Overview: Maybe you’ve never heard of Alignable. Or maybe you’ve heard of it, but you’ve never checked it out. If you’re a business owner, Alignable can open up new opportunities for business connections and customer referrals. Read on to learn more!
It can be quite overwhelming for business owners to find their way in the digital realm. It’s a crowded virtual world, and it can be frustrating trying to get your name out there and to feel like you’re being heard.
In this blog post, we’d like to tell you about an online business networking platform we discovered a while back that’s been working well for us. It’s called Alignable, and we recommend it for any small business owner looking to make impressions and give their business a boost.
What Is Alignable?
If you’ve never heard of the platform, that’s sure to be your first question. According to the website’s own About page, it’s an “online network with over 8 million members connecting business owners in 35,000 local communities.”
The website has been around since 2013, and in our observation, it’s been growing fast in the past few years. No matter where your small business is located or what field you’re in, there’s a pretty good chance you can find other business owners on Alignable that you’ll be happy to meet.
Alignable also describes itself as a place to “connect with other businesses, share your expertise, ask for advice, and refer customers.” So it’s not just about finding other business owners and saying hi — it’s about business owners helping each other and getting something valuable in return.
It’s free to sign up for Alignable, but you will have to pay if you want to access their premium features.
Is Alignable Like LinkedIn?
The short answer: Not exactly, but there are some similarities. Both are networking websites, and both should feel familiar to anyone who has used social media platforms like Facebook. Both are more business-oriented than Facebook, focusing on professional connections rather than vacation photos and nostalgic memes.
But where LinkedIn is largely concerned with connecting working individuals with other working individuals, and providing a venue for businesses to find potential new employees, Alignable is all about small business owners making connections with other small business owners.
The platform isn’t just a venue to promote your services or products. It’s also a space for sharing insights, asking questions, and learning from your fellow entrepreneurs. Business owners everywhere often face similar challenges, and having a space to discuss and share solutions can provide business owners with insights that help them adapt and thrive.
That’s why a cornerstone of the Alignable experience is Groups. You can choose Groups to join based on your industry, location, shared interests, and various other categories. In your Groups, you can share your business experiences, ask questions, and get answers from folks with similar experiences — and of course, you can answer their questions too!
>> Related Reading: Why Should I Use Groups on Alignable?
Who Uses Alignable?
All kinds of small-to-medium business owners! This includes local retailers and franchisees, service providers, home-based start-ups, local nonprofits, and a wide range of freelancers.
Many of the people you’ll encounter on Alignable are the actual owners, CEOs, or presidents of their companies. But you don’t have to be a head honcho to use the site. You’ll also find an assortment of managers, sales associates, and folks in any number of other roles at their businesses. Anyone who’s interested in keeping their company moving forward can find value on the site.
One of Alignable’s distinguishing features — especially when compared to LinkedIn and other similar platforms — is its focus on local business connections. It allows users to easily find and communicate with other businesses in their vicinity. This can lead to potential partnerships, shared resources — and with time, the right connections, and a little luck, even mutual referrals to customers.
For businesses like restaurants, retail stores, and local service providers that rely heavily on local customers, being plugged into the local business community can be invaluable. As our MyUnlimitedWP CEO Joseph says, “For businesses to thrive, it’s critical to connect with the people they serve, whether it’s consumers or other businesses.”
You can even make valuable connections with businesses that are located outside your immediate geographical sphere. At MyUnlimitedWP, our services (website support and maintenance, web design, and more) are based online, so we have clientele all over. We’ve established some valuable relationships and even gotten some new client leads via Alignable.
Is It Really That Important to Make Connections with Other Businesses?
Again, we’ll go for a short answer: Yes!
By using Alignable, you can connect with other businesses that you would never have considered communicating with otherwise — and you can both become more successful by working together. This could lead to collaborative events, co-marketing efforts, and other joint ventures.
Our MyUnlimitedWP CEO Joseph notes that “It’s rare these days to find a platform that actually connects business owners in real and meaningful ways. Alignable is striving to do just that. It’s the missing connection in business today.”
And don’t underestimate the value of referrals and recommendations! On Alignable, businesses can endorse and recommend each other. Positive endorsements can add a level of trust for potential customers researching a business, which can help you grab the attention of new customers in a crowded marketplace.
>> Related Reading: The Importance of Building a Business Network
Alignable As a Learning Hub
In addition to learning from other small business owners, there are several opportunities to learn from the Alignable website in other ways. The website features a blog that’s frequently updated with informative news items, advice, and spotlights on successful entrepreneurs.
Alignable also hosts webinars and virtual events on a variety of business-related subjects. (In fact, our CEO Joseph, whom we’ve been quoting here, has hosted several webinars on Alignable!) We’re big advocates of business owners always continuing to learn new things, and Alignable makes it easy.
Our Alignable Success Story
As we mentioned, we’ve had some great experiences with Alignable here at MyUnlimitedWP. The platform has helped us bring in new business from clients who we might not have reached without it. It’s also helped us meet some amazing people in our area.
It’s important to note, however, that this didn’t magically happen the moment we created our Alignable account. We’ve put a lot of time into engaging with Groups and communicating with other business owners. We’ve also made a financial investment by paying for an upgraded membership, as well as ads and sponsorships.
As our CEO Joseph says, “Alignable, like most things, will bring results if you put energy into it, in the right ways. The main challenge most businesses face is that they don’t give focus to anything, so they are just all over the place and doing nothing well. You gotta pick something to be good at.” In other words, Alignable delivers best results when you use it carefully and thoughtfully.
In Conclusion
Alignable offers a useful platform for business owners, particularly those who want to establish or strengthen their local connections. By providing tools for networking, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration, Alignable can be an invaluable resource for businesses looking to grow and make a mark in their community.
If you have any questions about Alignable and how we use it, we’d be happy to answer them. We’d also be happy to tell you more about our website support services! We love making life easier for business owners. Feel free to contact us today!
