Connect with the Salesforce Partner Community

Learning Objectives

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

• Describe how to sign up for the Salesforce Partner Community.
  
• Describe how to personalize your profile in the Salesforce Partner Community.
  
• List some resources for getting help in the community.
  

Head Over to the Salesforce Partner Community

The Salesforce Partner Community is a portal built and maintained specifically for Salesforce partners. It’s where our partners manage their business, learn best practices, and engage with Salesforce employees in a secure environment. Speaking of secure, note that most of the Partner Community is gated, which means you need to sign up or have access approved by your company’s admin to log in.

Once inside, the Partner Community is full of resources for learning how to make the most of your partnership with Salesforce. You can find useful articles, webinars, and events that give you ideas for your business. You can also get to know other Salesforce partners, and Salesforce employees who work with partners.

Sign Up

To join the Salesforce Partner Community, you need a Salesforce account. If you don’t have an account, sign up for a free Developer Edition org using your company email address. You’ll receive org credentials that you can use to join the Salesforce Partner Community. Be sure to sign up with your company email address, as you can't join the Salesforce Partner Community using credentials associated with a personal email such as a Gmail or Yahoo address.

Partner Community uses Trailblazer profile for logging in. Trailblazer profile is a free, unified account for access to Salesforce digital properties to streamline your login experience. With Trailblazer profile you get the best of Salesforce, including AppExchange, Commerce Cloud Developer Center, Events, Idea Exchange, Salesforce Help, Salesforce+, Trailhead, Trailblazer Community, and Partner Community.

If you don’t have a Trailblazer profile account, you’ll be prompted to set one up during the login process. If you already have a Trailblazer profile account, be sure to add your partner credentials by following the steps below:

1. Login into Trailblazer profile.
   
2. Click your profile picture in the upper right and select Settings.
   
3. Click Connected Accounts.
   
4. Click Connect Account and enter your partner org credentials.
   

Once you have a Salesforce account and have updated your Trailblazer profile account, take these steps. 

• Go to partners.salesforce.com.
  
• Click Become a Partner, then Join the Partner Community.
  
• Click Log In with Salesforce.
  

• If you already have a Trailblazer profile account which includes your partner credentials, enter your org credentials.
  
• If you don’t have a Trailblazer profile account, click Sign Up and follow the prompts. For accessing Partner Community, please add the Trailblazer profile account associated with your company that's a Salesforce Partner.
  

• Complete the steps in the Signup Wizard.
  

Log In

When your account is set up, you’ll get an email welcoming you to the Partner Community with a link to accept the invitation. 

Log in to the Salesforce Partner Community by clicking the link in the email. The Onboarding Wizard guides you through your first login.

Personalize Your Profile

First, the Onboarding Wizard asks you to set up your profile. While you’re here, take some time to make it yours. Share information about your role and interests so that other partners can get to know you, and add a picture of yourself so that they can recognize you. The more you get to know one another, the more the Salesforce Partner Community can help you achieve your goals.

Next, the wizard suggests some collaboration groups to join. These are discussion groups where you can interact with other partners and Salesforce employees.

Before the Onboarding Wizard lets you go, it asks you to write a message introducing yourself to the Salesforce Partner Community. Personalize your message to make it memorable.

The wizard also provides a video that shows you around the Salesforce Partner Community. We cover a lot of the video's material in the next unit, but it doesn’t hurt to see it twice!

Show Your Qualifications

While you’re thinking about your profile, take these steps to connect the accounts you use for Trailhead and Salesforce certifications.

1. From the Salesforce Partner Community, click your profile photo.
   
2. Click My Profile and select Edit.
   
3. In the Certifications & Badges section, click Link Trailhead account or Link certification account.
   
4. Enter the email address for the account that you use for Trailhead challenges or Salesforce certifications.
   
5. Click Connect Account. You get an email with a verification code.
   
6. When you get the email, go back to your Salesforce Partner Community profile.
   
7. Enter the verification code in the appropriate box and click Complete Connection.
   
8. If you want your badges or certifications to appear on your profile, click Show Salesforce Trailhead Badges on my profile or Show Salesforce certifications on my profile.
   
9. At the bottom of the page, click Done.
   

Know Where to Find Help

Welcome to the Partner Community! You’ve taken the first step in your journey as a Salesforce partner. We give you a tour of the place in the next unit, so stay close. But first, let’s touch on some of the resources available to you.

• The Learn tab (login required) has a ton of enablement information on all things partners.
  
• Support can be accessed via the question mark icon near your profile picture. This takes you to the Help & Training Portal, Salesforce’s central support hub.
  
• The Collaboration tab (login required) allows you to join groups and connect with others.
  
  

Find Anything from Anywhere with Search

There’s a search box at the top of the page. Just type in what you’re looking for and Search finds anything that matches. The search box is on every page and always works the same way.

Search results are organized by content type. For example, a search for "consulting" turns up relevant knowledge articles, overview pages, posts, and even content from across Salesforce’s digital properties.You can narrow the results using the Content Type or Experience filters on the left. Refine results by selecting Knowledge Articles for support, Feeds to view posts, or Learn to view enablement content.

Keep Up with Current Events

There’s a lot going on in the Salesforce Partner ecosystem, and the News & Events section in the Home tab contains the latest and greatest. From exciting announcements to inspiring events, you can find it all on the central landing page of the community–just scroll down! Now that you’re connected to the community, let’s take a look around and get familiar with the tools you can use in your day-to-day business.

Resources

• Salesforce: Partner Community (login required)
  
• Salesforce: AppExchange Partner Program (sign up required)