This year, SMB Nation and SMB Technology Network are holding the second annual “SMB 150 Awards,” which are designed to select and recognize the top 150 influencers in the SMB channel. This year, I am honored to be nominated as a candidate for the SMB 150 Awards. One of the things I truly like about the SMB 150 Awards is that the nominees and the final 150 are selected by the SMB channel community itself through a voting process. It is the SMB channel that selects their top 150 influencers (which is how it should be, right?) As Harry Brelsford, Founder and Chairman of SMB Nation, put it, “It is an industry recognition for the people, by the people. Truly, with the SMB 150, heroes happen here!”

As such, I am coming to you to ask that if you believe I deserve your vote as a top 150 SMB influencer through the information, assistance, resources, connections, etc. that I provide to the Microsoft partner channel, I would love to have your vote(s). Since I received several questions about the voting on my Facebook post yesterday when I posted about my nomination, I thought I would make it very easy for everyone to see how to cast your votes, should you choose to.

A few things to note about voting:

1. Every person can cast a vote for a nominee each and every day. So even if you vote for me today, you can vote again tomorrow, and the next day, etc.
2. This is a total vote process, so if you believe I do deserve your vote and think I may deserve your peers votes as well, please share this with them as well.
3. Voting takes just a quick moment to do (a single click). You will have to setup a login for the site if you don’t have one yet to cast votes, but this is a simple: Create a username, create a password setup.

Here’s how you can cast your vote(s):

• Navigate to my nominee page on the SMB 150 Awards site
• Click on the light blue “vote” square next to my name:

• That’s it! You have cast your vote.
• Now come back tomorrow and repeat, please.

Thank you in advance to all of you that do choose to cast your votes for me in the SMB 150 Awards this year. If you’ve seen my overview page, attended any of my sessions, talked with me at Worldwide Partner Conference or other events, etc. you have probably already heard/seen me say, “As a Partner driven company, the only way we are successful is if you are successful, so you have noooo idea how motivated we are to make sure you are REALLLY successful!” I truly believe that and approach my role with that mindset every day. Hopefully I have been able to have a positive impact on you and your experience as a member of the broad SMB channel when working with Microsoft and have earned your votes.

Did you find this information helpful? If so, you may want to make sure you are utilizing all of the areas I share information online, such as:

My Twitter account My Linkedin account My blog My Facebook page

Get the Microsoft Partner Info Mobile App and get access to the latest from all of those plus: product teams, MPN teams, Microsoft News and hundreds more resources here at Microsoft right on your phone:

Thanks again for being a reader of my blog!

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER, LinkedIn, and RSS and see “What I’m thinking”
Director, Worldwide Partner Experience
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights