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New York, New York – June 15, 2010 – Today, New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. announced its first annual Small and Medium Business Social Media Marketing Awards. AMI analysts will acknowledge Information Communications and Technology (ICT) providers that effectively use social media to inform the purchase process of small and medium businesses.

“The hype around social media is deafening,” says Chad Thompson, Vice President of AMI’s Marketing Strategy and GtM Group. “But for SMBs there is little compelling intelligence around two critical questions:1) How and why SMBs are using social media, and 2) How can social media be used as an effective marketing tool to inform SMBs’ purchase process.”

AMI has been studying SMBs’ usage of social media in countries all over the world for years and now has launched a comprehensive study in the United States to uncover even greater insights. Specifically AMI’s U.S. SMB Social Media Study is designed to assess: what segments of the SMB market use social media, what forms, sites and services of social media are being used, frequency of use, what types of promotional offers SMBs are most likely to take advantage of through social media, how social media compares to other marketing vehicles in terms of impact on the purchase process, to what extent SMBs trust the content delivered through social media, and assessment of whether social media helps brands like HP, Microsoft, Intuit, AT&T and other top ICT manufacturers and service providers acquire and retain SMBs.

The winners of AMI’s SMB Social Media Marketing Awards will be determined through the following criteria:

1. SMB Engagement: to what extent small and medium businesses are accessing, responding to and sharing the content.

2. SMB Purchase Influence: how effectively companies are influencing SMBs’ purchasing process of ICT solutions.

3. SMBs’ Perceptions: is the content perceived as high value, trusted and do SMBs feel more connected to the company?

All companies that sell and market ICT products and services, and that use social media to engage SMBs, will be considered. Marketers that would like to ensure their company is taken into consideration for these awards should contact Chad Thompson, cthompson@ami-partners.com or Jacqui Atkinson, Social Media Manager, jatkinson@ami-partners.com. Specific examples should be included that demonstrate how the use of social media in the SMB market is tangibly informing the purchase process of business decision makers (BDMs) and/or technical decision makers (TDMs) of SMBs. AMI will announce the winners in September with a press release, whitepaper and a special event.