Portland, ME – September, 23, 2011 – Kirk Hill, founder of the Maine Entrepreneurs Group on the social network LinkedIn.com, has announced that the group now has more than 2,000 members. The group, which also meets once a month in person, is the largest to be centered in Maine.

According to the 2008 US Census, on average, 2,356 people become entrepreneurs daily. The Maine Entrepreneurs Group was founded as a mutual support network for those in Maine who are joining those ranks.

“Being connected to over 2000 members, certainly carries my business into many concentric circles beyond my location!” says Cathy Roberts, of Pieceworks, Inc in Liberty, Maine. “I believe that Maine entrepreneurs are a vital piece to the current economic solution,” says Roberts.

“I was drawn to this group because it represents the best group brainstorming I could ever ask for. As a small business, it is often hard to stick your head up out of your daily routine of driving sales, managing production, and maintaining your financial stability.” Says Aron Buterbaugh, owner of Beachstone Recycled Surfaces.

Serial Entrepreneur, Kirk Hill, founded the Maine Entrepreneurs Group in 2008 when he found networking opportunities for Maine small businesses to be lacking. The group is composed of small business owners from all over the state. Businesses vary widely from marketing companies to real estate agents, to technology consultants.

When it began, the monthly live meetings drew, on average 6-12 entrepreneurs. Today, face-to-face meetings can swell to dozens and are even attended as a field trip by entrepreneurship classes from Southern Maine Community College. Members meet the 4^th Wednesday of each month at the Law Offices of Bernstein Shur in Portland. (There is no September meeting due to a schedule conflict)

The Maine Entrepreneurs Group provides members the opportunity to:

• Share ideas and solutions online;
• Meet and network monthly for free;
• Discuss the latest trends affecting Maine small business.

“Maine Entrepreneurs is a great platform to exchange ideas, share experiences and learn from each other,” says Anamaria Salguero of Butts Commercial Brokers, “at the same time we are building a great network of valuable resources.”

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site with more than 75 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. LinkedIn allows users to create “groups” which provide people with similar interests to meet and hold discussions.
Interested entrepreneurs can join LinkedIn and become members of the Maine Entrepreneurs Group for free.

About Kirk Hill
Kirk Hill is a Maine native who co-founded the technical consultancy Quai, Inc. in 1996. Hill is a graduate of MIT, a serial entrepreneur, and a real estate investor. He’s the co-author of the book, due out in 2012, No Shoestring Startup: How to Start Your Business With Little or No Money.

For more information contact Windsor PR agency Maine

“It’s terrific to see people get engaged for a worthy cause,” says Fred Greenhalgh, ReVision’s Online Marketing Manager. “We wanted to see whether we could successfully leverage social media to support local nonprofits, and the answer has been a resounding ‘Yes.’”

For the month of February, visitors to ReVision’s website and Facebook page can “check in” to support WERU, listener supported community radio in Blue Hill, Maine. WERU was selected after they received over 200 votes of support through ReVision’s blog. Any nonprofit in Maine and New Hampshire can be nominated to be the selected charity by contacting ReVision Energy. Four finalists will be chosen from the nominees by ReVision staff and voting begins the middle of each month. ReVision plans to run the program for at least the remainder of 2011.

“We’ve had a strong response, and we strongly believe in being responsible stewards not only of the environment, but of the nonprofit organizations doing important work in our communities,” Greenhalgh continued.

“Check in for Charity” is the latest in a strong series of community giving programs by ReVision Energy. ReVision Energy pro-actively seeks connections with local nonprofits and has contributed to Maine Audubon, The Chewonki Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, Habitat for Humanity, Zero Waste Portsmouth, Citizens for a Green Camden, and The Boys and Girls Clubs of both Portland and South Portland. They also are members of numerous nonprofit green building trade organizations including the Maine Chapter of the US Green Building Council, New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility, American Solar Energy Society, and the Environmental & Energy Technology Council of Maine.

About ReVision Energy

ReVision Energy is Maine and New Hampshire’s leading installer of grid-tied solar electric and solar hot water systems. They maintain an in-house team of engineers with degrees from MIT, Brown and Dartmouth, and a highly trainedeam of solar technicians, four of whom carry NABCEP certification, the gold standard in the solar industry.

