ALIKELIST Releases Monetization Capabilities and Facebook Integration

SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- AlikeList [http://www.alikelist.com], a social-local platform for listing, referring and discovering trusted local businesses, today launched new capabilities for both business owners and consumers that increase the speed and convenience of finding, sharing and receiving offers from their favorite local businesses. Business owners can now sign up for affordable AlikeList MinuteAds [www.alikelist.com/business] that provide simple yet powerful tools to promote their business to customers. In addition, AlikeList now enables consumers to share "Likes" and ask for business recommendations via Facebook.

Many local businesses lack the time, resources or technical expertise to manage complex online marketing campaigns. Most of their business comes from word-of-mouth referrals from their best customers. MinuteAds, available via the newly updated AlikeList Business Central platform, let business owners instantly create and present offers directly to their best customers. They require no special marketing or technical expertise. Business owners can change their offer or message as often as they like, making MinuteAds a very cost-effective online advertising solution. To get started, business owners only need to complete a simple, two-step sign-up process and provide their credit card to cover the low $19.99 monthly subscription and usage fees.

For a local business, anonymous negative reviews can be devastating to their reputation. That's why, from the outset, AlikeList set out to create a trusted, transparent environment that is based entirely on positive recommendations and gives business owners a way to manage their reputations. With the AlikeList paid product, business owners get a customer-generating PromoSite, which they can enhance with a photo and feature their best customer testimonials, along with the offer or message of their MinuteAd. Additionally, local businesses can monitor how many customers have "Liked" or "Want to Try" their business, and see how many people have clicked to their Web site or to their phone number.

"I'm engaged in several different online marketing activities, and was really impressed with the ease-of-use of AlikeList," said Dr. Stephanie Rozenhart, BS, D.C., CCP, of Rozenhart Family Chiropractic. "I really like that AlikeList doesn't act as a middle-man between me and my clients. It lets me incorporate the personalized communication style and approach I use in the office for my online marketing efforts."

AlikeList knows that when someone is looking to find a local business -- whether it's a doctor, mechanic or restaurant -- the best recommendations come from people they know and trust. AlikeList mirrors real-world, word-of-mouth recommendations by letting its users create and share lists of their favorite businesses with their friends. AlikeList not only makes it faster and easier for users to get recommendations, but provides results that are more relevant because they come from friends who share the user's interests and preferences.

AlikeList has extended its consumer sharing and discovery capabilities in several ways. The first is deeper integration with Facebook. People can now post their "Likes" to their Facebook Wall and ask friends and family for business recommendations.  The AlikeList user interface has also been updated with new searching capabilities. There are now multiple search filtering options including "friends," "friends of friends" and the entire AlikeList network.  In addition, the AlikeList homepage features "Most Liked" businesses in three major metropolitan areas: the Bay Area, Chicago and Denver.

"We believe that the trust and transparency of AlikeList will be appealing to both businesses and consumers. Businesses control their own customer relationships and consumers control their friend relationships -- this is a powerful differentiator among online local marketplaces and review services," said Jim Delli Santi, co-founder and CEO of AlikeList. "We're taking a fundamentally different approach by building a revenue generating business from the outset rather than creating a consumer service first and addressing monetization later. The low cost of entry and ease of use make AlikeList the ideal way for local businesses to benefit from online word-of-mouth referrals."

Businesses can learn more about the AlikeList service at www.alikelist.com/business.

About AlikeList

AlikeList was founded in 2008 to connect people to valuable and trusted local businesses.  This social-local service lets users endorse and refer the businesses they like to help people find trusted local businesses. For more information, visit http://www.alikelist.com.

SOURCE AlikeList