Salesforce MVP Insights

Question

After the congratulations post from @crmprogdev for Summer'15 MVP's i googled and learned what MVP is.

I came to know that a user have to be active for atleast 9 days in a month in any channel(Force.com Discussion board, Success Community, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc.,) but Salesforce StackExchange is not there.

Being active only in Salesforce StackExchange will be considered? I like the UI in SFSE than Success community and Force.com Discussion board, so i prefer SFSE over those.

Also why Salesforce not providing by which criteria MVP's are selected(or re-awarded)?

Any inputs are helpful.

Answer 1

I would add in that StackExchange is 100% considered, and the team that heads up the MVP Program is aware of StackExchange as a viable channel for engagement. In person channels (User Groups, Girly Geeks, etc) are also considered but may not be listed in the criteria you mention in your question.

To answer you question, as the program has become more popular, I know that multi-channel engagement is rated higher than contributing only to a single channel.

As to why they don't provide details on each MVPs contribution, you also must consider that to do that would be a time-consuming effort for little gain. As people become MVPs, they tend to contribute even more & their channels may change over time, especially as new channels appear. A point-in-time assessment is rarely a good explanation as to why someone became an MVP.

Answer 2

Much can be said about this, and many blogs have been written about it, questions asked etc. But there are indeed no clear guidelines or criteria. Every release there is a nomination phase in which everyone can nominate anyone.

I believe there are no criteria, because there is no limited set of ways in which you can be part of the community surrounding salesforce. There will always be new ways in which someone can have a big impact in contributing, helping others and standing out, and I believe that is all it comes down to. Do it because that is what drives you.

Answer 3

To add to what the others have said, there are also a variety of MVP "categories". Most of the MVPs you see here are Developer MVPs, but there are also MVPs who are Admins, Evangelists, Non-Profits, Product Specialists, Mentors, and a variety of other categories to fit various niches. As Samuel said, "do it because you enjoy it" and others will recognize it. If your desire is for the title only, I doubt you'll find it very satisfying.

I'll add that SF is HUGE on Twitter. If you're not on Twitter, you need to be.

Answer 4

I think what has been so exciting to me has been how as the program has grown, people have invented their own channels. What I mean by that is when the program started in 2010, there was no Salesforce Stackexchange, very few (if any) podcasts, IRC was smaller, there were no Girly Geeks groups, LiveCoding.tv, etc. So people are inventing their own channels (Girly Geeks) or using existing tools (IRC) to make an impact on the Salesforce community, and that is great.

Heck, there could be a Slack channel for Salesforce but I haven't heard about it. I definitely think folks who are on LiveCoding.tv regularly doing Apex/Visualforce/Lightning Components could be future MVPs but who knows? If you want to give back to the community, find the channel(s) that work for you and dive in.