Small Business Bonfire Redesigns Social Network for Small Business Community

The Small Business Bonfire, an online small business social network for entrepreneurs, announced the launch of its redesigned social network.

The company claims that it has attracted more than 550 small business owners to join the network in the first 10 months.

The Small Business Bonfire has selected Ning as the new platform to better accommodate their ever-expanding needs. The Ning platform will allow members to easily customize their profile pages, promote their businesses, share and feature their content, find clients and customers, and integrate with their existing social networks.

“The purpose of the Bonfire is to promote collaboration and help small business owners,” said The Small Business Bonfire founder Alyssa Gregory, in a statement. “We realize that we can support more entrepreneurs by freely providing the information, tools and resources they need.”

“We fully expect our members to participate in our community and share their own expertise with other members. Together, we are helping small business owners spark change in their own businesses and pay it forward by helping other entrepreneurs do the same,” Gregory added.

The redesigned network will be important for small business as the new site also provides real-time chat functionality and better search functions, creating a more user-friendly small business community for sharing, networking and learning.

Recently, the New York Times recognized Small Business Bonfire as an expert resource for small businesses in 2011.

As part of the revamp, the Bonfire team has redesigned its membership structure to provide free small business help in the form of small business forums on topics such as marketing, technology and business startup; networking and collaboration opportunities; and actionable advice through their small business blog and monthly newsletter.

Recently, the Small Business Bonfire participated in the Local Resource Café during the 2011 New York Times Small Business Summit. The Small Business Bonfire was one of only 14 organizations in the tri-state area chosen by the New York Times to provide a central area where attendees can find out about recent industry trends and talk with small business experts.