We first launched CitySquares back in 2005, for just a few neighborhoods in Somerville and Cambridge. Now, three years later, we’re rolling out the site nationwide. Bob, Justin, Michael, and Clay (our product team) are doing some amazing things, and working very hard to bring CitySquares to every community across the country, and the goal is to have that done by the end of this month!

Our company blog has been running for about a year or so, and it’s served us well as we’ve grown. But now, it’s time to take it to the next level. We believe in an open and candid dialog with our audience, and that’s what modern marketing is, a dialog – a conversation. One-directional marketing is dying, and it’s dying a long and slow death. Conversational marketing is here and here to stay, there’s no doubt about that.

So welcome to the new and improved CitySquares blog! There’s a much improved user interface and experience, but also a host of new features like videos, easy access to our archives, tweetbacks and tweetsuite (for you twitter users), but best of all, coming in the next few days, articles from guest writers!

We have some special guest writers lined up for you too – mostly small business owners who live this life every day, who are in the heat of the fire. They’re perspectives extend far beyond those of us at CitySquares. It’s high time that someone gives them a voice. CitySquares tries to do that through small business profiles, and we succeed in a marketing sense, but now it’s time to let them talk openly about anything and everything else on their minds – through their own eyes, as experts in their particular areas. Expect to see these folks up on CitySquares’ blog within a few short days!

The goal of this blog has always been for CitySquares to communicate with our audience, first and foremost, and that’s easy, we can do that until the cows come home. Our new goal of this blog is to continue to give you access to content that’s more important that what we might have to say. I’m confident that our guest writers, along with you’re participation on this blog (through comments and so forth) can make that happen.

As CitySquares goes national, so does this blog. If you’re interested in becoming a guest writer, please email me! We’re especially interested in hearing from small businesses all across the country, whether they’re in small rural towns or bustling urban districts. Please reach out and let me know if you want to be heard! The only requirement we have is that the topics must be within the broad spectrum of small business matters. That’s a huge range of topics – spanning from hiring practices, to marketing and advertising trends, to finding the right summer student help, to working with your town on zoning, to the green or local movements, to taxes, bookkeeping, inventory management, or anything else! There’s far too many topics for me to think of. That’s where you, the small businesses come in… join us.

Ben Saren is Co-Founder and CEO of CitySquares.com, the premier hyper-local search site for small businesses nationwide. Ben is also a guest writer on Local Search News and a a regular at industry conferences and within the Boston high-tech and entrepreneurial scene. Ben's actively blogs at Your Suspect, where he writes about his experiences and perspectives as an entrepreneur. Email this author | See all posts by Ben Saren

Tags | blog, expansion, expertise, guest writers, small business