Update: Jon Reed did an amazing summary post of our conversation on Diginomica: The Art of Enterprise Community. The Podcast is now available too.
When I moved to Mill Valley, my landlord allowed me to build this treehouse. I highly recommend the experience. To be able to sit in something that you mostly built with your own hands is very rewarding.
I got power for it and laid an ethernet cable out there, to have fast internet. That enabled me to tape some videos and have webinars from inside the treehouse. Last month I had to move out, and it made me sad to leave the treehouse behind. Is there a better way to say good by then to tape one last interview there?
Taking a break from moving boxes on a late Friday evening, I sat down a bit exhausted when the sun was coming down to chat with Jon about what I learned from building the community at SAP and beyond.
Here are some podcast notes:
- Musical intro is one of my playful webinar signatures and the little baby piano was unearthed during the move. Liven up your webinars with some personal touch is highly recommended.
- Wow the book for the Pre-Configured Client Made Easy that I developed is offered for $225 used. Wondering how they come to this price point and whether they ever sold one.
Successful Enterprise Tribe aka Advocacy Program development
- Secure executive support ideally from several as people move on.
- Create steering committee of all major players in the enterprise: Development, Marketing, Support, …It will ground and connect the tribe into the organization.
- Get community nominations for your tribe members.
- Create an identity around your advocacy group so that they can be recognized at events as well as online.
- Develop a program to maximize engagement with executives and the community throughout the year, especially during events.
- Give them an aspiration instead of KPIs.
Wonderfully captured in this Antoine de Saint-Exupéry quote or in the Hugh MacLeod print further down.
- History of the grassroots organized SAP Inside Tracks happening in 30 cities all over the world last year. Warms my heart to see pictures from Japan, Caribbean, Peru, …
Join your local one or create your own at SAP Inside Track wiki. - 57% of buyer journey done before contacting supplier. 67% of it is done digitally.
Key reason to continuously invest into strong passionate community. - You are not only buying the product, but also into the culture of the vendor community. How welcoming is it?
- SAP Mentor Initiative introduction.
- Quality isn’t Job One background to the Hugh MacLeod story by SAP Mentor Alumnus Greg Chase.
- 5K Fun Run at SAP TechEd Las Vegas and its Origin Story.
In summary. Treat your community members, especially your top community influencers as humans with lives and worries beyond your community. Create opportunities for them to shine and make a difference and get out of the way.
This is part one of the podcast/interview writeup. Thanks Jon for being flexible and squeezing it in on a Friday night before you left for New York. Part two coming soon.