IndustrySMA-EU Forming For European Search Marketers

SMA-EU Forming For European Search Marketers

Only days after the SMA-UK search
marketing group was
launched
, a new SMA-EU organization has
been founded that’s intended to encompass all of Europe.

Mike Grehan, a founding member of SMA-UK, provides more details in his
UK and mainland
Europe search engine marketers unite
commentary.

The piece suggests that SMA-UK will continue to operate as an organization
independent of SMA-EU. Instead, SMA-EU so far seems intended as a catch-all for
search marketers in Europe interested in an alternative to the year-old SEMPO
search marketing group but unable to participate in SMA-UK because that group’s
UK-specific focus.

Why would Europeans want an alternative to SEMPO? Actually, any number of
search marketers anywhere might want an alternative after SEMPO was dogged by
controversy over poor communication and other problems recently. My
Reflections
On Sempo
article explains this in more detail.

That leads to the question of whether an SMA-US group might be formed.
Indeed, it was pretty much implied by the UK’s hyphenated status that those
founding SMA-UK probably foresaw the idea of a broader SMA group stretching into
any country where there might be interest.

In fact, SMA-UK uses sma-uk.org as its domain name. A similar sma-us.org
domain was registered on the same day as sma-uk.org. Both registrations were
done by MakeMeTop, the company run by SMA-UK acting chair Barry Lloyd.

So will a SMA-US show up? Yeah, I have no doubt someone will jump in to do it
there and perhaps elsewhere. In the US, I’d lay my bets on
SEMPO-Tahoe
being converted.

None of this precludes SEMPO from continuing and being successful in its own
right, of course. Despite the criticisms, the group has said it’s gained new
members.

I also did have a friendly chuckle at Mike’s article on SMA-EU where he
describes SEMPO as “a type of trade association in America.” Yes, it was founded
in the US but counts a healthy number of non-Americans as members, including
Europeans — Mike himself still being one of them.

In the end, no matter where people stand in the wake of complaints on SEMPO,
the good news is that search marketers seem more than ever interested in
organizing together for a common good. The more groups the merrier!

More news on SMA-UK, SMA-EU and SEMPO as it comes. Representatives from all
three groups will be meeting at Search Engine Strategies Stockholm this week,
where Chris and I will both be at.

Want to comment or discuss? Here are a few recent forum threads related to
these topics:

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