The Excel Connector

Have you ever demonstrated this tool to your users? Just finished my latest user group session this morning and as a means to the end I used the excel connector to load some data. I thought the attendees were going to fall off their chair. Had half the audience asking for a link to this tool.

If you have yet to show this - get to it.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Leader call last week!  I think we all learned a lot.  The recording is available in Content in Communityforce.  It is a huge file, but it downloads from the Content application pretty quick.

Hi There,
This week we had JigSaw and Informatica sponsor our event/meeting.
The JigSaw guys are eager to sponsor more... (and I'm sure Informatica as well).

Feel free to contact:
Marc Charvoz (mcharvoz@jigsaw.com)
Don Nanneman (dnanneman@informatica.com)

Need help promoting and growing your group?

Here are my top five tips:

1. Find a sponsor with a big list. Ideally a Salesforce.com customer or partner who can promote your group to their clients and prospects.
2. Get to know your account manager. Your Salesforce account manager is a great first point of contact for new members in your area. Don't be afraid to ask him for a referral to other account managers at Salesforce so you can pitch the group.  Your area is probably represented by multiple AMs who service clients based on size. Getting to know several can really help you boost your membership.
3. Get current members to promote internally. If you have 5 members now and each company represented has 5 licenses then with a little effort you could probably have 15-20 people out to a meeting. Get creative and sell them on the benefits of why they should invite others to come out.
4. Promote your group in/on relevant online and offline publications such as your local Business Journal and local networking websites. A few to try out: Facebook.com, meetup.com, craigslist.org, your local chamber of commerce, local tech blogs, etc and be sure to submit to Salesforcetimes.com (shameless plug warning!).
5. Last but not least, consider getting in touch with local CRM/Salesforce.com consultants in the area. They often have clients who would love to come out to your meetings and can double as speakers for your events.

Post your promo ideas to comments.

Cheers

Adam

How do you start your meeting?

I've been thinking about that recently as I start planning my next one. Most of us usually have the boilerplate stuff (Hello, legal mumbo jumbo, agenda) that we have to get through and that is okay. But I've been trying to think of better ways to dive into the meeting instead of, "And our first presenter is Guy Smiley who will discuss the wonders of lead conversion...." zzzzzzzzzzz..wha wha what?

What are some better ways to start the meeting then a presentation? There has to be better ideas then what I have? In a few days I publish some of mine but I would like to hear yours.

As fellow leaders I thought you would appreciate this story:

Let me set the scene
- Agenda was spectacular for last night's meeting.
- I had a speaker driving 3 hours from Buffalo to participate
- I was trying a new venue that was spectacular and the price was right (free)

What happens: 5 inches of snow and freezing rain. You must be joking...

I handled it by signing up for 1 month of web conferencing that could support 30 people at one time. Good thing I did - only 7 people showed up for the meeting. But I had much more then that on the phone.

As a leader I was surprised how much you must change your presentation delivery to support this new medium:
- You must speak far slower.
- Bullet points and 2-3 key essentials is about as detailed as you can accurately deliver per topic.
- The need to actively enforce interactivity is crucial. Far too easy for people to tone out while on the phone.
- Your meeting must be shorter then normal. Headsets and speakerphones are only comfortable for so long.

However what really shocked me was that even with all the technical issues and the situation - people stuck with me. A very strong agenda can overcome most problems.

That and raffling off a GPS seems to help.

Brad
Pittsburgh UG

The schedule for Q1 Success Tours has been finalized.  These events have proven to be a great way to recruit new members and get the word out about what your group is doing.  Once again, the leaders in each city will be given time on the agenda to introduce their group.  I am also working with our creative team to create a flyer that we will included in each attendee's packet.  Please plan to attend the event in your area!

