I’d love your vote again this year in the 2013 SMB 150 Awards

imageIt’s that time of year again, the voting for the 2013 SMB 150 is here. Last year, I had the honor to be nominated for and selected as a member of the SMB 150, an award that honors individuals who have made a significant impact on the worldwide small and medium business (SMB) channel. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised this week to see an email notifying me that I have been nominated again this year in the SMB 150 and voting is open through January 18th.

For the SMB 150 Awards, nominees are selected by the members of the worldwide small and medium business (SMB) channel itself, then voting is an open process where anyone may vote and one vote is allowed per IP address per nominee per day (i.e., 24-hour period). As such, if you feel that I have been a positive influence for you or any other members of the SMB community through my interaction with you, my work with the SMB community, or my work online, I would appreciate your votes in the SMB 150 again in 2013.

To vote in the SMB 150, you can simply click on the “Vote” button next to the nominee you want to vote for:

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Every 24 hours you can vote for as many nominees as you like. But you can only vote for the SAME nominee once in any given 24-hour period. Once the community voting ends after January 18th, the judging panel will cast their votes. and the final SMB 150 influencers will be announced in in early April 2013. The judges this year are Harry Brelsford, Founder, SMB Nation, Inc., Karl Palachuk, President, Great Little Book Publishing Co. Inc., Dave Seibert, CIO, IT Innovators, and Dan Wensley, Vice President, Partner Development and Marketing, Level Platforms.

So what is an SMB 150 influencer? Here is how the SMB 150 Award site defines it:

An SMB 150 influencer is a person that has made a meaningful and lasting impact on the worldwide SMB channel. Impact may mean (i) providing products widely used by significant numbers of MSPs, SMB channel partners and resellers, or (ii) influencing significant numbers of MSPs, SMB channel partners and resellers by being a thought leader, or (iii) providing information or services of note to significant numbers of MSPs, SMB channel partners and resellers.
People that fall into one of the following five categories may be nominated:

  1. Experts – MVP’s, technical gurus, subject matter experts, bloggers, and others that provide information and guidance to the partner community. 
  2. Leaders – User group or trade association leaders that better the partner community.
  3. Media – Press, authors, editors, and others that provide news and other content of interest to the partner community. 
  4. Partners – MSP’s, owners, VARs/VAPs, resellers, channel partners and anyone else selling to the SMB end user space.
  5. Vendors – Sponsors, hardware and software manufacturers, service providers, and anyone else providing something for sale to the partner community. 

If you are a part of or work with the SMB channel, I would encourage you to head out to the SMB 150 Award site, check out the 2013 nominees, and vote for the candidates you feel deserve your votes as an SMB 150 Influencer.

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Eric LigmanFollow me on TWITTER, LinkedIn, and RSS and see “What I’m thinking
Director, Worldwide Partner Experience
Microsoft Corporation
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