(editor’s note: Partner Conference New Orleans recap post coming soon. In the meantime…)
Open Forum- What is it? Are you on it? Why? Why not?
“OPEN Forum, is an online resource and networking site for small business owners. The site is designed to forge meaningful business connections and provide practical, actionable information and insights from influential bloggers, industry leaders, and savvy entrepreneurs. In addition, the site will aggregate relevant online small business conversations from Twitter.”
-American Express Press Release 2009
When I was introduced to the Open Forum I immediately questioned whether or not it had the potential to be a resource for Pictage users as small business owners. The Open Forum is much like the Pictage forums in that it is a community of small business owners just like yourself, learning from each other. It hopes to give small business owners the tools to connect and collaborate and grow. But here’s the catch, you have to be an American Express card holder to receive “all” the perks…
But what is it exactly? It’s a collection of resources for small businesses, in the form of blogs and other articles from experts such as Alltop’s Guy Kawasaki and Mashable’s Pete Cashmore in addition to conversations in the actual forum. Major topics in the idea hub are managing, marketing, and innovation. Open Forum is a new way to look at business, an attitude of sharing with your business community rather than keeping strategic secrets. It might serve as an opportunity for you as photographers and small business owners to get a different perspective by joining a community of other small business owners that are in different industries. But as I mentioned before, if you are not an American Express card holder you can only use Open Forum as a resource for advice through blogs and other articles. Is that alone worth checking it out?
So, I’m curious. If you have American Express, are you interested in joining the Open Forum? If you do not, do the blogs and articles and expert advise benefit you enough to visit? If you haven’t heard of it, take a second to get familiar with it. The following is a video I found introducing Open Forum and explaining all of it’s features, most specifically as it benefits American Express card holders. Below is an article posted on Open Forum earlier this year, and can serve as an indication of what is available for non card holders.
This article was written by one of my favorite bloggers, marketing guru and successful entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki. He frequently posts his articles on the Open Forum relating to small businesses, marketing, and more specifically social media.
For the complete article visit Open Forum here.
Written by: Elizabeth Villa (Pictage Blog Team)