Everyday, the CitySquares team recognizes each local business’ and website user’s contribution to the overall CitySquares community.

We are working to create an online CitySquares Community Scrapbook where we will highlight one local business per week on our Facebook Fan Page. These are businesses that people have recently shown interest in and wrote positive reviews on the specific company’s profile.

We want to help spread the word about local businesses that are helping their neighborhoods by providing the services and products they do and creating an enjoyable experience for their customers and the people in their communities.

Included in the scrapbook is a link to the company’s profile, how the company views their impact on their community and a picture showing the products and services the business offers their neighborhood.

A big part of this scrapbook process will be fans tagging themselves in the photo your business provides to show they have visited your business before. We will also ask them to write a comment if your business’ products or services had a big impact on them or their local community.

We would love your input about this idea and suggestions of local CitySquares’ businesses that should be highlighted. If you are a local business and have a CitySquares’ profile that you would like to be featured, you should contact Marissa to receive further details.

The CitySquares’ Team is excited to see the Scrapbook grow each week and continue to show how much local businesses have become essential parts of communities across the nation.

Become a part of the CitySquares family and sign-up today!

1) the small businesses along the streets, with their storefronts, their goods and services, their owners who employ the locals and teenagers during the summer, who take good care of their customers, the local residents. Who know the children, the selectman, and who keep their sidewalks clean.

2) the artists of the community who hold high aesthetic standards, who remind us of the beauty in our world, and even the darkness. The artists who have passions for certain causes, who stick together and surprise us, who open our eyes. The musicians who sit on the park bench strumming a guitar, or the painter who stands on the shoreline painting a landscape, and who all hang out at the local coffee shop talking about politics or collaborate on some new media projects.

3) the local non-profits and pioneers whose only mission is to give something back to the community, the country, the planet, and do good things, who work tirelessly and usually for barely a livable wage to ensure everyone has access to affordable housing, to health care, or who work improve the local economy, or help clean our planet for the next generations.

These three constituents in our society are the very core of our communities. They attract a certain population, they affect the local culture, they define the community. They attract people of all walks of life, of all races, of all belief systems and politics. They are the heartbeat of our communities. Without them, our communities have no identity or character.

For the last three years CitySquares has offered non-profits and local artists free profiles on CitySquares.com. Unfortunately we’ve never really publicized this, never really marketed it. That’s always been a bit of a thorn in our side too, something we’ve always intended to do but keep getting distracted from. So I’m hoping that this blog entry can serve as our first real foray into marketing this better. Let it be known now:

CitySquares provides all non-profit organizations, and all local artists with free Deluxe Profiles on CitySquares.com. There is no catch, there is no cost, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.

If you are a non-profit or a local artist, then you are welcome to sign up for a Free Deluxe Profile! Here’s just a basic example. How the profile looks and functions largely depends the content you make available on it. You can get very creative with these profiles!

What are the benefits of having a Deluxe Profile on CitySquares.com?
Like all of our profiles, they’re extremely Search Engine Optimized. So when people use the search engines to find you they’re very likely to discover your profile on CitySquares.com. Also, we have over one million people each month using CitySquares.com, and that number is growing especially as we continue to roll-out the site nationally. If you have a website, use your CitySquares profile to link to it and improve your search engine rankings. Take advantage of some of the bells and whistles on these profiles like reviews, and ratings. Embed a YouTube video if you have one, or add some images showing your art work or photography. There’s much more.

How do you get started?
Add your non-profit or your Artist profile to CitySquares.com by clicking here. Then standby for a phone call or email from us and we’ll take care of the rest. It’s pretty easy. And don’t worry about the lingo on the page, or about pricing.  Just proceed with the free options and we’ll take care of the rest.

We hope you’ll take full advantage of this opportunity which has no expiration date. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or need a hand.

Happy Holidays,

– Ben Saren

Working on this project, I started to draw a few conclusions. It is not that consumers have no interest in local business, it is that they don’t know where to find you, and they forget. It used to be that customer loyalty was gained simply by being an active member of your community in a physical sense. It is obvious that the definition of a community is rapidly changing. Whether it is MySpace or Facebook or any other site, people are congregating in these online communities where they feel some sort of connection or draw. CitySquares is quite literally an online playground for local business owners and consumers looking for them. The kid who used to play jacks outside your storefront is still out there, he just happens to be sitting on his Mac for a few hours while he plans out his day. The point is that CitySquares gives you a chance to be found by people who want to find you.

The flash demo storyboard came together nicely. It really will offer a new outlook on the benefits of becoming part of our community! I am excited to see what it looks like when it is finished. Keep an eye out for it!

– Jason