1 year 0 months and 12 days ago

  

  Great new look.

• PRESTON SMITH 1 year 0 months and 12 days ago

  

  I have enjoyed the OPEN forum for the last three years, making it a part of my regular morning routine. Thank you, Amex, for hosting this. My loyalty for your card services has grown proportionately with this web site, and you have firmly established yourself as my small business's best friend.

• Craig Kelley 1 year 0 months and 12 days ago

  

  Excellent design! I'm very impressed with how Amex has taken on the web world and just dominated. Great job!