This monthly contest is sponsored by Supplier-Connection, an initiative where 15 Fortune 500 companies have committed to increasing their spend with US-based SBEs. On March 22, the Small Business Administration emailed 50,000+ small businesses suggesting they join, already resulting in +1,000 new users. Over 50 newspapers, business news sites and blogs covered the story providing significant exposure.
And if that wasn’t enough, we have an upgrade to the portal rolling out this Friday offering greater visibility to the contest winner. Beginning Monday, April 2nd, everyone who logs in to the site will see the winner on their login page. That’s BIG news.
Increased traffic. Increased awareness. Increase exposure. Increased value. Don’t miss your opportunity, submit an entry in April’s contest.
After last month’s “social media” breakthrough where we had a 500% increase in site views and votes, this month’s contest winner is a simple study in follow-through. After I posted all entries they asked a simple question: “How can we promote the contest?” They contacted customers. They posted it on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Talked it up in many conversations. And the votes kept coming in.
Congratulations to 1st-time entrant Diana Matthews (321-757-8343) of Executive Career Connections for a decisive win! And they hold another distinction as the first company to have a QR Code link submitted as a part of their entry:
One element about the contest I find interesting is even though we had over 1,600 pages views, we only received 136 total votes! And the percentage of Votes to Page Views is lopsided every month… (Not Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot interesting, but interesting just the same.)
In exchange for their efforts, Executive Career Connections has earned the following opportunity to promote their company on Supplier-Connection for the month of April:
• Company logo displayed under The Supplier Spotlight banner on the Login page and on the Get Connected page
• A 200 word description of their business posted beneath their logo
• The option to write an article on their idea, explaining the value it brought to their company
• A link to their website, Facebook page, Twitter account, company blog(s), etc.
• A link to an online sales presentation with audio
• Link(s) to product videos, commercials, and/or their YouTube channel
• Posted links to white papers they might have written • A link for interested Member Partners or SBE Suppliers to schedule an online sales meeting
• A promotional email gets sent to all registered buyers from the 15-Member Companies
And finally…
• If Executive Career Connections can attribute any new customer order to this promotion I’ll follow up by interviewing Diana Matthews and business partner Cathy Whitley, and post the interview on The SBE Lifer blog.
Dan Gallo Social Media Director & Small Business Advocate, Supplier-Connection
Managing Director, The Allasso Group, LLC
Let’s Connect!
CLICK HERE to FOLLOW for my SmallBiz focused Twitter feed – @dnagallo
CLICK HERE to JOIN The Supplier-Connection Discussion Group on LinkedIn
CLICK HERE to READ my latest post on The SBE Lifer blog: “How To Ramp-Up to Serve a Fortune 1000 Company”
CLICK HERE to CONNECT with the Supplier-Connection community on Facebook – All “Likes” are appreciated!
To submit an entry in The Supplier Spotlight contest you need to be a registered member of the Supplier-Connection initiative with a completed registration. Registration is FREE. For more information you can watch this 1.5 minute video or read a lot more on the Supplier-Connection portal.
