Meet Trailblazers Like You

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Participate in the Trailblazer Community.
Step up to help or start a Trailblazer Community group.

Whether you’re new to the Salesforce ecosystem or you’ve been in the mix for years, there’s a community of customers ready to help you. The Trailblazer Community helps you learn relevant skills, connect with other Trailblazers, and give back. In this module, we delve into the specifics of how to engage in Trailblazer Community groups.

First, let’s talk about how participation in the Community can help you succeed at work and in your career. We know it takes time and effort to engage, and it can feel hard to step out of your comfort zone. So let’s start by discussing good reasons to make participation a priority.

Eight Substantial Statistics from the Trailblazer Community Impact Survey

In 2019, we surveyed hundreds of active Trailblazer Community members and asked them how their participation in the Trailblazer Community has helped them professionally and personally.

93% said participating in the Community helps them learn about new products and solutions.
90% said participation helps them accelerate innovation.
80% said peer connections help them increase adoption and productivity.
73% said the Community has helped them build professional networks.
49% said they’ve learned about new career paths through the community.
49% said Community participation has helped them develop leadership skills.
40% said participation helps them build their personal brand.
32% said the Community has helped them secure new job opportunities.

Here’s what a few of our Trailblazer Community Group leaders, members and Salesforce MVPs have to say about the power of the community.

Do you want to reap all of those benefits and have fun while you’re at it? Let’s see how Trailblazer Community groups can show you the way.

Get an Overview of Trailblazer Community Groups

Groups are where Trailblazers with common interests gather to discuss multiple topics. A group can be private, public, or unlisted.

Public: This group is visible to anyone, and anyone can join.
Private: To join this group, the group owner or manager has to approve your request.
Unlisted: You have to be invited to join this group.

Use groups to collaborate with Trailblazers on a range of interests. We recommend you start by exploring featured groups such as Release Readiness, Trailblazer Community Cove, and Lightning Now.

The Featured Groups tab in the Trailblazer Community with one filter (Region: California) selected

Featured groups are a subset of all groups that have been chosen by the Trailblazer Community team at Salesforce. You can filter featured groups by region, product, and interest. Trailblazers like you join these groups to build their expertise, expand their networks, and get momentum around common interests.

There are thousands of active groups covering a wide range of topics. Try searching for these popular groups to get inspired:

Customer Success
Trailhead
Release Readiness
Admin Trailblazers
Developer Trailblazers
Architect Trailblazer Community
Trailblazer Community Cove

Once you’ve found a group that interests you, join the group (if it’s public) or request to join it (if it’s private). Next, set your notification preferences for the group. Finally, all that’s left to do is to start participating by posting your own questions and comments.

Featured groups are just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s talk about some of the other types of groups, and how you can find more groups that are relevant to you.

Product-Related Groups

Search for the product you’re interested in using the search bar, or filter results by product. You can also limit your search to Salesforce-led or customer-led groups with the Other filter.

Local Groups

Our Trailblazers love to meet each other, whether it’s virtually or in-person.

Members in local groups meet on a regular basis within their city or region. To find local groups, filter group results by clicking Other and selecting Customer-led. Community Group leaders volunteer their time to build these groups and host regular (often monthly, and at least quarterly) meetings to bring members together to share best practices and build networks. Meetings are chock-full of values for local group members, giving them opportunities to explore new ideas and innovations, make new career connections, and get help to address a current challenge.

There are a few different types of local groups.

Salesforce User Group: Explore a broad range of topics and networking for all types of Salesforce users.
Salesforce Admin Group: Deliver innovation with declarative tools and solutions.
Salesforce Developer Group: Build incredible apps with developer tools and code.
Salesforce Marketer Group: Deliver effective marketing with Account Engagement and Marketing Cloud Engagement.
Salesforce Nonprofit User Group: Fund and run your entire mission with Nonprofit Cloud.
Salesforce Higher Ed User Group: Empower your institution to become a connected campus with Education Cloud.
Salesforce Women In Tech Group: Build your career with fellow female leaders and allies.

To find events hosted by these local groups, go to trailblazercommunitygroups.com. Here you can find a calendar of both in-person and virtual meetings. You can search for events and filter them by date, region, or related program. By default you’ll see events nearby.

Virtual Groups

Like local groups, virtual groups connect peers on a regular basis to discuss specific industries or interests. There are two types of virtual groups.

Industry User Groups: Customers from diverse roles and backgrounds within the same industry come together to share best practices. Examples of active industry-focused groups include:

Retail & Consumer Goods
Financial Services
Healthcare Life Sciences
Higher Education
Manufacturing
Wealth Management
Travel and Hospitality

Equality and Diversity Community Groups: Equality and diversity are core values for Salesforce and our Trailblazer Community. Passionate community leaders have started several virtual groups to unite Trailblazers around important topics, such as Women in Tech Diversity, Women in Tech Developers, and LGBTQIA+ Trailblazers. We encourage everyone to participate and support these groups in their efforts to create momentum around these important issues. If you’re passionate about an equality- or diversity-related topic and you don’t see a group for it, talk to the Trailblazer Community team about starting your own virtual group.

That leads us nicely into our next point: If you don’t find what you’re looking for, you can start a group of your own.

Start a Community Group

As we mentioned above, anyone can start a group. If you’d like to help manage an existing customer-led group, reach out to the group managers to discuss.

Check the right-hand panel of a group’s page to find the group owners and managers. To get in touch, post in the group and @mention them, or send them a direct message.

The Admin Trailblazers group in the Trailblazer Community

Get Engaged

Let the leaders know you’d like to volunteer. There are never enough hours in the day to do all the things our leaders wish they could do for their members, so every little bit of help is welcome. Think about how you can give back, even as you’re starting your community journey. Whether you have awesome connections, content suggestions, expertise you’d like to share, or great organizational skills, our leaders love to find ways for members to engage.
Create a Community Group.Here are a few requirements to consider before deciding to start a new Trailblazer Community group.

You are active in the Salesforce ecosystem and you’re ready to create an environment to promote learning and networking with other Trailblazers.
You participate actively in the Trailblazer Community.
You have proven Salesforce product expertise through Trailhead ranks or Salesforce certifications.
You’ve checked that the Community Group you’d like to start doesn’t already exist.

Apply to lead a local Community group.

You participate in a local or virtual Community group and have connected with current Community group leaders to understand what it takes to manage a group.
You can host at least one useful, informative, and fun in-person or virtual meeting per quarter.
You reside or work in the location of your proposed Trailblazer Community Group (local groups only).

If all of the above sounds like you, hover over the Community tab in Trailhead, click Groups, and click New Group.

Is There a Mobile App?

There's no reason you shouldn't keep the learning going when you're away from your computer. You can collaborate with Trailblazers, ask questions, and share your expertise on relevant topics with the Community in the Trailhead mobile app. Download the Trailhead mobile from the App Store on your iPhone and iPad or on Google Play for your Android device to learn, earn, and connect whenever you have a few spare minutes.

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