One of my very good friends, Kevin, as well as my old CEO back from my Spoke days, work at a company called MerchantCircle. Kevin recently opined about how the focus of MerchantCircle relates to the upcoming presidential election.
First, a quick note about what MerchantCircle does: think “social networks for businesses” and you kind of have the idea. Instead of focussing on the consumer, like review sites like Yelp and CitySearch do, they focus on the business. Businesses can “partner” with other businesses for coupon deals (think “friends”), create their own home page, (think “profile page”), and provide an official response for praise or criticism of their business.
I find his points interesting specifically because of the waves Fred Thompson is now making as he begins his candidacy. Fred Thompson is claiming that he, like Howard Dean, will use the power of the internet and social networks, to run a more effective campaign for less.
So far we’ve heard about Barrack’s MySpace page, but I don’t really think things like that are a good demonstration of how Web 2.0 can be utilized to improve our democracy. MySpace is, afterall, mostly about kids who can’t even vote, or stoners who likely won’t.
However, more focussed communities like MerchantCirlce (small businesses), Digg (high tech workers, perhaps?), or online schools (ie: University of Phoenix, etc) might provide an excellent conduit for engaging in deep, thought-provoking exchanges about specific issues.
Forget town halls, virtual town halls, or even debates - they are too general and end up suffering from the “law of diminishing returns” because their audiences cover such a broad base. I think engaging with a specific community about needs specific to them, on a mass scale, would really open our eyes up about the candidates. I would love to see an online chat with Digg users, or a forum for MerchantCircle users to ask tough questions.
Update: MerchantCircle just recently celebrated it’s one-year birthday. Congrats to them. I love the idea of bridging local small businesses and the vastness of the internet.
My only complaint would be that they focus on the business owner and not the consumer, but that’s not really a valid complaint because they readily point out to and integrate consumer-focussing sites, ending up being a companion to them more than a competitor.
on Jun 4th, 2007 at 11:01 am
A fair assessment, but it’s not that we don’t focus on the consumer - we have an ‘emphasis’ on business owners. I especially take note that
we’re just a social network for business owners. Most of our business owners would not sign up if they weren’t being found by consumers.
That’s the whole motive to begin with. We show up high in search engines just like Yelp and CitySearch, BUT we allow the business owners to customize their page and communicate with the customer after being found online.
Kevin
P.S. You had me at ‘very good friend of mine.’ Does this mean I have to be nice to you now?