Recently I had the pleasure to meet Ed Madison, president and CEO of Engaging Media, Inc., a leading marketing consulting and media production firm based in Portland, OR.
As a bonus during our coffee klatch, Ed announced his latest venture – Marketers Alliance – a new online community and resource for business and marketing folks like you and me.
According to Ed, the purpose of the community is to promote collaboration and information sharing among business owners and marketers, particularly in tough economic times. His vision for the community is to create:
“A global network of business and organization owners committed to supporting one another in their success.”
The timing is right for this community, not only because we are in the midst of a uniquely challenging business climate, but also because it fits squarely into that technological and anthropological infrastructure known as the Social Web. I believe the business, marketing and development professionals who quickly grasp the concept of cooperation and collaboration will fare much better than those in competing organizations in the coming year. At a minimum, companies should at least consider engaging in some healthy “coopetition” to survive.
Luckily we have social media tools like Marketers Alliance to empower us to do so. According to the site, Marketers Alliance will help you:
“Keep abreast of hot trends…in marketing, through our “Quick Tip” blog posts and podcasts. Meet peers, share your firsthand success stories – or strategies you’ve discovered from others.”
The Marketers Alliance homepage boldly states: “We promise: • profit-making strategies • lively discussions • links to hundreds of resources • live teleseminars with experts • book reviews and • special events.”
When asked how Marketers Alliance has helped him personally and professionally, Ed replied: “It’s really compelled me to stay on top of the day to day evolution of trends in marketing. I’m also experimenting with social networking and meeting lots of cool people in the process.” He also said that the feedback about the community has been “excellent” and that “people want more” content, especially related to social media and SEO.
The thing I really like about the community is its inherent strength in offering quality and quantity audio/video content – thanks to the background of Ed Madison – which will help create a more comprehensive and robust Web 2.0 community.
You can listen here to the podcasts, which also include a couple of interviews with yours truly.
