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September 17, 2007

SMA-NA Dissolved

Ian McAnerin, president of the Search Marketing Association of North America (SMA -NA), announced on Saturday that he will be dissolving the organization due to lack of resources.

SMA-NA, like the UK (SMA -UK) and European (SMA-EU) counterparts, was founded in 2004 as an alternative to SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization. The SMA-EU seems to have disappeared as well, but I'll update this post when I find out more about that.

The SMA groups formed when several search marketers felt that the year-old SEMPO was not serving their needs.

McAnerin notes that SEMPO has addressed many of the concerns that led to the formation of SMA-NA, which was another factor in his decision. "In short, I'm fighting a problem that really doesn't exist with an organization that in most practical aspects also doesn't exist," McAnerin writes on his blog. "No matter how strongly I feel about the goals of the SMA, it's come to the point where I feel I can make more of a contribution to the industry using other methods and processes, and this is where I feel I should focus my efforts to promote and engage this industry I love and am so deeply a part of."

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Posted by Kevin Newcomb on September 17, 2007 10:16 AM