Jumpstart Your SharePoint Community Efforts #SPSRIC

Jumpstart Your
SharePoint Community Efforts

Christian Buckley

cbuck@axceler.com
@buckleyPLANET

SharePoint Saturday Richmond
November 5th, 2011
Email Cell Twitter Blog
cbuck@axceler.com 425.246.2823 @buckleyplanet http://buckleyplanet.com

My Background

Christian Buckley, Director of Product Evangelism at Axceler

• Most recently at Microsoft
• Microsoft Managed Services (now Office365-Dedicated)
• Advertising Operations, ad platform API program
• Prior to Microsoft, was a senior consultant, working in the software, supply
chain, and grid technology spaces focusing on collaboration
• Co-founded and sold a collaboration software company to Rational
Software. Also co-authored 3 books on software configuration management
and defect tracking for Rational and IBM
• At another startup (E2open), helped design, build, and deploy a
SharePoint-like collaboration platform (Collaboration Manager), managing
deployment teams to onboard numerous high-tech manufacturing
companies, including Hitachi, Matsushita, Seagate, Nortel, Sony, and Cisco
• I live in a small town just east of Seattle, 4 kids. Co-authoring ‘Implementing
Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Real-World Projects’ (MSPress, Feb2012)

Axceler Overview
Improving Collaboration for 16+ Years
Mission: To enable enterprises to simplify, optimize, and
secure their collaborative platforms
Delivered award-winning administration and migration
software since 1994
Over 2,000 global customers

Dramatically improve the management
of SharePoint
Innovative products that improve security, scalability,
reliability, “deployability”
Making IT more effective and efficient and lower the total
cost of ownership

Focus on solving specific SharePoint problems
(Administration & Migration)
Coach enterprises on SharePoint best practices
Give administrators the most innovative tools available
Anticipate customers’ needs
Deliver best of breed offerings
Stay in lock step with SharePoint development and market trends


The Role of Evangelism

Product Management
Feedback loop from partner and customer into product
Deeply involved with future versions
Pioneer best practices to create collateral and help support customers
Develop customer data and validate, provide gap analysis, provide design guidance and
advocate for product changes
Community Development
Enrich and expand the Microsoft relationship
Provide thought leadership in the SharePoint community
Product champion and influence through blogs, forums, conferences, articles
Build lasting connections with key leaders in the SharePoint product team, Microsoft field
offices, and partner community

Partner Development
Recruit partners (ISVs, SIs, professional service firms, independent consultants)
Track and support partner activities and their customer needs
Help refine and build the partner program details, forms, documentation
Work with marketing and IT to design and build a partner portal
Develop training and marketing content and videos to support partners

Technical Enablement
Work closely with customers on adopting and extending our tools

The Evangelist Role

Product

Partner

Community


Your Role


Why develop community?


SharePoint is the fastest growing server product in
Microsoft history, rivaling the success of MS Office

The SharePoint partner ecosystem fills the platform gaps,
and helps deliver solution ROI

Many credit the SharePoint community with making
SharePoint the success that it is

Microsoft is looking at ways they can tap into key learning
from the SharePoint community, extend it to other product areas


Why Community Development?

Proactively drive perceptions
Visible member of the community
Thought leadership
Connect to experts, partners, customers
Microsoft relationship
Awareness of the brand and our products


The Consumer Decision Journey

HBR 12/2010

Why Involve End Users?

Executives
Managers
IT Department
Consultants
Partners
The SharePoint Fairy
End Users will determine the success
of your SharePoint deployment


Studies show that end user
participation in the design and
development of a system
dramatically increases the
chance of success


What is so hard about
developing community?


Case Study


How to
Jumpstart Community


No registration required http://www.axceler.com/Portals/0/ebooks/BuildingYourPersonalBrand.pdf

Strategy 1: Events


Strategy 1: Events

1. Start a company user group
2. Join your local/regional SPUG
3. Join your local/regional technology organizations
4. Attend or help organize a SharePoint Saturday
5. Attend or host a SharePint
6. Attend a regional conference
7. Create your own event


While at these events:
• Bring a friend, family member, co-worker
• Introduce yourself to someone new, every time
• Take notes on what worked, what you would
do differently
• Get to know the people who run them, the movers
and shakers within the community


Feedback
Mechanisms

I find your lack of faith
in the community
disturbing…


Strategy 2: Social Media


Definitions

“Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social
interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing
techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to
transform broadcast media monologues (one-to-many) into social
media dialogues (many-to-many).

It supports the democratization of knowledge and information,
transforming people from content consumers into content producers.”
Wikipedia.org


Cultural Battle

“Even those who fancy themselves the most progressive
will fight against other kinds of progress, for each of us
is convinced that our way is the best way.“

— Louis L'Amour

• Understand your corporate culture before you try to change anything

• Explain what it is you’re trying to do, and get end users onboard

• In addition to executive buy in, you need your end users to buy in


Strategy 2: Social Media

1. Create a Twitter personal profile
2. Create a Twitter company profile
3. Join a Facebook group
4. Start a Facebook group
5. Join groups on LinkedIn
6. Bookmark the MSDN/TechNet forums, create a profile
7. RSS feeds for your favorite blogs and sites
8. Use Google Analytics
9. Use Hubspot and other tracking tools
10. Utilize social bookmarking on all content


Social Media is about consistency

Blog daily activity / visits
Social media visits

Twitter follower growth Blog subscription growth


Strategy 3: Content


The Power of Content

More than any other activity, content
creation drives thought leadership, and is
the cornerstone of building community.


Strategy 3: Content

1. Create a blog
2. Read and comment on other blogs
3. Create an editorial calendar, write with intent
1. Blogs lead to
2. Articles, which lead to
3. Whitepapers and presentations, which lead to
4. Books, featured content, and other content opportunities
4. Create a metadata strategy
5. Present at a regional event or conference
6. Create content for an aggregator (Squidoo, About)
7. Write an ebook

8. Publish a newsletter
9. Host a webinar
10. Create a podcast
11. Create videos
12. Partner with other authors and experts, cross-market


Strategy 4: Take Action


Strategy 4: Take Action

1. Create a metadata strategy
2. Create a user adoption strategy
3. Brand yourself
4. Use free press release services
5. Use free event services (Evite)
6. Create branded bling
7. Hire a publicist


Define Success


Have success defined up front:
 Number of end users participating
 Number of events held
 Articles written
 Views / downloads
 Make it part of your formal commitments
 Communicate your plans
 Tell people your plans
 Give people visibility as you work
 Tell people what you’ve accomplished

Best Practices for Success

Get your end users involved early

Have their roles defined for each phase of the project

Let the end users drive the preparation and
management of their own content and metadata,
wherever possible

Communicate often, and show them progress

Celebrate the small wins!


The Secret to Community Success

1. Bring a friend
2. Get involved
3. Keep learning


Readiness


For more information

Contact me at
Christian Buckley, cbuck@axceler.com, 425-246-2823
On Twitter at @buckleyplanet
www.buckleyPLANET.com

Download the free ebook!
http://bit.ly/aiYKWR

Articles
Starting a Community is Hard
SharePoint, Hillbillies, and Community


Email
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cbuck@axceler.com
Email Cell Twitter
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cbuck@echotechnology.com @buckleyplanet
425.246.2823 425.246.2823
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http://buckleyplanet.com

Jumpstart Your SharePoint Community Efforts #SPSRIC

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