SalesForce.com (SFDC) IdeaExchange – it’s one of the best kept secrets that New SalesForce.com Users and Administrators should learn about and take advantage of.  Do you know about it?  Do you use it?

The IdeaExchange is a forum where SFDC users and administrators can submit product enhancements, or “ideas”.  In addition to submitting these ideas, SFDC Users can also promote ideas they like, and demote ideas they don’t like.  These votes are tracked as a score value, and the most voted / most popular ideas bubble up to the top.  What a great tool for SFDC Product Managers to get user input and feedback on the product!  In fact, SFDC product managers frequently review and comment on ideas posted in the IdeaExchange, fostering an open dialog between SFDC Customers and the SFDC Product Development Teams.

You don’t need a Salesforce.com account to browse the IdeaExchange, but only SFDC customers with an active user account can post, comment, promote and/or demote ideas in the forum.

At the top of the Blog, I reference IdeaExchange as one of the best kept secrets.  I don’t know if your experience is different, but I kinda stumbled on the IdeaExchange by accident.  One day, while logged in to my administrator account, I was clicking on various links and images to see where they would take me.  Eventually, I clicked on the AppExchange logo, and from there I clicked onto the SuccessForce.com link.  There are a lot of really GREAT resources on the SuccessForce website, but the one that caught my idea immediately was IdeaExchange.

It was the images in the IdeaExchange that drew my attention most.  When posting an Idea, Users have the option of uploading an image to emphasize or illustrate their point.  The “idea” here is that a picture is worth a thousand words, right?  You can describe your idea / request in words, but couple that description with a screenshot – maybe with a little Photoshop editing to show how you want the feature to work – and BAM!  You’re able to communicate your idea that much more effectively.

When browsing the IdeaExchange, you can select tab filters to view “recently submitted” ideas or “most popular” ideas.  You can see comments and opinions that other users have weighed in with.  In your profile, you can see the historical record of ideas that you have commented on or promoted.  You can even look at the profiles and “idea stats” of other users in the IdeaExchange community – to see which ideas they’ve submitted, how those well those ideas have been promoted, etc.  You can see the “Top Idea Users”, both those casting the most votes and those creating the most popular ideas.

However, it wasn’t until DreamForce 2007 that I saw the real potency of IdeaExchange.  DreamForce is the annual user convention in San Diego.  During one of the keynote presentations, Marc Beinoff made a point of announcing some of the new features in the upcoming Winter’08 release.  His presentation included screenshots of how these ideas had originated, by user submissions on the IdeaExchange.  These were some of the most popular and promoted ideas on the IdeaExchange, likely a fair number of users at that convention had even voted some of these ideas up.  As the features were announced, the user group applause and excitement was electric!

If you haven’t used the IdeaExchange, set some time aside to take a tour of it.  Run some keyword searches on SFDC features that you use, and see the related ideas other SFDC users are talking about on that feature.  Get involved!  Create a IdeaExchange community profile, and chime in with your own comments.  Promote up ideas that you favor.  If there is a feature that you want or need, but you can’t find it with the IdeaExchange forum search – post your idea to the user community!  Salesforce.com really listens to its community base, and if the Idea reaches critical mass, you’re very likely to see it in an upcoming release.

I just got a LinkedIn invite from fellow SFDC NHUG Member Ken Quast, and it reminded me that I had wanted to share information about the Salesforce.com Professional Network group with all of you.

About LinkedIn

Hopefully you know all about LinkedIn, but for those of you who don't, here's a little info.  LinkedIn is a web-based social networking group (other examples of social networking groups include sites like MySpace, Facebook).  LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking group, which aims to connect academic and business colleagues together, even as they change jobs or careers.

A LinkedIn user invites (or receives invitations) from colleagues, and the tool maintains a list of these contacts (called connections, in LinkedIn).  A contact network is built up, consisting of direct connections, 2nd degree connections (i.e., people who are connected to your connections), and third degree connections.  These 2nd and 3rd degree connections can be used to get introduced to someone you wish to know through a mutual contact.

I use the tool to keep my resume updated.  I also use LinkedIn to keep tabs on what past colleagues and college allumni are doing now in their professional careers.  People change jobs quickly, and it's easy to lose track of them, but LinkedIn makes it easy to stay in touch.

Becoming a user in LinkedIn is free.  Visit http://www.linkedin.com/ for more details.

LinkedIn Groups

So what are LinkedIn Groups?  It's a group of LinkedIn Users who are members of an industry or professional group or even alumni organization.  It's another way of expanding your personal LinkedIn Network, expand your list of business contacts, and stay in touch with group members.

Salesforce.com Professional Network

Salesforce.com now has a LinkedIn group with nearly 1,000 members! You can join the Salesforce Professional Network today by visiting this web page.

The Salesforce.com Professional Network connects former and present salesforce.com users, administrators and employees, allowing them to expand their professional development, exchange ideas, network and continue to be a part of the Salesforce.com community.

As a group member, you'll have the option to make your profile available to other group members. You'll also have a Salesforce Professional Network badge on your LinkedIn profile.