Flathead Guide Cited as one of the “Best Promoters of the Flathead”

KALISPELL, Mont. - July 30, 2013 - PRLog -- The Daily Inter Lake newspaper’s “Best of the Flathead” Readers Poll results are now official and the Flathead Guide received an Honorable Mention in the category of “Best Promoter of the Flathead”.  This is significant recognition for a company barely seven months old and facing other nominees such as the Mayor, President of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce and other notable local personalities and businesses for top honors.

The Flathead Guide is the official Flathead Valley Business Directory, a digital listing of local companies, visitor attractions and major community events. Unlike conventional business directories, this one is optimized for smartphones and targets the millions of visitors that visit northwest Montana every year to visit Glacier National Park, fish and hike the Bob Marshall wilderness or ski at one of the valley’s resorts.  Glacier National Park was recently named as one of the top ten travel destinations of 2013 by Lonely Planet.

The Flathead Guide is promoted heavily online using all major social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and other popular high-traffic resources. Offline, there is an aggressive awareness and promotional campaign that includes local radio commercials, print magazines and newspaper.

The Flathead Guide was launched to offer Flathead Valley businesses a way to leverage the dramatic growth in smartphone Internet usage by providing them with a mobile-friendly ‘mini website’. Each listing includes an unlimited text description, photos, videos, a slideshow, links to major social sites, a Google map and the functionality of a mobile app such as “Tap to Call”.  Unlike an “App”, the Flathead Guide requires no downloading; users need only visit the website to search the directory listings by name, category, products or keyword tags.

Tom Heatherington, owner of the Flathead Guide, has been in the Internet business since 1993 and is an accomplished SEO and online marketing professional.  Tom said, “Companies that list their businesses with the Flathead Guide are essentially hiring an SEO company to promote their products and services for as little as $4.00 per month, which is the cost of a basic listing”.

Heatherington says, “Our goal is to eventually list every business in northwest Montana and make this guide a valuable resource for all concerned; that is why the fee to participate is so inexpensive.  For only $4 per month, a company doesn’t need to juggle advertising dollars in order to afford having a search engine optimized professional listing.”

Businesses need to constantly find new ways to connect with the people searching for their products or services and the Flathead Guide helps bring those buyers and sellers together. People search when they need to find a solution to a problem or are ready to buy something and smartphones have become an indispensable search tool; capitalizing on this is the objective of the Flathead Guide.

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About:

Tom Heatherington, owner of the Flathead Guide, is a recognized Internet business author and online marketing consultant to small business.  His books include the "SEO & Social Media Marketing Guide" and "The Complete Small Business Internet Guide" (published by Macmillan/QUE).  Tom is the former President (co-founder) and COO of Opinioneering Corporation and President of Netcom Interactive. In 1993 Tom co-founded PICnet, one of the first ISPs in the USA.  Tom worked 13 years for NEC America where he served the last five years as Vice President of Wireless Products Sales.

Visit the Flathead Guide at: http://www.FlatheadGuide.com
For more information, please visit:  http://www.flatheadguide.net