GOLDEN, Colorado – May 9, 2018 – Badged announced today a new strategic partnership with IT Specialist Network, a leading operator of online communities for IT professionals.
Both companies address the top challenge in professional services today. A recent study of professional services firms showed “attracting new clients / business opportunities” as the top business challenge by far. 77% of firms reported the issue, 20% more than the next largest issue.
Badged is addressing this challenge with its specialized online marketplace for IT firms. The IT Specialist Network partnership adds inbound marketing opportunities for firms in the Badged community. Badged members can now leverage the power of social media to reach new customers with their technical expertise and services.
Together, Badged and IT Specialist Network now provide members multiple online venues or marketing channels for promotion of their IT services using more sophisticated permission marketing methods. Permission based marketing works by earning people’s attention, rather than buying it, as is done with traditional display advertising.
“Small practices struggle to gain visibility online. For IT firms with leading expertise to showcase, the exposure obtained on the IT Specialist Network using service provider webinars, videos and publications are a great complement to the Badged marketplace”, said Eric Lehto, CEO of Badged.
As the Badged community grows, the IT Specialist Network communities will also benefit from the open marketplace provided by Badged. Badged is developing the platform and community to be a leading resource to quickly find, qualify, and engage trusted technology services partners, a level of transparency and trust not found in online communities.
With the partnership, Will Jeansonne, founder of IT Specialist Network, will join the Badged team as Director of Business Development. Will brings experienced leadership to the Badged team with over 10 years of experience in building online communities.
As Eric commented, “I love Will’s passion for serving the IT community. Will also has the proven expertise in building IT relationships online with IT Specialist Network. He is a natural leader for our business development.”
Badged was founded in 2017 to become the open marketplace for the IT services community. Badged has a unique focus on corp-to-corp (C2C) IT services and the transition to a partner economy, as the IT industry adapts to the rapid pace of change. It’s a market not served well by freelancer marketplaces and simple online directories. The Badged.io marketplace is now in beta release with a growing community of partners.
IT Specialist Network operates global communities for IT professionals. Membership in IT Specialist Network now exceeds 500,000 members spread across twenty social media channels and its flagship website or infomediary, ITSpecialist.com. The company’s core mission is to help IT professionals find and share the technical information and tools they need to succeed on the job and in their professional development.