Less than 30 more days to go before BizTechDay New York & Seattle!
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.
The Community Leader Opperated Blogging Contest
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!
