On Wednesday, June 5, small businesses in Aroostook County are invited to learn from Nancy Marshall, marketing and communications expert, how to use the internet to grow your business. Three simultaneous events will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the following locations: the Region 2 Career and Technical Education Center, 5 Bird Street, Houlton; Nadeau Hall Teleconference Room at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, Fort Kent; and the Northern Maine Development Corporation,11 West Presque Isle Road, Caribou.
Please RSVP by May 29 to your local Adult Education Program:
• RSU 29 Adult and Community Education (Houlton), 521-3100.
• Eastern Aroostook RSU #39 Adult and Community Education (Caribou), 493-4272.
• SAD 1 Adult Education (Presque Isle), 764-4776.
Discussion will focus on how to use the Internet to strengthen your relationships with existing and potential customers, so that people know, like and trust you and your business. Other topics include discussing new marketing strategies that use the Internet, such as using social media, to gather valuable feedback and information from current and prospective customers on new products and services.
They will also discuss using the Internet to dramatically increase customer base by connecting with people worldwide who are interested in buying what you are selling.
Nancy Marshall will be the featured speaker. She is the principal of Nancy Marshall Communications, Maine’s leading full service marketing and public relations agency.
The event is being sponsored by the Northern Maine Development Commission, the Region 2 Career and Technical Education Center, the University of Maine at Fort Kent, and the Aroostook Adult and Community Education Alliance (SAD 27, RSU 29, RSU 39, SAD 1, Madawaska/SAD 33, SAD 24), and by the ConnectME Authority and the Maine Department of Education. It is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The event is one of several being held across the state to help Maine small business owners learn how to use the high speed Internet to grow their businesses. Current broadband use by Maine businesses is low: according to a recent survey, 59 percent of Maine’s 141,000 small businesses do not have a website, and 39 percent see no need for using the internet. At the same time, 97 percent of American consumers look online for goods and services. Nationally, small business enterprises with high web use grew at an average annual rate of 13 percent over the past three years while those with low web use rates grew at only 6.2 percent.
The ConnectME Authority is the state agency responsible for expanding broadband capacity in the state (www.maine.gov/connectme). The ConnectME Authority is the recipient of federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants that support broadband service expansion. Maine Adult Education is working with the ConnectME Authority to provide technical assistance on how citizens across the state might use broadband access.
