American Express OPEN Forum: Powering Small Business Success

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Four Ways OPEN Forum Can Help Your Business

Mary Ann Reilly Sr. VP, Customer Marketing & Experience, American Express OPEN Recent Posts

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July 2, 2010

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Affordably Build Your Brand

FedEx Global Brand Management Director Monica Skipper shares a cost-effective way to build a bigger brand for your small business.

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It’s been nearly a year since we took the previous content-rich OPEN Forum and integrated the networking capabilities of the Connectodex. This virtual rolodex was created to give like-minded business owners the opportunity to connect with each other and share ideas. For more information on what the Connectodex is or how to use it, John Jantsch wrote a great article on "Five Tips for Getting More from OPEN Forum and the Connectodex”.

As we’ve continually looked to the feedback we’ve heard from members to identify enhancements to the site, we’ve also heard some great stories from members who’ve used the Connectodex to benefit their businesses in a variety of ways, including:

Identifying Vendors: Jon Paley, founder of The Vault, a creative agency in New York City, recently used the Connectodex to find an interior designer for his office. “I’m a small business and want to be careful with whom I hire. To me, these businesses seem more credible.”
Being Found by Clients: Adele Lemlek is Director of Marketing for a professional organization that’s not on OPEN Forum. But when she needed an agency to help with search engine optimization, she looked to OPEN Forum. “We’re in the review process now, but thus far have been very impressed with the agencies we’ve interviewed. I expected that with these small businesses, the fees might be lower. Plus, I was able to find agencies outside of my geographical area. Being that I’m in New York, agencies here tend to be more expensive.”
Creating Opportunities: Dan Marino, owner of The Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Company, based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, “I use OPEN Forum for networking; I’m either offering to help someone with their business or looking to grow my own. Through OPEN Forum, I have been speaking with a marketing company in Las Vegas about a marketing idea that can benefit both of our businesses.”
Finding Partners: Paul Rosenfeld, CEO of Fanminder, has been very active in using OPEN Forum to help grow his business. “I found our first reseller through OPEN Forum when one of the members saw my comments on the site and decided to follow me. Eventually, we spoke, and he proposed becoming a reseller, which we weren’t pursuing at the time. But now we have 20 resellers who contribute about the half of our sales.”

If you have a story about using the Connectodex that you’d like to share, please e-mail me at maryann@openforum.com. I also invite you to share any comments or suggestions for what you think we could do to make the Connectodex better and easier to use.