Before I begin, let me share what this post is not about → this isn’t about how to become a member of any of the 3 Veeam100 influencers programs. This post is simply about Community engagement, specifically within the Veeam Community.

Where to Engage

Why should you engage in the Veeam Community? First, where can you engage? From a website perspective, Veeam has 2 main sites to provide feedback, make feature requests, blog, report potential bugs, or ask questions on - the Veeam Forums and here at the Community Hub. What are the differences between the two? The Forums is a place you can more directly interact with Veeam Product Management asking questions, requesting feature enhancements, and to provide product feedback. Keep in mind, the Forums is not a support site though, and additionally..neither is the Community Hub. The Veeam Community Hub is more for Veeam Community members to interact with one another, as well as with Veeam employees. It provides areas, known as "thematic groups" (i.e. pages), for discussions, blogging, finding local Veeam User Group information, Veeam certification information, and a host of other interests.

Community Hub

Since we want to talk about Community involvement and engagement here, we'll focus on the Veeam Community Hub rather than the Forums, but the Forums does have an important place in the Veeam Community. There are several reasons why you should engage with the Veeam Community on the Community Hub, some which benefit you and some which make the Veeam Community better. I'll share a few of those reasons below. 

Community Benefits:

1. Diverse thought - For example, my IT career has revolved around the customer arena. As such, suggestions I make, ideas I have, blogs I write, come from that perspective which can be different from say a Service Provider perspective; or even a Partner perspective. This allows us to think outside the box, as it were.

2. Help others - Interacting with the Veeam Community by, for example, assisting others who post questions on the Discussions Board, allows you to help someone meet a need, beit personal or occupational. 

3. Feedback/feature enhancements - Engaging on the Community Hub allows you to grow in your depth of knowledge about Veeam and how it works. Even more specifically, you learn how Veeam benefits and can best be used in your organization. In doing so, you can tend to see needs you may have which Veeam currently doesn't provide and offer suggestions to Veeam to make its product better. This obviously not only helps you, but potentially helps others as well. Or, you can even start a discussion with the Veeam Community to see how others may have resolved the same issue you're experiencing.

4. Knowledge sharing - similar to just above. When you engage and share your expertise, others benefit. Likewise, you can also learn from others.

Personal Benefits:

1. Growth - engaging with the Veeam Community helps you grow technologically, mostly with regards to Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery, but in other technology areas as well. When you assist answering poster questions, as well as create posts, you gain a deeper knowledge of Veeam and its product suite (and/or other technologies)

2. Advancement - as you grow in knowledge, you tend to learn things you can implement in your own environment to make it more proficient, resilient, performant, and secure. Doing so can lead to advancement and/or promotion in your current business, or get noticed by other businesses

3. Visibility - to piggy-back off the last bullet item above, when you engage and write posts on the Community Hub, you and others may share what you're doing, providing visibility for others to see the benefit you provide the Veeam Community. In turn, businesses can then potentially see the value you could bring to them and maybe offer you an opportunity

4. Fulfillment - helping others and learning from others makes you not only a better employee, but a better person

5. Relationship building - I've been a part of the Veeam Community for quite some time and have built some life-long friendships just by deciding to engage

6. Perks - the Veeam Community Hub helps promote engagement by rewarding community members with points and various digital badges for activity, interaction, and engagement

7. Community Programs - I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention Veeam’s evangelist programs. Veeam has 2 external Community programs you could be selected for based off how active you are: Veeam Legends is more based on engagement metrics & activity on the Community Hub, Forums, and other areas; Veeam Vanguard is more about blogging on personal sites, social media, and resources. Being a member of any one, or both, of these Veeam Community Programs makes you a part of the prestigious Veeam100 group, of which earns you further perks (i.e. swag, etc)

Conclusion

Well there you have it! You can see the many rewards of Veeam Community engagement. But, what I shared isn’t all of it. Yes, there’s more!... there will indeed be a Part 2 post. Look for it soon from a fellow Veeam Community member and evangelist. He may or may not have even authored a book or 2 (hint-hint)… 

I hope to see you in the Community!