SPONSORED CONVERSATION SUCCESS STORY INTUIT LOVES LOCAL BUSINESS Introduction As a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized business, Intuit loves to help businesses thrive. To show this love and engage new potential customers, Intuit created the "Love A Local Business" competition, letting fans, customers, vendors, employees and the community help determine who deserves a small business grant. Each month Intuit awarded a $25,000 small business grant to a nominated business. And every three months, one grand prize winner from the three previous months received another $25,000. The Challenge Women‐owned businesses (including bloggers who earn income from their blogs) in the United States now employ 23 million people, which is nearly double the number of those employed by the 50 biggest companies in the country combined. Intuit wanted to partner with TapInfluence’s marketplace of key influencers (those with niche audiences on social platforms) to engage the “Mompreneur” audience. Influential, socially‐savvy bloggers not only have large readerships of other entrepreneurs who each love their own local businesses, many times these bloggers are small businesses themselves. It was the perfect match – bloggers could nominate themselves and ask their readers to nominate their favorite local business. The Solution To energize the conversation, Intuit used TapInfluence to engage the powerful and emotional motivation of people’s dreams. Everyone has a dream. Using the TapInfluence influencer marketing platform, Intuit asked 70 top women bloggers and their readers, "What dream business would you love to start?" Not only did this question engage women with existing businesses, it attracted the imaginations and the online voices of those who dreamed of running businesses, all of whom represented future Intuit customers.