Business
Today we are talking with Eric Nielsen, Senior Director of Social Media and Communities for VMware. Eric and his team run the VMware vExpert program, one of the most successful advocacy programs in the enterprise technology area. John created and managed the program with Eric, and the vExperts make up a community that John and Kat are both still engaged with. Eric reinforces throughout our conversation how the program is first built for its participants — to help make them successful. We also discuss creating programs and process, scaling the program to be global, demonstrating value to the rest of the organization, and how to keep innovation going as the program matures. Eric Nielsen is the Senior Director, Social Media and Community at VMware. At VMware, Eric’s team is been responsible for community, blogging, social media, and advocacy programs. Prior to VMware, Eric was a Director, Enginering Systems Management for Sun Microsystems. Earlier in his career at Sun, Eric created BigAdmin, one of the web’s early technical communities. Eric lives with his family in Palo Alto, CA. The Influence Marketing Podcast is a podcast from the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.