How You Can Benefit Using Hive411

Although "how" is still a mystery, individual honeybees are able to respond to the needs of their colony and perform the tasks that are necessary to help the colony solve its problems, achieve its goals and ultimately: prosper. It is believed that bees secrete hormones when certain needs are sensed and these hormones trigger other bees to react by performing certain tasks. Wouldn't it be amazing if humans were able to do the same thing? Now we can.

At Hive411, individuals share what they need and the community responds. The community responds by nominating the best businesses, people, places or things that address those needs or wants.

As a Buyer...

Are you looking for the BEST plumber (http://www.hive411.com/Category/plumber), chinese food restaurant (http://www.hive411.com/Category/chinese_food_restaurant), mortgage broker (http://www.hive411.com/Category/mortgage_broker), investment advisor (http://www.hive411.com/Category/investment_advisor) who serves your area? Start by doing a search on HIVE411. Chances are that businesses have been nominated and members of the hive have voted, revealing the businesses in your community that your community thinks are the best. You can visit the nominees' websites, call them or just browse the list of people who have voted for them.

Ask the Community... If other members haven't yet voted for businesses that match your search, the local hive community will be notified that someone is looking. Hive members will then nominate the businesses that they think are the best for your needs. You can sign up for notifications or repeat your search later. Sometimes, the Hive responds to your search within several minutes.

Reward Businesses Who've Helped You...The old adage is that the best compliment you can give a business person is a referral. Not any more. Now, the best compliment you can give a business person is a vote on Hive411... and then tell your friends about it. Hundreds of people will see your vote, which could turn into many more customers for the businesses that are the best. If you've had great service, found the best products or experienced the best of whatever, consider nominating them on Hive411.

As a Seller...

Unlike other business listing websites, the community ranks search results. Other business listing websites, yellow page websites and local search engines disguise how they rank businesses. Most local search engines use a secret algorithm to rank websites OR they charge companies for top placement. With Hive411, the best - as determined by individual voters in local communities - determines which businesses rank higher.

It's kind of how the real world works now. When you need something, you ask the people you trust for suggestions. Hive411 brings that online so that everyone can benefit from everyone's suggestions.

Control Your Own Ranking. All you have to do is enter your business' information. Start by doing a search for your 'business type' and then nominate your business by entering your address and contact information. Then, ask others to vote for you. The more votes you get, the higher your ranking will be and the more people will see your business when browsing or searching.

Multiple Categories. In the Yellow Pages, you have to choose ONE category to file your business under. That doesn't make you very findable on the internet. Searchers might enter any one of 100s of variations of keywords in order to find your business. With Hive411, you can categorize your business under as many categories as you want. If you're a residential general contractor, for example, you might nominate your business as the best painter (http://www.hive411.com/Category/painter ), painting contractor (http://www.hive411.com/Category/painting_contractor), roofer (http://www.hive411.com/Category/roofer), deck builder (http://www.hive411.com/Category/deck_builder) or whatever other categories are a fit for your expertise.

Multiple Locations. Even more, with Hive411, you aren't constrained to being listed only where your office is located. Your office might be located in Boston, MA, but you also might be the leading pest exterminator in Cape Cod, MA (http://www.hive411.com/Poll/pest_exterminator/Cape_Code_MA). If that's the case, your business can be nominated in as many locations as you want, even if you don't have an office in any of them.

Nominate Your Sales People. You have local salespeople for a reason. The internet doesn't change that. If your sales person sells payroll solutions in Albuquerque, NM, consider nominating them as best Payroll Tax Advisor in Albuquerque, NM (http://www.hive411.com/Poll/Payroll_Tax_Advisor/Albuquerque_NM). Nominate all of your sales people or encourage them to nominate themselves and to ask their clients to vote for them. You don't have to be a business to be the best. Your people are your best resource. Help others recognize that too.

Build a List of Prospects and Find Out Who Knows Them. Not everyone is going to call you. Most businesses need to make outbound calls to prospects. You can also use Hive411 as a tool to help you build a prospecting list. You may not even know all the businesses that could benefit from your services. So, if you typically sell services to insurance companies (http://www.hive411.com/category/insurance_companies), do a search for insurance companies in nearby towns. The Hive will respond, nominate other businesses and help you build your list. If your trusted referral sources use Hive411, you'll also uncover which of your contacts know your prospects, helping you determine who can refer or introduce you to your prospects.

Build Good Will Among Other Business Professionals. Get Referrals. Many successful business owners and sales professionals act as a resource for their contacts by connecting people who can help each other. Are you the guy that everyone calls when they need to know who does what? Are you the gal that goes out of her way to connect solution seekers with problem solvers? You can do this on Hive411 and get recognized by the entire community when you do it. We maintain a leaderboard in every location. (e.g. Worcester, MA http://www.hive411.com/location/Worcester_MA) The people that enter the most nominations and votes are listed prominently on these leaderboards. Our leading voters' profiles encourage people to vote for them and have links to their website. Some of our top voters receive 100s of extra votes, visitors to their websites and phone calls every month, helping them help people even more, and grow their own business at the same time. As BNI (http://www.bni.com) teaches: "Givers Gain". So, prepare to receive more referrals when you give first to the Hive.

As a Search Engine Optimization Tool. You can use Hive411 to help your website rank higher in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. Hive411 hasn't conquered the local search market yet. Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask have millions and millions more people searching for your products and services than Hive411 does. But, they don't have the Hive working on their side. They rely on other websites to help them rank businesses. The more websites that link to your website, the higher you will rank in the big search engines. You can use Hive411 to create relevant links to your website just by nominating yourself for different relevant categories in the different locations where you do business.

Free Bulk Listing Service. Would you like to nominate all of your networking contacts at once? Do you manage a sales force and want to nominate all of your sales people? Are you a franchisor who would like to list all of your franchise locations? Are you a product manufacturer with multiple distributors to list? Do you run a chamber of commerce or other association that would like to help your members get listed on Hive411?

We'll do this for you for free.

Here's how to take advantage: Create a spreadsheet with the following columns: Nominee* (Person or Company Name), Contact Name (Person), Category*, Location* (City/State recommended), Street Address, City, State, Postal Code, Phone*, Fax, Email*, Web address. (Fields with an * are required fields. Emails will only be used to send acceptance messages.) Send your spreadsheet as well as the email address you've used to register at Hive411. Also, tell us whether you'd like us to nominate these companies on your behalf or simply list them in the directory. (Note: You do not have to vote for individual businesses in order to get them listed. We realize that many associations have members who compete and it is not the job of associations to endorse or rate them.)