A couple months ago, Visa Business Network’s Outreach team discovered my blog and reached out by completing the form on my site to let me know that they find my blog to be very impressive and a valuable resource to businesses. They asked if they could feature my blog on the Visa Business Network as part of their public blog roll.

And what was even more exciting was Visa’s invitation the following week, inviting me to be one of the expert mentors for their 100,000+ active member community.  Of course, I accepted and anxiously waited for their announcement this week. Yeah!

Recently, the Visa Business Network launched enhancements and new features to their community site to help small businesses connect learn, and accomplish goals.  Visa quickly realized that social media is playing a huge role in business and wanted to provide its community with a better way to connect, learn, and grow.

The new features include:

Business Goal Toolkits – These are step-by-step “how to” guides that lead small business owners through the process of setting and achieving business goals.

Small Business Mentor Program – Small businesses will now get personalized help and guidance from other successful small business owners through a question and answer forum.  Through the mentor program, members are able to collaborate by asking questions related to their goals and receive personalized advice and responses from small business peers and mentors with experience across a wide range of industries.

Mentors were invited based on the following criteria:

- Expertise in the topic/goal area

- Previous mentor experience

- Small business experience. Since this is a community of peers, owning or working for a small business is required

- Previous active online community involvement

- Ability to help provide initial goal content

- Enthusiasm for selected goal and helping small businesses succeed

“We are thrilled to have our new mentors on board as we launch the Visa Business Network with new features. Our mentors are leaders in their respective fields and will lend their expertise to small business owners on the Visa Business Network, who are looking for guidance as they work to grow their businesses. The mentors will be vital both as a resource and participant in the growing Visa Business Network community, and we look forward to working with them to encourage and foster small business growth.”  Rich Yang, Head of Small Business Marketing

I will specifically be mentoring businesses on creating and promoting Facebook business pages to help businesses grow and thrive on this giant social networking site.  My answers will enable many business owners to gain more clarity, eliminate confusion, and reduce overwhelm when it comes to promoting their businesses on Facebook.  So, I invite you to ask away!

Content Ranking – Their new ranking system will also provide small businesses with quick access to the resources and articles fellow small business owners have declared most useful.

I am sharing this with my readers for two reasons:

1. This opportunity happened due to my content strategy and online visibility.  So, this is a reminder to all of you.  By showcasing your expertise online, you will open many possibilities.  As I always say, you never know who is reading, watching, listening and sharing your content online. Transparency does equal opportunity, and this can come from anywhere and anyone (including people who you think are competitors).

2. It is easy and free to join Visa’s rapidly-growing community.  You can quickly create your profile by visiting  www.visabusinessnetwork.com.  You can also join their Facebook community.

What do you think of Visa’s idea? And, do you have any great success stories due to your blogging efforts?  I would love to read them in the comments below!