Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (1888PressRelease)
July 30, 2007 - Remember when Craigslist was cool? When you didn’t have to worry about accidentally accepting a Myspace friend who only wanted to encourage you to get a $500 Macy’s Gift Card? So do Thomas Hillard and Ellery Long, hipsters, trend-seekers, and founders of the small business, social networking start-up, Ekaweeka.com.
With Ekaweeka you can:
• Create a profile that highlights your small business, project, hobby, or skills with full html customization, blog feed, and multimedia capabilities.
• Share and sell your creations to the world through our shopping marketplace and get noticed, thanks to Ekaweeka’s built-in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefits.
• Discover original designers, artists, and services by others. Make friends, share stories, change the world.
Ekaweeka (http://www.ekaweeka.com) pronounced “EE-KAH-WEE-KAH” is the first Small Business Community of its kind, combining social networking, an emerging marketplace, and highly customizable profiles that leverage SEO capabilities. The Ekaweeka community is a place where under-the-radar businesses can easily build a profile site and e-commerce store that will be seen by exactly the people they want to reach. For many of their members, Ekaweeka functions as a virtual artist collective, enlivened with the thoughts and passions of similarly-minded creative entrepreneurs.
“Anyone can start a business, the challenge is developing and maintaining a successful online presence,” says Thomas Hillard, co-founder of Ekaweeka.com. “Ekaweeka leverages social networking technology to provide simple, customizable solutions for creative types and small business owners, while working to develop a close-knit community where relationships form and develop organically.”
Choosing to stay true to their entrepreneurial roots, Hillard, a former dog-walker turned surfer/musician currently based in Hollywood, CA, and Long, a print photography producer and lower Manhattan-ite well acquainted with the New York art scene and a habitué of the hottest clubs, galleries and openings, chose to forgo the traditional, start-up capital route. In doing so, they hold something no other start up can produce with capital alone - authenticity.
Instead, Ekaweeka began the way all great parties start - hand-pick your guest list, and then wait and see who crashes. Ekaweeka launched quietly in November 2006 with a select, handpicked list of photographers, gallery owners, fashion designers, friends, and indie entrepreneurs. The site has grown significantly ever since, with membership doubling every other month, including more than 27,000 hits per day from visitors in 57 countries.
Despite its growth, Ekaweeka continues to appeal to a niche audience of alternative entrepreneurs, cutting-edge artists, small business owners, fashion designers, photographers, and supporters of small, indie businesses. Myspace it is not, much to the relief and enthusiasm of its members.
Welcome to the future of the good old days of social networking.
