The Exigency of Networking in Salesforce Ecosystem

You may be a profound or a novice Salesforce user, developer, admin, it goes without saying that you must have got stuck with a problem in the Salesforce system that left you totally frustrated.

And it is inevitable that you’d face such problems in the future. How can you avoid them? The answer is “you can’t.”. But you can be better prepared to handle such situations with ‘Networking’.

Salesforce Networking

It can be explained as a course of action to meet other Salesforce users/admins/developers, find out about their perspectives and expertise, whilst discovering new aspects of Salesforce.

Research shows that professional networking helps in more job/business opportunities, developing broader and deeper knowledge, and improving your tendency to innovate. Developing and nurturing professional relationships also improves the quality of work and increases job satisfaction.

Salesforce is a gigantic tool and it is nearly impossible for an individual to master it and to know every detail about the system. To the fact that every business is different and their processes are unique, so are their users. No two organizations use Salesforce the same way. Systems, processes, and workflows vary from organization to organization.

So, different users explore the different verticals of it. One is an expert in Salesforce Platform, the other in Service Cloud, and another in Sales Cloud. That’s why it becomes extensively relevant for users to network with each other.

‘Perspective’ is another great benefit of networking. If you are not connecting to new people—outside your circle—you are missing hearing and understanding viewpoints from people with different experiences.

Benefits of Networking

• You will get immense learning opportunities and get the benefit of other people’s experiences.
• You will get an opportunity to reflect on your own work away from the immediate firefighting.
• You will make new friends. As we move forward with system upgrades, it’s good to have people on our wavelength.

Networking is not just about asking questions and getting answers. It’s about sharing ideas with each other; even if it is via random conversations that you otherwise won’t have. Thereby, it is safe to say that networking is more important than ever.

How to Network?

There are plentiful great opportunities for networking that Salesforce offers. You can use these to make new connections and share best practices. There are many communities and groups in cities all over the globe, which means you’re more than likely to find something that suits you regardless of your role, industry, company size, or level.

There are forums like Salesforce’s Developer Community, Trailblazer Community, Trailblazer Community Groups and LinkedIn groups, Community Conferences, etc that you could use to start with.

The next step could be attending Salesforce events like webinars, TrailheadDX, Salesforce World Tour, and the grandest of all events – Dreamforce.

Argumentum A Fortiori

Thus, in case you come across a problem in the future that you just can’t get rid of, you will have a network of people to seek help from and you will be overwhelmed by how people volunteer with ideas to deal with the situations. That way you won’t be frustrated and the problem would be solved and you would have learned something new as well.

If you still are worried about how to start, aim to go to a local group and try to talk to 3 people. If that works, then you can go and speak to more the next time.

The bottom line is that networking is an investment. One won’t be immediately able to see how it’s going to pay off, but it will help you build resilience, broaden your abilities and capacity, and help you do more with less.

Networking doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to know everything. But you will have access to a pool of skills and knowledge via your community and have fun making friends en route.

Happy Networking!