Welcome to “Five Things for Salesforce Admins”— a blog series where we dive into various Salesforce features and talk about five ways you may not have thought about using them before!
One of the best things about the Salesforce Ohana is that people are always looking for ways to help each other. Maybe it’s troubleshooting someone’s Process Builder process in the Admin Trailblazers group in the Trailblazer Community, or giving advice to a new admin just joining the ecosystem. Here are five simple suggestions of ways that you as an #AwesomeAdmin, no matter what your skill level, can help other Salesforce Admins in the Salesforce ecosystem.
Did you find someone’s blog, tweet, or LinkedIn post helpful? Share it widely, and give credit to the original author. This might mean sharing it to your internal “Salesforce stuff” Chatter group (you don’t have one? Create it!), sharing via email to a list or directly to a coworker, or sharing via social media channels. And, if you do find that resource or tip useful, send a “thank you” to the original author. An email, DM, comment, or private message can go a long way to making someone’s day better because you found their thing valuable.
Get involved in the Trailblazer Community, or, if you’re a nonprofit or education institution, the Power of Us Hub! You don’t have to know all the answers, just jump in and participate where you can. This might mean sharing great content (see tip #1), sharing your story, troubleshooting a problem, or offering to help someone else. There are always a lot of questions posted to the groups in the Trailblazer Community or the Hub. Don’t hesitate — ask clarifying questions, or provide links to similar answers and other helpful resources and documentation if it’s clear the original poster hasn’t seen it. Think about this like “paying it forward.” When you first start participating, you might just be reading or asking questions, but over time you can be giving back and continuing to make the community great! Read more about connecting in the Trailblazer Community here.
Community group leaders are almost always looking for help making their events great! This could be helping with logistics and finding event space, checking people in, ordering food, or facilitating a discussion group about a Salesforce feature. Find your group leader(s) at trailblazercommunitygroups.com and offer to help out at their next meeting. And, if you’re really inspired, you can offer to present about a specific topic at an upcoming meeting. It’s a great way to build your skills, and to help other admins too!
Getting certified is a huge milestone in an Salesforce Admin’s career journey. If you are thinking about studying for a certification, or already have one and are getting more, definitely join a study group, or start one of your own in your area. I guarantee you’ll find at least one other person who is studying for the same cert as you, and you can divide and conquer that material. There are multiple study groups out there, so check in the Trailblazer Community to make sure there isn’t one that already exists before starting a new one.
For the more seasoned professionals out there, find a friend. This could be someone new to your workplace, someone returning after some time away, or someone in your orbit who is going through a similar situation to you who you can check in on. Maybe someone is also doing a new Service Cloud or Nonprofit Success Pack implementation, or changing sales cycles, or rolling out Einstein. You can set up weekly or every-other-week check-ins with one another to see how you are doing and hold each other accountable for specific tasks, like earning badges every week (or doing burpees). This doesn’t need to be a formal mentorship, just a buddy to connect with and cheer each other on. People don’t always feel like they can ask, especially for something like this, so go ahead and extend the offer to meet and see what happens. I highly recommend reviewing Chris Duarte’s “Be a Champion” Trailmix, with her fantastic slides from the True North Dreamin’ Community Conference. If you do feel like you want to take a bigger step and find a mentor, check out the Trailblazer Connect website and click “Get a Mentor.”
These are a few ideas of simple things you can do to help other admins, but this is just a start! What other tips do you have for admins to help other admins? Share with us in the comments or on Twitter using the hashtag #AwesomeAdmin!
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