Success Tour Schedule
18 – Mar – Houston, JW Marriot
20 – Mar – Orange County, Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach
1 – Apr – Philadelphia, Hyatt Regency Philadelphia
3 – Apr – Santa Clara, Hyatt Regency Santa Clara
8 – Apr – Austin, Hilton Austin
15 – Apr – Miami, Intercontinental Miami
15 – Apr – Denver, Hyatt Regency Denver
17 – Apr – Montreal, Hyatt Regency Montreal

I believe the agenda will be similar to this quarter, but will provide more details as we get closer.

I'm on fire...with all the great new products we have available I could spend all my time improving Communityforce!  The latest addition is Salesforce Ideas.  Anyone who has visited the IdeaExchange should be familiar with this tool, but I think we can use it in Communityforce to share ideas and feedback around the user group program.  Use it to tell me what tools you need, how we can improve the overall program and what changes you want to see in Communityforce.  Or, use it to trade Ideas amongst yourselves.  Let's see where this can go!

You should notice something new the next time you login to Commuityforce -  Salesforce Content!  It is now live in Communityforce for everyone to use.  All of our recent Documents have been uploaded and tagged.  You can immediately add tags, comment, subscribe and contribute your own content.  Everyone has full permissions on the app - let me know if there are questions or things that should be added.

If you or your members want to test drive the Spring release before it becomes generally available, sign up here: http://prerelwww.pre.salesforce.com/form/trial/prerelease_spring08.jsp

This program is open to all salesforce.com customers, so take advantage!

I created a short presentation highlighting many of the features that will be included in the Spring '08 release and uploaded it to Communityforce.  Check in the Tools & Presentations Documents folder and feel free to use at upcoming meetings.  Feature detail pages and pre-release signup will be live on Successforce in the next few hours.  As you will see from the presentation there are some VERY cool features coming with this release!

Let your members know there's a new way to connect with the salesforce.com community! The Salesforce.com Professional Network is a new group for the salesforce.com community on LinkedIn. Joining the group will show your affiliation with salesforce.com on your LinkedIn profile and allow you to search other LinkedIn member profiles. Join today so you can:

• Network with other salesforce.com users, administrators, employees and partners

• Easily find and recruit new employees with salesforce.com experience

• Optionally show your salesforce.com affiliation on your LinkedIn profile

• Optionally allow other group members to contact you directly

• Stay up to date with salesforce.com news and developments, even if your current company doesn't use Salesforce

Click here to join: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/47390/25D51B54E354

I will add a template in Communityforce, but feel free to add a blurb to your own meeting invites and don't forget to join yourself!

Thanks again for all the great work in 2007.  I am looking forward to working with all of you in '08 to take the salesforce.com User Group program to the next level and continue expanding into new areas.  We have many new cities lined up and I am looking for people to lead Special Interest Groups with a vertical focus.

While most of us have been celebrating the holidays, the salesforce.com products teams have been hard at work getting the Spring '08 release ready to go.  I can't share details yet, but I can say there are a few features you and your members will be very excited about.  Look for more information next week.

Best wishes to you and yours for a happy and successful 2008!

Jeanine

Happy Holidays!

As promised, we are offering promotional pricing to all user group members on certain salesforce.com training courses offered in January.  There is a new template available in Communityforce for all of you to use.  It is a holiday card you can send to all your members and includes details of the promotional pricing.  My plan is to offer similar promotions on a quarterly basis, so let me know if your members find this valuable.

I look forward to working with all you in the New Year - thanks for all the great work in '07!

On Dec 4th we had a great event sponsored by Xactly and Pervasive.

Steve De Marco [steve@xactlycorp.com] from Xactly would really like to sponsor other event! BTW, Doug’s info from Pervasive is in CommunityForce as well.

Have a look at O’Reilly Usergroup Program: http://ug.oreilly.com/ 

Register and you can get free stuff for the user group. You can tell Marsee that you heard it from me ;)

You can also try Pearson Education: http://www.informit.com/user_groups/index.aspx?rl=1

Thanks to everyone who participated on the call today.  We had over 30 leaders attend and heard great presentations from Erica Stowe (Detroit), Adam Killam (Vancouver) and Brad Gross (Pittsburg).  The recording cuts off a few minutes of introductions at the beginning, but begins with Erica's discussion of her group's Foundation activities.  If you want the slides, they are uploaded to Communityforce.

