PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 08, 2009 – Palo Alto, CA,  September 8  -  Palo Alto based Social Media Academy announces its Black Diamond global social media consultant network.  Certified social media consultants from the US, Europe, Singapore  and Australia are set to collaborate on a global scale to help small, medium and large businesses create social media programs that are specifically tailored to their social media ecosystems. The group engages based on unified methodologies from the Social Media Academy, including the Four-Quadrant Social Media Assessment model, the Strategy Hexagon for developing a robust social media plan, and five other standardized methodologies.

Social Media Academy founder Axel Schultze said: “Business leaders have a hard time to select a social media consultant that is right for them. Too many self proclaimed social media experts only confuse customers. We conquer this problem by creating a worldwide standard for methodologies, strategy development and social media execution plans. The Black Diamond Network consists of a worldwide network of certified social media consultants with a very transparent and unified experience profile.”

"Mark Moore, from Atlanta, GA, one of the founding members said: “One of our big advantages is our globally standardized methodology approach. Any member can jump into any project and knows exactly how we all work. This provides a great project security for small and large customers”. Boughty Canton, another founding member, from Singapore commented: “Businesses begin to understand that social media is not just a marketing tool but a general business strategy. As Black Diamonds members, we help companies to think and execute strategically”. Wendy Soucie from Wisconsin said: “An important aspect of the Black Diamond Network is our ability to provide very cost efficient social media packages to small businesses. Even though we are connected in a global network - the individual Black Diamonds operate locally. Each Black Diamond brings to the engagement an understanding of a particular regional area or even a vertical market dynamic."  Rick Speciale from Sydney, Australia and Catherine Sherwood from Albuquerque, NM see another advantage of the Black Diam ond group in the collaboration of different subject matter experts. “We both focus on the financial services industry. Collaborating with other experts while maintaining a standardized operating method gives customers the breadth and depth in expertise they expect”. Barbara Daniels from Mesa, AZ, also one of the founding members stated: “We collaborate on projects and strategic engagements as a group, each bringing our unique talents and backgrounds to create a synergy in the fast-paced world of social media that is the first of its kind. We take social media far beyond the marketing aspect, assisting companies in building mindshare and market share by imploring the proven principles and standardized methodologies of the Social Media Academy.”

The Black Diamond group is orche strated by the Social Media Academy and organizes knowledge webinars in the US, Europe and Asia helping businesses to better comprehend the impact social media has to their business, their market and their ecosystem. The Knowledge webinar series starts in September and is free of charge. A Black Diamond reception is established to help companies find the best social media strategist for their respective needs. The next leadership class, which is the base education to become a black diamond, starts September 16.

More details are available at:
http://socialmedia-academy.com/BlackDiamonds

More corresponding links:
Social Media Academy
http://socialmedia-academy.com
Social Media Leadership class
http://socialmedia-academy.com/html/us-leadershipclass.cfm
Social Media Academy Methodology overview
http://socialmedia-academy.com/html/methodologies.cfm

Social sites from people mentioned in this press release:
Axel Schultze http://xeeSM.com/AxelS
Barbara Daniels http://xeeSM.com/wk4coffee
Boughton Canton http://xeeSM.com/Boughty
Catherine Sherwood http://xeeSM.com/CatherineSherwood
Mark Moore http://xeeSM.com/RMarkMoore/
Rick Speciale http://xeeSM.com/speciale/
Walter Adamson http://xeeSM.com/walter/
Wendy Soucie http://xeeSM.com/wendysoucie/