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1. Hiring will be up. Throughout 2011, hiring will increase, slowly, but steadily. Watch for targeted hiring as employers focus on key employees who can make an immediate contribution in the company’s core business. Hiring for the sake of hiring is dead.
2. Turnover will increase. As employees become more confident of an improving economy, many will bail. Pent up frustrations with cuts in pay and benefits, watching fellow employees lose their jobs, and fatigue due to working more with less will push workers to begin searching for greener pastures. At the same time, employer’s star performers will be targeted by external recruiters for poaching. As business improves, key staff will be needed and those unprotected and unappreciated stars will become vulnerable and open to a recruiter’s pitch.
3. Contingent hires will reign. Though the economy is improving, employers will focus their hiring on temporary workers as a hedge. Confidence is not high so employers will depend on temps realizing their workforce can expand and contract easier with them. Temp agency businesses will boom in 2011. Watch for significant hiring of temps, part-times, and independent contractors.
4. Cost reductions will continue. Employers will continue to search for ways to cut costs. Labor costs and health care insurance will be the biggest targets. While employers struggle to keep these two line items in check, they will be forced to address the need to remain competitive. Cutting too much will drive employees out—potentially into the hands of competitors; cutting too little and employers will watch their bottom line erode. Employers will struggle to keep the balance.
5. Layoffs will continue. Though hiring will increase, expect to see employers cutting labor at the same time. In fact, more employers will be hiring and firing simultaneously. In this new economy, employers will continue to focus on their core business, hiring needed and critical talent for their core business while quickly shedding “unnecessary” workers elsewhere. Lean and mean will be the new mantra.
6. Employee engagement drops. Employee engagement has been dropping for several years and will continue in 2011. Workplace stress, fatigue and anger have turned employees off and the last two years have been especially hard on employees. With disengagement, employer’s productivity gains will be at serious risk. Employers who successfully address this problem will see business soar in 2011.
7. Training will increase. Employers will begin investing in all aspects of employee training. Training was among the first things to go during the recession and employers are beginning to feel the effects. Skill atrophy has set in. As employers push for greater productivity with less labor, the need for trained talent will be critical.
8. Social networking will become mainstream. More employers will turn to social networking to recruit and also to communicate directly with their employees. No longer will it be seen as a productivity drain or an employee distraction. Employers will utilize it as a valuable and cost effective tool.
9. Lawsuits increase. Expect more employment lawsuits. As more older and higher paid workers get pink slips while the unemployed struggle to find jobs, more will turn to the courts for remedy. Watch for more age discrimination and wrongful discharge suits.
10. Succession Planning is in vogue. More and more organizations and boards of directors will slowly begin to realize that many of their key employees and leadership are getting older. Employers begin to understand that they must prepare for the potential losses of this critical talent and start to put in place succession plans.

 According to Dacri, “In the forthcoming year, employers will refocus their attention from mere survival to strategically positioning their companies for the economic upturn. Workforce issues will be at center stage in 2011. It is going to be a good year.”

 Dacri & Associates offers senior executives the human-relations expertise and hands-on skill they need to improve employee productivity and engagement, mitigate risk and position their organizations for success. More information is available at www.dacri.com, rick@dacri.com or 207-967-0837.

The discussion is going to be filled with ways in which Social media can launch Nonprofit businesses into so many aspects of their target audience’s lives to educate and promote. An exciting highlight of this breakfast is a presentation of a case study of how an organization does just this. This case study will be presented by Cyndi Amato who is the Executive Director for SARSSM (Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine) and she is going to present just how SARSSM uses Social Media.

Including Cyndi Amato, we have two other presenters, Emily Brackett and Marc A. Pitman, making this a fantastic line up. Emily Brackett is president of Visible Logic, Inc., a boutique graphic design firm that works across all media to build complete branding systems. Visible Logic Inc. also designs individual projects for clients across the U.S., including not-for-profits, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. Marc A. Pitman is the author of Ask Without Fear!  and founder of Fundraisingcoach.com, a website dedicated to practical ideals for fundraising more effectively. He also teaches internet marketing at Thomas College.

