Since late 2007, I’ve had a vision to start up an international social media association, focused on best practices, education and marketing, along with providing solid social media certification training programs. My social media consulting, training and speaking business continues to expand at an intense rate and I wanted to have a cadre of awesome like-minded professionals to refer clients to, and to help others grow their social media businesses too.

So, in early March this year, I decided to get over my perfectionism (ha!) and I launched my first protege program, MentorWithMari. I did a fairly soft launch – just a few tweets, Facebook updates and one email to my subscriber list. I was completely blown away by the response over the course of a few weeks – and now have 40 phenomenal proteges!!

Why would I create a course to teach people to do exactly what I do? Here’s what I believe: there’s an abundance of needs and niches out there. No one can be all things to all people. If you’re looking at getting into social media as a business, just know that you can get rich in a niche! Think about your areas of passion and expertise and imagine going an inch wide and a mile deep in that niche!

I’ll keep you posted as my course progresses (and the association launches). Meantime, I’d love for you to meet and connect with these fine folks: (All names and photos link to their Twitter pages and open in a new window).

Certified Social Media Strategists

Tina Cook	Megan Fitzgerald	Karriann Graf
Amy Porterfield	Mark Eldridge	Laura Rubinstein
Andrew Zirkin	Kam Hubbard	Heather Graham
Kathy Hagenbuch	Bill Jackson	Dr. Cheryl Jack
Lisa McKenzie	Cindy Ratzlaff	Lesley Morgan
Debbie Riviera	Debbie Zachry

Social Media Strategists

Susan Critelli	Kris Hoots	Francine Allaire
Angela Albright	Lisa Garcia-Ruiz	Karmen Reed
Kathryn Rose	Lani Voivod	Allen Voivod
Cathy Planchard	Jack Smith	Monique Ramsey
Michelle Tjelmeland	Diane Rayfield	Dee Overly
Cheryl McLeod	of course, be sure to follow me too: Mari Smith

By the way, we officially started on May 6th. Registrations are now officially closed for this first iteration; to secure your place in the next program you’re welcome to visit http://mentorwithmari.com.