The History
I have been participating in ServiceNow Community for the past 7 years and I have seen the transformation. The community platform has revamped multiple times and the point system has changed multiple times. Back then, It was comparatively easy to earn points and the probability of your response marked correct was higher. But now the community has grown significantly over the past few years and because of the popularity of ServiceNow, more and more people are now part of the Community and pursuing ServiceNow as their career.
Where are we now
If you are new to the community, you have entered a completely different world of ServiceNow Community. This community now has more than 500,000 community members across the globe, and a lot of contributors. From only hundreds answering questions to now thousands answering to questions. So now that you know that there is so much competition, should you contribute to the community ? Of Course Yes. It's never too late. I would definitely recommend starting to contribute to the community. Here is why
- While helping others, you learn a lot and get to understand the ecosystem
- You connect to professionals, developers, and experts in the ServiceNow platform
- You get opportunities to participate in programs such as Rising Star or MVP. And Rising Star and MVP has its own perks. These recognitions can enhance your professional reputation.
- Career Opportunities. In Fact I got a career opportunity from an employer who got to know me from the ServiceNow Community while responding to some of his questions.
So if you are ready to start or already there, I have a few tips for you, which can help you to answer questions faster and help you grow in the community.
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Create your signature
The first thing you should do when you start responding to questions is, adding a signature to your profile settings. And the tip is, you don't just add your name, designation etc to the signature. Instead add a note to the author to mark the answer as helpful or correct.
There is a famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi, “if you don't ask, you don't get it”. A lot of users/ new members don't know they need to mark an answer helpful or correct or forget to do so and they may never come back to the post once they have a solution. So if you don't ask, the loss is for both you and for the community, because you don't get the credit you deserve and the question is left unsolved. So I would highly recommend asking for what you deserve.
To create a signature, navigate to My Settings
Then navigate to Personal-> Personal Information and a text to mark the response correct or helpful. You can add an html text here and also add links to your youtube channel or podcasts.
Disclaimer: Keep the signature short and professional. Adding too many links or text could take up lot of space every-time you respond and can make it look spammy and may failure to comply with ServiceNow Community Code of Conduct.
The text I have added as of now is “<br /><b><i>Please mark this response as correct or helpful if it assisted you with your question.</i></b>”.
And now when you respond to the question, the text is automatically added to your response, encouraging the author to mark your response helpful or correct.
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Creating Macros
Another tip is creating macros in your settings. Macros help when you want to respond to a question quickly. For example, a link to a blog that has the answer to it or a code sample or a sample response which can help you respond to the question quickly. It will definitely save you a lot of time with less context switching.
To create a Macro navigate to My Settings->Macros. Give a short title and the information you want to populate when you use that macro.
Now when you respond, click the Macros option in the HTML editor to choose the Macro you want to use.
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Choose what you want to answer
You can’t answer every question. Target specific ones which are relevant to your area of expertise. Give preference to the ones which are not responded yet. You will see the link ‘Be the first to reply’ for the one that is not yet responded.
Make use of the filters in the community. Look for Unreplied ones where you might find a few relevant ones which no one has responded to.
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Subscribe to a product hubs of your interest
Subscribe to a product hub of your interest, so that you are notified when a question is posted on that hub. And if there are less SMEs on that Product, you have a higher success rate there. For example, there are not many SMEs on GRC or Security Response etc. So in those Product Hubs, you have enough time to research, find out the answer and respond and more chances of getting points. Below is an example where there are 3 questions in GRC Product hub which are posted in last 10 hours and none of them are responded yet. You have a good chance to score points there.
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Create Blogs/Article to Earn Points
If you think, answering the questions is not a cup of tea for you or you don't get enough time to respond, creating blogs/articles can help you gain points and can show your contribution towards community. But to get there, you need to be an MVP, Rising Star, Thought Leader*, or an Employee.
Blogs and Articles have their own advantages. Those are like long term investment for which you will keep getting interest over years.
In Fact some of the top contributors @Chuck Tomasi , @Allen Andreas, @Mark Roethof have 100s of articles/blogs all around the community. Those are still referred to and marked helpful.
The tip here is while creating blogs, also keep an eye on frequently asked questions in the community. I wrote a blog on Email Client, because I noticed there are at least one question on Email Client & Client Templates everyday. That blog is in the top 3 most liked blogs. So, instead of drafting an answer to those questions, you can create a blog and direct the user to refer to that blog. You can get both a Correct Answer and as well as a Thumbs up in the blog.
I hardly have 5 blogs, But I am still listed in the All Time Top Helpful Author in Blogs.
That's it for now. I would request other top solution authors to share any other tips you would like to provide which can help everyone in the community to grow.
And if you liked this blog don't forget to give a thumbs up.
Other helpful links to help with your community journey
Welcome to ServiceNow Community
Community Guidelines
Learn more about how the MVP program has evolved over the years
Learn more about the new MVP program
https://www.servicenow.com/community/mvp-program/ct-p/mvp
#riseup #servicenowmvp #communitymvp #nextgen
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