“Connecting the Pump Systems Community” is not just a blog post title or a tag line listed under our logo. This is what I work at each and every day. When people ask me, “What is Empowering Pumps?” I have to explain how we serve different groups of people within the Pump Industry.

We serve three major groups within the pump industry: (1) people working directly with pumps or pump systems, (2) industrial equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers, and (3) leading industry organizations. For people working on the “front lines” – operators, technicians, engineers, consultants – we work to be an online resource for them. We strive to publish information that will help them design, specify, operate, and maintain reliable and efficient pumping systems. In order to do this, we work with subject matter experts – equipment manufacturers, service providers, and trusted industry organizations. As a resource for OEMs and service providers, Empowering Pumps partners with them to disseminate value-added content to pump professionals across the industry. We partner with leading industry organizations, such as the Hydraulic Institute and Fluid Sealing Association, to share information on best practices and opportunities for continuing education.

Empowering Pumps is truly unique. We are not a “magazine”!  We aren’t even an “online magazine”!  We are a digital media company that connects the pump systems community through our network of websites, e-newsletters, and social media. We provide a multi-channel platform to *engage* people in the pump world.

Is Empowering Pumps “competing” with pump industry publications and print magazines? Are we a competitor? The answer for me is NO. We may have the same group of customers, but we are satisfying different needs. Are a Pump OEM and a Motor OEM competitors because they both might sell industrial equipment to a company like Dow Chemical? No, they are satisfying different needs. There is print media and there is digital media. Follow me here…Digital (Not print) Media (the collective communication outlets or tools that are used to store and deliver information).

Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, and preserved on digital electronics devices. Digital media are frequently contrasted with print media, such as printed books, newspapers, and magazines. Combined with the internet, digital media has caused disruption in publishing, journalism, entertainment, education, commerce, and politics.

Digital media created new challenges for the pump industry. We didn’t create digital media, new media, or the Information Age. We created Empowering Pumps. What we do here is help our industry transition from traditional marketing and advertising to “new media” marketing.

Empowering Pumps was the first to use “NEW MEDIA” in the pump industry. I created the model using social media on every page of EmpoweringPumps.com to educate the pump industry before our industry was even using social media.  Before Empowering Pumps, many people in the pump industry did not understand the power of online marketing and social media. It was thought to be “just a fad”, a waste of time, and to a suspicious few, an avenue for leaking proprietary information. The truth is that digital media is a powerful tool and one we use to add value to many different groups of people working in the pump industry.

One of the key differentiators of digital media, especially the social kind, is that it’s incredibly flexible and instantaneous. I can reach thousands of customers all across the world in minutes, and if it doesn’t work, change it and repost just as quickly; something more traditional printed media was not able to do.

Empowering Pumps has become an incredible resource for industrial B2B marketers to promote their activities, show their industry leadership, share their technical expertise, and inform the pump systems community about the cutting edge technologies and new products that are available. Empowering Pumps enables industrial B2B marketers to put their content, in the blink of an eye, in front of their target audience – whether that audience is on their desktop computer, tablet, or mobile phone. How cool is that?! Now you know why digital and social media gets me so excited!

Using digital media, I get to use all my connections, platforms, associations, tradeshows, conferences, parties, and partner publications to campaign to the best community on earth… the pump systems community!

The digital and social world is evolving at light speed. Everyday more tools are being developed, making it easier to use, quicker to respond, and increase its reach. Here at Empowering Pumps, we readily embrace this pace of change. It keeps us on our toes, gives us new toys to play with almost every day, and above all, enables us to continuously improve the services we provide to our partners and their customers who use our platform every day.

I challenge you to get more involved in “Connecting the Pump Systems Community”. Contact me at charli@empoweringpumps.com to learn how you can get involved!