Few can deny the utility of learning directly from experts, it creates a mentor menthe relationship that no amount of theory can replace. Google is hoping to capture this spirit with their new AdWords Community Top Contributors Program. Not only do they want to reward advanced users for passing their knowledge on to others, but they hope it will encourage the flow of expertise to continue.
Google picked their top contributors from a list of users who have gone above and beyond to help others and awarded them a special top contributor badge and invited them to an AdWords summit in Mountain Vista, California. It was an opportunity for them to meet and share feedback with AdWords product developers, Google executives, and product managers.
Here’s the list of this years top contributors:
* Theresa Zook
* Pete Bardo
* Jon Gritton
* Lakatos Bela
* Kim Clinkunbroomer
* Richard Ball
* Calin Sandici
Here’s what Google lists as benefits to becoming a top AdWords contributor:
* A profile on our AdWords Top Contributors page.
* Access to private forums with Google team members.
* Inclusion in the Trusted Testers program to test out cool new features before anyone else.
* Product updates directly from the AdWords team.
* Hangouts with AdWords Community Leads on Google+.
* Trainings given by the AdWords team.
It sounds like a good program for experts and novice alike. If can’t learn it from those who are the most well versed, who can you learn it from. Its exciting to see so many people collaborating on these projects. It shows that Google is still fixated on collaboration and innovation. It’s that Google+ spirit coming into play.