Connecting Local Offline Business to Social Discovery

Local businesses know there’s such a thing as Facebook. They understand that MySpace is out there. Some have heard of LinkedIN, and others have opinions on Yelp. But these places are sometimes a little too big, or a little too intimidating, or maybe they just don’t drive local awareness and connection the way a local business needs. Here’s one person’s solution to this.

MyCityFaces.com is a relatively simple idea, when you look it over. Build profiles for small offline businesses and put them up in categories so that people can find and connect with local talent. Check out Scottsdale, Arizona for a fairly filled-in example (this is just launching, I’m told by founder, Dan Caplan). This is a discovery tool, plain and simple.

Why It’s Neat

This is the kind of “bridge” tool that will help people understand how offline businesses can build a presence, and drive awareness. I think it’s a good first step in the direction of helping businesses understand the value of social networks and because it’s focused on one simple task, local business discovery, I believe it has a value.

Next Steps

If I were Dan Caplan, I’d think about ways to allow customer rating (a la Yelp), ways to promote cross-category promotions (maybe a pooled number of $10 off coupons to visit nail salons), and perhaps a few other bells and whistles that build out the community aspects inherent in the site. I think it’s a great starting point, and I think the idea is simple and yet useful.

What’s your take?

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