We conducted a webinar this morning outlining best practices as you are rolling out Salesforce Content. I recorded the session, although the audio quality is a little "off" - you have to skip ahead to the 1'30" mark as the audio fades out before then.

I've also uploaded the Powerpoint slides so you can re-use them for any internal discussions you're having around configuring and rolling out Content. Download salesforce_content_best_practices_rollout_webinar_deck.ppt

As I mentioned during the webinar, we've published online training videos for administrators, publishers, and end-users of Salesforce Content at our Learning Center page.

Hope that helps, and let us know if you have any questions.

It's been a busy month, with Tim and I having spent a full week at the AIIM Expo in Boston. Just after returning, a customer asked for suggestions on how to search more effectively in Content, so I thought I'd share our tips with the entire Content user community. You can click on any of the images below to enlarge them and see the tip we're illustrating.

Looking only for a Powerpoint doc?
Simply add "PPT" to the search term to see only Powerpoint file results. This works for other file types as well, like xls, doc, pdf, etc.

Want to share a document, or even a set of search results?
Every document in Salesforce Content is URL-addressable, so you can simply copy and paste the link to a file and email it, just like any other record in Salesforce. You can also do this with an entire set of search results, including if you use custom filters.

Only interested in seeing certain fields in your search results set?  New with Spring '08, you can customize your search results page. Just click on the "Display Options button at the top right of the search results and choose which fields are of interest to you.

Curious what is most popular with your peers?
Click on the "downloads" field and see instantly which materials are most popular among your friends and colleagues. You can also easily see what is most highly rated.

Looking for something specific?
Put a phrase in quotes to get more targeted results. You can even  mix and match quoted phrases and keywords in your search - for example, "salesforce.com" software-as-a-service.

"Feeling lucky?"
Instead of navigating to a document detail page, if you see a search result that looks right, mouse over the file format icon to see key information, like the author, ratings, and number of versions, or double click on the icon to download it direct.

Thanks to everyone who joined the webinar "IDC Best Practices: Driving Sales and Marketing Success with Web 2.0" today. We had a great session - both Lee Levitt from IDC and Tim did a really nice job - and we had a flurry of questions at the end. For those that couldn't join us, Lee covered the current challenges in sales enablement and outlined how Web 2.0 trends create opportunities to address them. Then Tim provided a brief introduction of Salesforce Content, followed by a quick demo.

As we communicated during the webinar, we have posted the following resources for you:
- PDF copy of all the slide deck from today's session
- Video recording of the entire webinar
- An IDC Topline paper on sales enablement best practices that summarizes Lee Levitt's guidance

As we stated in the webinar, if you are interested in a trial of Salesforce Content, click here if you are already a salesforce.com customer, or here if you are looking at potentially using salesforce.com in the future. You can also visit www.salesforce.com/content for more information.

About once a week, I tell my wife that coming to work on the Content product line is probably the best career move I will have ever make. And despite the fact that she gets tired of hearing me say it, I really do believe it's true.

The reason is that Tim and the product team have built something that people instinctively "get," even at first glance. The value proposition and the product's inherent usability are pretty apparent, so it is a marketer's dream.

In fact, the question we get most often is about how to implement the product. Questions like "how many workspaces should I have?", or "what custom fields should I set up?" So we decided to hold a session next Tuesday (Feb 12th) at 1pm PST and spend some time walking through these questions. Tim will spend 30-40 minutes examining these issues in detail, and then we'll open it up for questions. You can register here and get all the necessary info.

Maybe we'll even have a guest appearance from my wife so she can see what all the fuss is about :)

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to attend this morning's session, and appreciate your tolerance of the never-ending beeps. We actually maxed out our GoToMeeting capacity, so I think we had some turnover for folks who could hear the audio but not see the screen. If you were one of those, apologies - we need to move this up to GoToWebinar soon. In the meantime, we'll do another session next Wednesday at 1pm EST/10am PST with the same dial-in details and GoToMeeting ID. You can also see the presentation inline at the posting below.

Wednesday, Feb 6th - 1pm EST/10am PST
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/480808050
Dial-in: (866) 342-2541   Conf code 0357377611

OK, my promised follow-up:

A link to a recorded demo - takes about 5 minutes, but hits the key features

Online training videos - if you are buying the product, these are a great way to get end users up to speed without having to do any work yourself!

A preview of Spring '08 features and what is coming soon in Content. There is definitely some cool stuff around the corner, so take a peek.

And if you have ideas on functionality / features you'd like to see, as always, we'd love to hear your input on our section of the IdeaExchange.

Over the past two weeks, Tim (our product manager) has been doing a weekly public demo of Salesforce Content at 10am PST on Wednesday. We'll do another one of these next week (Wednesday, Jan 30th), and then figure out how often to repeat these sessions come February.

Here's the information for the dial-in and Go-to-Meeting for the session next Wednesday (Jan 30th) at 10am PST. In a week or two, we'll provide an update on how often we are doing these as we move into February.

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/480808050
Dial-in (866) 342-2541   Conf code 0357377611

In the meantime, here is the presentation that we've been using:

| View | Upload your own

The greatest thing about Salesforce is our customers' enthusiasm and love of our products. And that is no different with Salesforce Content...

We've recently posted video excerpts from two different sessions at our Dreamforce user conference on Salesforce Content. Executives from Ciena and Trapeze Networks discussed how they are using Salesforce Content to improve sales effectiveness, increase marketing productivity, and facilitate better collaboration across the organization.

The first session, Marketing on the Front Lines: Making Your Messages Work in the Field, was with Mark Cowtan, the director of product marketing at Trapeze Networks. Mark, beginning at the 15'30'' point, talks about the frustrations that sales reps previously faced with finding the right presentations and marketing materials on the company's Intranet. Now that Trapeze has started using Salesforce Content, he estimates that sales reps are each saving 2 hours a month by having faster access to the information they need.

The second session, The Cure for Sales Information Overload: How to Empower Reps and Win More Deals, featured Bill Rozier, the VP of Global Marketing at Ciena. If you jump to the 14' minute mark in the video, you'll see Bill provide context around how sales reps at Ciena are using Salesforce Content to close more business around the world.

As we roll out the product to more companies, we look forward to sharing more customer success stories around Salesforce Content.

I just wanted to post a quick thanks to everyone that came out to Dreamforce, and especially those of you who attended our sessions on Salesforce Content or stopped by the demo booth. Customer enthusiasm for the product was really overwhelming, which translates to big kudos for Tim Barker (our PM) and the entire product team.

Tim and I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to Bill Rozier from Ciena and Mark Cowtan from Trapeze Networks for participating in our sessions. They did a great job describing how their respective organizations are using Salesforce Content to improve collaboration between sales and marketing, and hopefully all the customers in the crowd got some valuable insight from their experience. I'll be posting links to the video recordings of those sessions, plus our Enterprise 2.0 panel with Ismael Ghalimi and Max Rayner, just as soon as they are available.

In the meantime, if you missed us at Dreamforce, or heard about Salesforce Content from a colleague and want to learn more, you can visit salesforce.com/content or view a recorded demo to get an immediate peek at the product.