The background, experiences, and perspectives that all three of our exciting presenters are going to bring to this Friday’s discussion will make for an informative and thought provoking Social Medal Breakfast.

Please visit www.socialmediabreakfastmaine.com for more information and to reserve your tickets for this month’s upcoming Social Media Breakfast.

This month’s breakfast is sponsored by Flyte New Media, Filmosity Productions, and Maine Video Systems. Please find more information on them at www.socialmediabreakfastmaine.com/sponsors/.

About Hall Web Services
Hall Web Services of Portland, Maine offers a suite of site status and management tools, web marketing consulting and full service web services to B2B businesses.  Hall’s full service options include web design and development, managed hosting, internet marketing, inbound marketing strategies and multimedia production.

About Social Media Breakfast Maine
Social Media Breakfast Maine is a monthly opportunity to get together to share experiences, stories and learn from each other on a variety of different topics in and around the social media scene. Each month’s topic is a different spin on how social media can help you, whether you are a business owner trying to add social media to your marketing/PR mix, or a social media newbie, each breakfast is filled with those that want to teach and those that want to learn.

The recently redesigned site (www.gorhamsavingsbank.com) is outstanding for the dynamism of its design and as a reflection of social-media techniques that encourage two-way communication and individualized experiences.  The site offers interactive, live chat; news articles unrelated to the bank; connections with social media platforms; mobile banking, and differentiated interfaces for specific kinds of site visitors.

“This site design makes it a lot easier for people to be in contact with us. It’s kind of a quasi-social media site,” said Gren Blackall, senior vice president and director of marketing at Gorham Savings Bank.

Many bank websites are heavily focused on selling products and services, rather than meeting the needs of particular site visitors, said Becky McKinnell, owner of iBec Creative and the 2010 U.S. Small Business Administration Young Entrepreneur for Maine. “We really focused on what the users need from the site, so that we could design personalized information portals for those kinds of individuals.”

This approach is what Gorham Savings Bank wanted from its redesigned website, Blackall said.

“We want to make sure the website experience is positive for three kinds of people: Those who are looking for a bank; existing customers, with quick access to exactly what they need; and anyone in the community looking for information,” he said. “The site is exactly what I wanted.”

“Bad developers do exactly what the client says,” Blackall added. “Good developers like iBec Creative listen and pay attention to what the client means. That’s the art in web design.”

Established in 2006 by Founder and President Becky (Stockbridge) McKinnell, iBec Creative is a leading provider of website and traditional design services based in Portland, Maine.  For more information, go online to iBecCreative.com or call (207) 221-0790.

The purpose of the conference is to help foster the success of microenterprises and small businesses in the greater Piscataquis County area and all of rural Maine. The conference expects to attract over 100 micro & small business owners.

The conference will filled with many topic such as a presentation from Microsoft, Using Social Media and the Web in your business, Keynote Speaker David Lee of the HumanNature@Work, What’s In It For Me session, lunch, networking and Business to Business services and resources.

Making the Most of Social Media & The Web by Jenika Scott

Jenika manages Hall’s parent channel relationships, as well as assists with Hall’s inbound marketing efforts. www.hallme.com/blog/author/jenika/ Hall Web Services is a Maine owned web design, web development and internet marketing firm, providing business class web services to small and medium sized companies worldwide.

Keynote Speaker David Lee & “What’s In It For Me” Session

David is the founder of HumanNature@Work and is an internationally recognized authority on organizational and managerial practices that optimize performance. Some of the areas he will be covering: Get Great or Become Extinct, Why Good is No Longer Good Enough, In Today’s “Tell All” World, Creating the “Wow” Experience, If You Want Lot’s of Repeat Business and Free PR, Here’s What You Do plus take home tools to help your business. He will be offer a follow up tele-conference. FMI: www.humannatureatwork.com This training is part of the Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative – a project supported by the Maine Woods Consortium with funding from the Betterment Fund and USDA Rural Development. To learn more, visit www.mainewoodsconsortium.org/mmh/programs/content/tourism-training.html.

Business 2 Business Show still has spaces open for business to business products, services and/or resources. For more information please visit the web site.

Penquis products display is open to any business taking part in the conference. For more information please visit the web site.

