Sofia Rodriguez: Community Manager, Salesforce
Create Community in Quarantine with Sofia Rodriguez
Sofia Rodriguez is a Community Manager for Salesforce's Trailblazer Community, an online community of 3+ million customers.
Sofia chats with Marsha about how she’s keeping the Salesforce Trailblazer customer community engaged with virtual events and resources. She also shares how she’s maintaining her personal sense of community and connection during these times of social distancing.
“The need to connect is still there, but people are getting more creative.”
- Sofia Rodriguez
Listen to the episode:
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(Tune in at the 7:26 mark for Sofia)
Connect with Sofia:
Get access to free Salesforce resources:
Trailblazer Community | Trailhead Learning | Twitter
A huge thank you to Origins Media Haus for producing this podcast. You can find them at:
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Connect with Marsha:
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Transcript:
Marsha Druker 7:40
Hi, Sofia, thank you so much for joining me today on Create Community.
Sofia Rodriguez 7:44
Thank you so much for inviting me. I'm excited to be here.
Marsha Druker 7:47
So to kick things off, can you tell me a little bit more about yourself? Where are you in the world? What do you do?
Sofia Rodriguez 7:53
Of course! I am in the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. I'm currently a Community Manager for a company called Salesforce and I specifically work for their Trailblazer community. And I've been in the Community Management space since 2013.
Marsha Druker 8:09
You're definitely a veteran in the community space. Tell me a little bit more about what you do in your role.
Sofia Rodriguez 8:15
It changes every day, but the best way to explain it is that we have different programs at Salesforce. We have a user group program, an MVP program, and we have an online community called the Trailblazer Community. My job as a Community Manager is to offer all of our customers the resources and support that they need to feel empowered and to be successful with our products and our resources at Salesforce.
Marsha Druker 8:43
So right now is an interesting time to be in the community profession, especially working for a large company like Salesforce. How has this COVID-19 situation impacted the way that you go about your role? And what are some initiatives that your team at Salesforce has rolled out to help ease the pain for your customers?
Sofia Rodriguez 9:00
We definitely saw that our customers were impacted by everything that has happened. But I think what we're seeing is that people are still looking for a way to connect, it's just shifted from being in person to online. That also means that they have time available at different times of the day. Sometimes we used to only host webinars or in person events in the evening - that's now shifting because people can participate later in the morning, in the afternoon, or evening time or even listen to recordings afterwards.
Something that my organization has shifted to is providing content that was relevant to people only working online. We also changed up some of our webinars and events to focus on topics that would be of interest. For example, where before we might be hosting an event around "How To Host a Successful in- Person Event" we've now shifted to offering resources and content for purely virtual events.
And for our community, they are still finding the most creative ways to connect. They're just doing it all online. So we created this one repository where community members can share how and where they're meeting. And I've seen all types of things from "Show Me Your Pet" meeting to "Let's Talk About Best Practices of How to Use Salesforce in our Products".
I think the need to connect is still there, but people are getting more creative.
Marsha Druker 10:29
Absolutely. That's so true. Those sound like really awesome resources for your community on Salesforce. For people who are not part of the Salesforce community and wanted to check out some of these resources, are they available anywhere publicly online?
Sofia Rodriguez 10:43
They definitely are. And I encourage anyone listening to join, participate and get connected. First place I'll point you to is trailblazer.salesforce.com. This is where you can find those virtual events that I mentioned earlier. And if you're in the mood to learn, or perhaps watch one of the webinars that I mentioned, go to trailhead.salesforce.com.
Marsha Druker 11:03
Perfect. I'm sure that's going to be really helpful. I'm looking forward to checking out the guide about doing virtual events. I'm in the middle of that with my own community. Thanks so much for sharing that.
Tell me on the personal side, how are you personally staying connected with your friends and with any communities that you're a part of? Have you seen a lot of them shift online? Are there any cool new things going on that you've been able to participate in?
Sofia Rodriguez 11:26
Yeah, I have. I've actually been meeting with people online prior to this whole shift. So I know a lot of my close friends struggled - they're the extroverts that need to be with people in person. But I was always used to talking to people on forums, watching webinars, watching live streams and connecting with others.
A lot of my friends are also not in California. So I've had to talk to people in Chicago in New York and in Europe. So for me, this wasn't much of a shift, but I am super happy to see that different companies and different organizations are making the shift. It makes it easier to connect with others.
And there's also a lot more fun things going on. There's a whole bunch of artists and festival groups that have been doing live streams of concerts and festivals. That has probably been like one of the most fun weekend activities that I've done...just listening to a concert that was incredibly expensive and not accessible before. Now, it's in the most comfortable place ever - just on my couch, and I'm at the festival.
Marsha Druker 12:29
I love that. There's so many cool things going on where either the price has drastically been reduced, or it's now accessible for free and it's accessible from the comfort of your own home. That's such a silver lining to this whole situation.
What is something that you're grateful for during these crazy times of social distancing?
Sofia Rodriguez 12:50
I'm super grateful for technology. I think if we didn't have our phones, our tablets or computers, I wouldn't be able to still socialize and find that human connection without the technology that we have available.
Marsha Druker 13:05
So true. I think it's something that we maybe took for granted before or used that technology in the wrong ways. But I think now, with this whole situation, the best parts of it are coming to life and really keeping us all connected. And that's something that I'm also really grateful for.
Sofia, thank you so much for joining me. It was so great to chat with you!
Sofia showed that physical distancing does not have to mean social isolation! Stay safe. Wash your hands. Don’t hoard toilet paper. And keep creating your community.
Check out interviews with other guests at createcommunitypod.com/quarantine
