Emerging Solutions: Salesforce Communities

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Angela Mahoney

• CRM Project Manager, Idealist Consulting• Certified Admin, Developer and Sales Cloud Consultant• On Salesforce platform since 2006

Introductions

Maurice Wasserman

• Account Executive, Public Sector at Salesforce.com• Works with Higher Education Institutions, Cities, Counties, K12 Districts

and Non-Profit Organizations to help reduce administrative system costs and people related costs.

First…what are they?

Communities combine both business processes

with social networking.

A single org can have multiple communities, accessed from one login.

They can be used for Constituents, Volunteers, Customers, Partners,

Vendors, … visibility/access is controlled through profiles for both

internal and external users... they can be branded.

Use Cases

Event promotion and Follow Up

Conversational Promotion

Interoffice communication

Membership forums

Community Building

Communities vs PortalsCustomer and Partner Communities have the functionality of Customer and Partner Portals,

But wait - there’s more! Order now and you get:

• Chatter inside communities• Access to dashboards for partner users in communities• Use of Site.com to create branded public and private pages• Management of community members using permission sets

Portals

While traditional Portals are no longer available,

for users that currently them,

there is no forecasted date to sunset them.

Partner vs Customer Communities

Communitie$

Customers and Partners need a license to participate in a Community. Communities are priced with two different models: Community Members

and Logs Ins per month.

It’s critical to understand the usage habits of your Community so you can avoid any unpleasant overage charges.

Please talk with your rep to detemine the best pricing model.

Deploying Communities

From a technical perspective, setting up Salesforce Communities is relatively

simple.

• Choose a URL

• Check the Enable Communities box

• Have a color palette and some appropriate images,

• Have an idea of objects… and voila!

• You now have a fully functional Salesforce Community that can increase collaboration and engagement across your entire organization!

Deploying Communities

Similar to a college commencement,

where the graduate thinks it’s the end,

when in reality, it’s the beginning,

so it is with Communities.

What will your community be about?

Who will use it?

How will they use it?

When will they use it?

Who will use it?

How will they use it?

When will they use it?

Best Practices

Give Community Members what is important to THEM: Resist the urge to include everything just because you can. Really hone in on

what is important to your Community and limit tabs to just that.

Brand your Community: You have options for the look and feel, from out of the box configuration to

using Visual Force for a more customized look. Keep the look and feel consistent with your brand identity.

Best Practices

Limit Access (in a good way): Determine membership through specific profiles for both internal

and external members. Keep things targeted.

Test your Community: Before you launch, test drive your new Community with a pre-

selected group of internal and external constituents/members and act on their feedback.

Technology is only as good ...

…as the people involved

Communities provide a way for members/constituents/customers/partners

to talk with each other – it is very people-centric.

In other words, a successful community is highly dependent on actively engaged members and therein lies the challenge – this is a company-wide

endeavor, not just IT.

Managing Communities

Communities cross many pieces of an organization, from fundraising/sales to Support to IT.

They need someone to be in charge of their success.

Cue Community Manager, stage right:

Online community managers grow, engage, listen and improve communities for a brand, cause, or topic.

Invest in a Community Manager

To make the Community a success,

internal teams should be aware

and involved in the community.

This can be aided with a Community Manager role.

Invest in a Community Manager

A community manager has to understand business needs and

(internal and external) member needs to make sure

the community stays active.

This person should set strategy, measure impact, build engagement,

and ensure that the

community brings value.

In a nutshell

Salesforce Communities provide an easy way to uplevel your interactions

with constituents, partners, members, etc, but do some careful planning

on who will be involved in your communities, both internally and

externally, so you can create a sustainable, vibrant community that

enhances the experience of all members.

Q & A

Resources

Power of us Hubhttps://powerofus.force.com

Getting Started with CommunitiesImplementation Guide(http://bit.ly/1rSOqUg)

Local User Groupshttps://success.salesforce.com/userGroups