All organizations regularly engage with constituents outside of their internal staff. Volunteers, donors, program participants, and service providers are only a few examples of groups that make up an organization’s network. These key relationships require personal tending and a significant amount of administrative support. Fielding questions, sharing details, collecting information and aggregating data from external partners can be a substantial lift. Emails get lost, follow up can be tricky, and staff may find themselves answering the same question multiple times a day. A community serves as an online tool to address these common challenges. In this post, we will explain what a Salesforce Community is and how Community Cloud can drive constituent engagement while minimizing the administrative burden on staff.

What is a Salesforce Community?

A Salesforce Community is a customizable site where organizations can connect, share, communicate, and facilitate conversations with external users – anyone who does not have access to the internal Salesforce instance. An organization can have up to 100 different communities for their varying groups of constituents. Some functionalities like knowledge articles, FAQs, or the ability to submit support cases can be made publicly available. A logged community, however, does require a community license for each user. These licenses are less expensive, albeit less robust, than a full Salesforce license.

Logged communities function similar to an intranet or portal. Once users are logged in, they have access to specific information shared directly through Salesforce. For example, an organization can grant access to account information such as volunteer and donation history, or share documents like brand collateral and instruction manuals. Logged access is limited by user, which enables the organization to share relevant information while simultaneously protecting sensitive data in their Salesforce instance. Because it is a native Salesforce product, Community Cloud is completely integrated and any changes to a shared object will update in real time.

Collect + Share Information

Organizations with multiple constituent groups, such as affiliates, are often challenged with the task of aggregating gathered data. A Salesforce Community enables affiliates to submit information directly – removing the back and forth of emails or phone calls. Leveraging Community Cloud allows users to view and update relevant account details, member history, upcoming events and tasks. The central organization can specify which objects and fields are shared, so both parties can access partnership agreements, upcoming events, and member participation data. By enabling the affiliate to effectively manage their own site, accurate information is shared quickly between both organizations.

Create a Space to Connect

Partners, members, and program participants are often one another’s best resources. Who better to help find an answer than someone who was once in a similar situation? Community Cloud provides a space for dialogue and knowledge sharing in a more secure and controlled solution than a Facebook or Google group. A strong example of this is the Power of Us Hub, a community for all Salesforce.org users and partners. The Power of Us Hub is a logged community that allows members to ask questions, share resources, access documentation and join groups. It creates a focused self service space for Salesforce users in the social sector.

Community Cloud can also be used to create a tailored mobile app. With the power of mobile, one organization enabled their members to easily check-in and share updates from events they attended in real time. Users had the ability to register, post photos, and track their engagement in one seamless mobile experience. The organization leveraged Community Cloud to drive user engagement and relieve staff from the burden of manual data entry.

Summary + Conclusion

Salesforce Community Cloud is a robust online tool that allows constituents to connect with an organization and with each other. While it can be a useful addition to an organization’s tool kit, there is an associated license cost for logged communities and will require some maintenance. The total cost of ownership should be considered and compared to other solutions such as integrating email or using forms. For the right use case, a community can address specific challenges by allowing organizations to connect with constituents, collect data and share information. Leveraging Community Cloud can help drive engagement and reduce the administrative burden on staff, allowing them to focus their efforts on the organization’s core mission.