GoToMeeting recording:

Download quarterly_call_12_04_07.wmv

Please remember to update your User record in Communityforce with any contact details you are comfortable sharing.  This will offer another way for leaders to network with each other. 

Gotta run - look for more wrap-up and updates soon.

Yes, you read that right.  It is still November, but plans are afoot for the Spring '08 release of Salesforce.  No details yet on what will be included, but look for Pre-Release information early in January with the actual release to follow several weeks later.  We will be offering customers self-service sign up for the pre-release program like we did with Winter '08.

I think the deciding factor in whether a new member makes it out to their first meeting and subsequent meetings has to do with the ever important first impressions they receive when learning about your group.

It's those first points of contact that solidify a relationship in the early stages in business and personal life and running a user group is no different.

Impression points to be aware of:

• Your user group blog: is it updated regularly? Is there recent content?

• Your 1^st email: did you reassure them this is a valuable use of their time and address what’s in it for them?

• Their first discussion with you – did you ask questions about them and take time to find out why they came out?

• Their first meeting: did you greet them at the door and take time to speak with them afterwards?

The key is simple: focus on them and what they can get out of it. Reassure them, ask questions, listen and show you’re there to be a resource to them. Members are like customers (and in many case become customers!) if you treat them well and provide value they will keep coming back for more.

And now for the "why." Why do should you care about new members so much? They are the lifeblood of the group. New members = new ideas, experiences, contacts, contexts and more. They keep your momentum going and keep it interesting. Running the group can be a lot of work but it continues to be interesting as long as you have a stream a new members trickling in. Make lasting first impressions and they'll keep coming through the door.

As I mentioned in my last post, there has been an incredible amount of user group activity over the past few weeks.  Thanks to all you long time leaders for the continued hard work in making this happen.  I also want to take a moment to extend a warm welcome to all the new leaders who have recently volunteered.

Austin - David Franklin, Genband (new group)
Los Angeles  - Roxanne Kimmel, Ignited LLC & Charlotte Doepker, Keenan & Associates
Nonprofits Bay Area - Seth Schneider, TALC, Clayton Yee, SF Nature Education & Spencer Bolles, Bay Area Community Resources (new group)
North Carolina - Scott Robinson, Inclinix (new group)
Southern Ohio - Diana Raisor, SHPS (new group)
Portland - Don Brown, Liberty Northwest
San Diego - Rhonda Ross, Audatex & Mark Lappin, Bakbone Software
Seattle - Barry Plum, Tableau Software (new co-leader for Suzanne Moore)
Silicon Valley - Prithvi Kandanda, Aztecsoft (new co-leader for Joshua Meiri)
Twin Cities - Kathy Ecklund, ADC & Leyna Hoffer, IDeas
Singapore - Michelle Koh, Hardware Zone
Sydney - Glen Elliott, Myriad Minds
Ottawa - Kevin Caputo, Meriton Networks (new group)
Toronto - Bruno Rosati, Clarity Systems & Rob Baldassare, Century Vallen

We will have a leader conference call in December to get everyone together to share ideas & best practices - look for details later this month.  In the mean time, check out David Franklin's recap of the first Austin meeting.  It looks like they are off to a great start!

It is great to see so many groups meeting lately.  In the last few weeks, there have been meetings in: France, Pittsburg, Stockholm, Orange County, Portland, Seattle, Washington, DC, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Vancouver, New York and Austin (our newest group!).  Boston, Detroit and San Diego are all meeting next week.  And, we have groups starting in Southern Ohio and the BeNeLux countries before the end of the month. The momentum is fantastic!

Please help me track and measure this momentum by logging your meetings and attendance numbers in Communityforce.  I want to make sure management here at salesforce.com has proof of all the great things you guys are doing.  If you have questions about how to do this, let me know.  Look for an updated process doc on this soon.

Thanks!