The Rickatron is Always On - A talk with Rick Vanover from Veeam Software and Veeam Vanguard Program EP001
When you don’t have a KPI, a nod from above is all it takes. Our guest today, Rick Vanover, helps give that nod with his Veeam Vanguard Program. Rick is the director of Technical Product Marketing & Evangelism for Veeam Software.
Rick Vanover, from Veeam Software, shares with us his key principles and beliefs that have made the Veeam Vanguard Program successful. The program is in its third year and has 61 members with high community engagement. Rick talks up the importance of beginning small, picking team members wisely, and using intuition to kickstart an advocacy program. The Veeam Vanguard Program features creative and trusted leaders who see huge benefits in joining a unique program that only competes with itself.
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Links: Episode 001 mp3 file, Influence Marketing Podcast RSS feed
Key Takeaways
[2:50] Rick’s nickname is the Rickatron!
[5:32] Rick and his team administer the Veeam Vanguard Program. This is the third Veeam Vanguard class. There are currently 61 members. Rick was a longtime employee at Veeam before he started this program. Before that he worked at a bank.
[6:24] Some of Rick’s advice for getting a program off the ground: start small. Less is more — start with a manageable scope where you know you can be successful. When they launched the Vanguard program they kept it low key and small, and are growing it at a manageable pace over the past three years.
[8:03] Their selection mechanism profiles people on different factors such as: internal advocacy, initiation of user groups, social sharing, running community events, and suggestions from other Vanguards and program leaders. Candidates are also welcome and encouraged to reapply.
[12:30] Rick shares how the Veeam event, VeeamOn, started and grew into a great community event, and how getting into other cloud native communities helps him bring fresh and new ideas to the Veeam community. He does not feel groups should compete with one another, but instead should strive to be their own best and learn from each other.
[14:46] Rick’s main goal to address is geo-distribution. He takes great responsibility in making sure the program is diverse in all ways with gender, location, etc. He would liketo expand and cover more in several countries, such as Japan and Africa.
[18:47] The Vanguard is explained as the persona who is an advocate on the company’s behalf, is an evangelist, and is trusted to be neutral out in the community, with an emphasis on creativeness, trust and support.
[26:00] His front and center goal is to give his Vanguards an outstanding experience.
[30:28] One Vanguard, Kerstin, helps immensely with providing a catalog of cool and unique swag members can choose from.
[34:17] Veeam Champions and Veeam Expert Clubs are separate groups, and the Vanguard program encompasses all of those groups, and houses them under its umbrella.
[36:17] Rick feels Delta is an example of a company that gives good engagement with customer service questions and responses on Twitter.
[38:51] Some of the benefits Vanguards get include access to information early in press releases, webinars, announcements, and top secret product launches! He trusts them to not reveal any information before it is appropriate to do so.
[40:41] Continuing to innovate and expand the program is of the utmost importance. New ways to embellish the program include working with partners to keep the program fresh, and providing opportunities for Vanguard members to speak at community events.
[42:00] Rick doesn’t think there is competition for influence marketing programs. Every program can share, and benefit from each other, but he strives to make the program as good as possible, through the people on his team and the Vanguards himself. He was surprised how willing people are to say yes to attending VeeamOn events and webinars. When programs are bigger people may engage less.
[44:31] They don’t have a community manager, so now everyone is on triage working all angles, like Slack, Twitter, writing, presenting, and working in the labs. Ideally there would be one community manager, but for now this system works!
About our guest
Rick Vanover (Cisco Champion, MVP, vExpert) is the Director of Technical Product Marketing & Evangelism for Veeam Software based in Columbus, Ohio. Rick’s IT experience includes system administration and IT management; with virtualization being the central theme of his career recently.
Mentioned In This Episode
- Rick Vanover’s Twitter: @rickvanover
- John’s Twitter: @jtroyer
- Kathleen’s Twitter: @dailykat
- Veeam: veeam.com
- Veeam Vanguards: veeam.com/vanguard.html
- VeeamOn: veeam.com/veeamon
- Spiceworks: spiceworks.com
The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Your hosts, John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer, are co-founders of the IMC. The Influence Marketing Podcast is part of the research program of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.
Top Photo credit: Clint Wyckoff
