What is the Value of a SharePoint Rockstar to an Organization?

by Shadeed Eleazer , Posted August 24, 2011 - 20:36

SharePoint Rockstars wear many hats within an organization. How does your practice acknowledge their value?

What is the value of a SharePoint rockstar to an organization?

Most SharePoint professionals do not understand the immense value they provide and marketing dollars they save their firms by representing them at conferences, community events and even including their logos on slidedecks.
Affiliating your established brand with a firm is a partnership but there are a few
key examples where the best SP Professionals have a touchy relationship with their company over their speaking and community work.

SEO: A SharePoint professional brings immense search engine optimization value to the organization that he is hired by. SharePoint is a niche market within the Microsoft community, so the association of company to a frequent community speaker’s bio or slidedeck raises that firm’s position within search rankings. SharePoint Saturday events and materials produced from these events provide high search rankings even regarding specific topics.

Example:

Go to your favorite search engine and search: SharePoint 2010 Roles , a SharePoint Saturday Kansas City slidedeck that was uploaded to SlideShare would appear on Page 1 of search rankings. The true question for Microsoft practices is: how are you accounting for this value that your employees are delivering towards increasing the number of leads you generate and clients you convert based on this reality?

Marketing: SharePoint Professionals who speak regularly at SharePoint community events are serving as a Marketing arm of your firm, company, or practice.

Thought Leadership: Ideas are a form of value that your active community leaders within your organization provide. SharePoint Rockstars, when delivering sessions, participating in Ask the Experts panels, and publishing white papers and books deliver immense thought leadership value to your practice. Have you as a practice lead accounted for this value?

Your Thoughts:

In what ways do SharePoint Rockstars influence the following two areas of a SharePoint practice?

Reputation:

Human Resources/Recruiting:

Leave your comments below.

Written by Shadeed Eleazer