Remember to bring your business card for some great networking opportunities

The Rural Maine Small Business Conference’s sponsors and partners are Penquis, MaineStream Finance, Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, Penquis Higher Education Center, James Macomber’s Maine’s Best Web & Media Design & Green Web Hosting, Hall Web Services, Small Business Administration, Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce, Moosehead Lake Chamber of Commerce, Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative, Maine Woods Consortium, Betterment Fund and USDA Rural Development

Scholarships are still available. To register go online at www.ruralmainebiz.org and click “Registration” then choose online or download the registration.

FMI:

www.ruralmainebiz.org

Contact persons: Sheree Brown or James Macomber

Phone: 564-7116 or 1-800-215-4942

Email: sabrown@penquis.org or jmacomber@penquis.org

“It can be very frustrating relying on another company – Google – for the success of an SEO campaign and, ultimately, the growth of a business,” says Owner and Chief Marketing Strategist, Josh Valentine. “We strive to motivate business owners, activists, and musicians to take control of their marketing efforts and focus more on social media optimization (SMO) – such as participation on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, consistent blogging, or online video. SMO is becoming more and more important – until, of course, the next thing comes around.”

Promenade Media’s past projects include work with USM’s Muskie School of Public Service, Working Together: Expanding Maine’s Workforce, Maine Animal Coalition, and Maine Businesses for Sustainability. They have also done video campaigns for The Island, a side project of the popular national jam band, The Disco Biscuits. Currently in the works: a video campaign for New York jam band, God Street Wine, social media marketing for Maine Center on Deafness, and an interview series on social media for musicians with Tears For Fears co-founder and bassist, Curt Smith.

“One of our company goals is to differentiate ourselves in the crowded world of social media and internet marketing,” says Valentine. “We look to work closely with small business owners or marketing executives and coach them on growing their business using online tools; maintaining web presences for non-profits looking to promote a cause; or musicians interested in taking control of their career and promoting their art without an intrusive record company.”

Valentine goes on to explain that Promenade Media is a “green business, highly focused on social responsibility and sustainability. The expansion of non-profits and theses types of activities will only be a boon to Maine’s future economy.” He says, “non-profits must be as aggressive as small businesses when it comes to participating online. Social media is a new way of doing business and the transparency it creates is mostly a good thing.”

Promenade Media was founded in 2007 by Josh Valentine, Owner and Chief Marketing Strategist. Josh is also the President of the Maine Marketing Association (with his term beginning next month). Connect with Promenade Media on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

About the seminar

Despite our love affair for all things technological, in a recent survey of top sales and marketing professionals, event marketing was voted the number one discipline for producing results. Bob Tiernan, President of Cameo Marketing, will explore the power of one-on-one event marketing and how it can help your organization build strong consumer relationships that result in the creation of brand evangelists and drive sales. You’ll leave with a greater appreciation for the importance of maintaining human connections, especially in today’s world, in which we as marketers have become increasingly dependent upon electronic and digital communications.

Topics include

• The definition of event marketing and its history as a relatively new marketing force.
• The seven key benefits of event marketing and how well-crafted brand experiences can connect your organization with its consumers.
• Why and how event marketing continues to deliver an exceptionally strong ROI.
• Real-world examples of how Cameo Marketing clients have benefited by strengthening their connections with customers through event marketing.

About Bob Tiernan

Cameo Marketing was founded in 1992 by Bob and his wife Bonnie, and represents the fulfillment of Bob’s dream to build a second career. A native New Englander, Bob spent much of his professional life in the broadcasting industry and held executive level positions at Selcom, Westinghouse Broadcasting and CRN International. Bob provides leadership and creativity in the design of Cameo projects – from concept to fabrication to execution

Networking and registration for the seminar, which is open to both MMA members and non-members, begins at 11:00 AM. The presentation starts promptly at 11:40 and ends at 1:00. The cost for lunch is included in the fee: $15 members, $35 non-members, $10 students. TechMaine members may also attend at the MMA member rate. To register for the Lunch & Learn, please click HERE.

The Maine Marketing Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing ongoing marketing-related education and support to its members and to the region’s business community. It is the first group of its kind in Maine, dedicated exclusively to marketing education. Membership is just $89 for a full year.