It’s back to reality for me this week, after being invited over to Granada for a megamix community group meetup, where I had the opportunity to present a digest and some thoughts and demos on Pardot and Social Studio.
It was really great to have the opportunity to meet some of the members of the Trailblazer Community in Andalucia (South of Spain), from the leaders of the groups like Alba Rivas, Julio Diego Barrado and Jose Manuel Misa, to great collaborators and supporters of the community such as Pedro Molina, Francisco Porras and Alberto Lozano, as well wonderful members like Cristina Callejon who travelled more than 3 hours each way to join us in the user group meetup!
These developer and user groups meetups are part of the Trailblazer Community, but what is that?
The Community is the Salesforce Advantage that no other software vendor can compete with
It is comprised of many things (one could call them initiatives but they are much more than that!):
- Answers
Where users can ask questions and help each other. This is very dear to my heart, as when I started my Salesforce journey I did rely on Answers a lot, it was an incredible surprise to see how other users would take the time (and patience) to help me to solve my business problems. Now it’s my time to give back, so for the past 2+ years, I spend a bit of time there everyday. https://success.salesforce.com/answers
- Groups
Online based groups where you can engage with fellow members, from customers, peers, experts, MVPs, Salesforce product managers and employees.
There are different types of groups, from feature-driven ones like #LightningNow or Marketing Cloud, to user groups based on geographical area like the London User Group, or even the famous Release Readiness and Feature Adoption group with more than 30,000 members!
- Ideas
This is Salesforce’s primary channel for listening to you, guiding them through their roadmap priorities. A place where you can propose new ideas and vote on the improvements that you would like to have, as well as tracking the status; a place where product managers and other customers post workarounds/suggestions until the feature becomes available. And they actually deliver every single release, for example in Winter ‘18 there were 95,000 points retired from the IdeaExchange!
- AppExchange
This is like your Salesforce org’s App Store or business application marketplace, filled with apps that help businesses increase team productivity and company growth. You can easily install these ready-made apps ‘off the shelf’ and configure them so that you can leverage these 3rd party solutions for a much faster delivery! They have recently delivered a new framework and a brand new look and feel, check it out.
- Trailblazers
The source, the goal and the reason. There will be no community without them, we make it happen. A relatively new term for this ecosystem but the concept was already there.
Trailblazers are pioneers, innovators, and lifelong learners. They inspire others with their constant innovation, by transforming the customer experience, and by growing their careers.
- Community-Led Events
And last but not least, this is one of the latest additions: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/community/events. Take a look at these event listings to find somewhere you’ll love to learn Salesforce together with others! Check out upcoming community-led events around the world for amazing opportunities to connect, learn, have fun, and get inspired by your peers – just like the megamix meetup I attended in Granada!
Only a couple of weeks ago Chris was telling us about DreamOlé, of which I’m part of the organising committee. Join us this year, 27th April in Barcelona! The sessions will be shortly announced but as a sneak-peek you can expect from us: apps, beta, AI, processes, tools, law compliance, integrations, best practices and a tonne for you to note down and use once you get back to work.
To wrap up this post, Sofia Rodriguez Mata, Trailblazer Community Manager, wrote only couple of weeks ago (as a Valentines treat!) a great blog on this awesome community subject: Inside the Trailblazer Community: What’s Love Got to Do with It
Give it a read, and get involved in this ecosystem! It’s incredibly rewarding and pretty contagious! I hope to see you at the next community event!
Thank you guys for inviting me over for the megamix #TrailblazerCommunity meetup Granada Developer + Seville Developer & Andalucia User Group, growing the community & #SalesforceOhana, a pleasure to be part of! pic.twitter.com/E9jOEkl0Bf
— Ines Garcia ☁ (@Inescapinezka) February 24, 2018
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