1.
Salesforce.com Blog
Guest Author Program
2014 Program Guide

2.
Contents
1. Program Overview
• Program Description
• Participant Criteria
• Benefits of Participation
• Tiers of Rewards
• Submission Process
2. How To Get Started
• Blog Guidelines
• SEO Tips
• Branding Guidelines

3.
Program Overview

4.
Program Overview
The Salesforce.com Blog is a fast-growing
platform for engaging dialogue among
business professionals around the future of
business.
We invite top thought leaders to play a role in
sparking social conversations and sharing
their vision of how businesses can tap into the
power of social, mobile and cloud
technologies to drive success.
See these leading blog posts:
Marc Benioff: Turn Your Idea Into A High Growth
Company http://bit.ly/12C8LAm
Kyle Porter: 6 Tony Robbins Insights That Will
Change Your Sales Game http://bit.ly/11Ukfwg
John Barrows: Top 8 Questions To Ask Prospects
To Sell More Effectively http://bit.ly/150JfEm
280k+ Visits/Month!

5.
Criteria for Participants
• Book authors
• Regular media contributors
• C-Level Executives
• Subject Matter Experts
• Professors
• Entrepreneurs
• Other authorities
We’re looking for new voices who
can build a following and stay
ahead of major trends impacting
business.
Your blog submission selection is
at the discretion of our Blog Editor.
We recommend participants blog
at least monthly to develop a
following.

6.
Why Become A Guest Blogger?
Blogging can benefit you and your organization with real and
measurable benefits:
For you:
• Reach a large professional audience with your thought
leadership positions
• Build your own social following
• Link backs to your website, blog or content
• Social promotion and engagement by the Salesforce
channels
• An entry point to new opportunities with Salesforce.com
(webinars, Dreamforce sessions, eBooks)
For your company or organization:
• Link backs to your website and content
• Blogging can lead to more search results and higher search rankings
• Blogging humanizes your brand, offering a credible voice and more
personal experience than content on your website

7.
Tiers of Benefits for Participants
Tier 3 “All Star Blogger”
• Consistently ranks in top in terms of blog views
• All of the below plus:
• Invitations to Influencer Series webinars, Dreamforce panels,
eBook collaborations, co-promotions
Tier 2 “Regular blogger”
• Submits quality blogs at least monthly for 6 months
• All of the below plus:
• Blog platform log-in, premium time slots, content
collaborations, thematic guidance
• ‘Salesforce.com Blogger’ digital badge
Tier 1 “Rookie blogger”
• New to blogging with Salesforce.com
• Editorial support, coaching on best practices, social promotion,
topic ideas, networking event invitations

8.
Blogger Guidelines

9.
General Guidance
When drafting your blog post, please adhere to the following guidelines:
• Keep your post between 400 to 700 words. If you have a longer post
either cut it down or make sure every word is meaningful and offers new
insight.
• Don’t be afraid to show your personality – you can use first person when
writing (I did this...) or draw from examples or stories from your life. Sound
authentic and approachable; don’t sound like a marketer/sales person
trying to pitch a product.
• No pitching – the blog post is meant to be a thought-leadership piece.
• Be honest and transparent. All blog posts must be factually accurate and
all statistics and numbers should cited and supported by authoritative third
party source(s). Include links to studies, etc.
• Conclude the post with a question to your readers to provoke comments or
create a call to action (linking out to an offer page) at the bottom.
• Spell check the article prior to submitting!

10.
Title Guidelines
• Length: 10-12 words or less (to fit in a tweet)
• Format: Make it catchy. How to’s, questions, statistics, numbers (5 ways, 5
keys, etc.) usually do the trick. Make sure your title is clear yet enticing
enough so that the reader would want to click on it and read more.
• Keywords: Include a SEO keyword relating to your topic in headline and
the intro paragraph (See following section on SEO & Linking).
Example: “How Has Social Media Changed CRM”
• Capitalization and punctuation: Capitalize every word in your title - no
punctuation except colons, apostrophes, question marks and (rarely)
exclamation points as punctuation affects the blog post URL and sharing
capabilities.

11.
Tips For Blogging Success
• Tone: Don’t be afraid to show some personality – blogs are supposed to
be fun, easy to read, engaging and sometimes even provocative. Don’t
sound like you are advertising/promoting our company. The more
“authentic” you are, the better the conversation you will have with your
readers.
• Intro: Open your post by explaining why the audience should care about
your topic (state what’s the problem you are solving). Use simple and
straight-to-the-point language. Capture your audience and convince them
to read on.
• Format: Keep your paragraphs to 4-5 sentences. The more you break out
your content in paragraphs or lists (1,2,3, or bullets) the easier it is to read/
skim.
• Length: As mentioned previously, keep your post between 400 to 700
words.
• Pictures: The Salesforce Blog editorial mantra is ‘no picture, no blog post’.
Submit at least ONE picture that would capture the audience attention;
logos and spreadsheet screenshots don’t fall into this category. NOTE:
image dimensions should be 300x200 pixels and make sure to source
all third party/credited images in the photo caption.

12.
Before You Send Checklist
q Proofread the entire article out loud before submitting.
q No capitalization of entire words within post (unless it's a specific
abbreviation).
q No exclamation points within post.
q Single space between sentences (no double spacing).
q Promotion - we welcome you to link to one call to action at the end of your
post (new book, web site, giveaway, etc.) Please choose only one.

13.
Branding Guidelines

14.
General Branding Guidelines and Policies
Salesforce.com places a great emphasis on the trust we give our partner
community and the significant role each partner plays. Salesforce.com has
expended tremendous resources establishing its brand identity and the trust
the public has come to associate with its various brand assets.
Members of the salesforce.com partner ecosystem are considered an
extension of our trusted brand identity, and are therefore expected to respect
and protect our brand assets through the manner in which they portray
themselves and salesforce.com in interactions with customers, other partners
and the general public. As a member of the salesforce.com partner
ecosystem, therefore, you agree as follows:
• You will read, understand and at all times comply with the Salesforce.com Branding
Guidelines;
• You will cooperate with salesforce.com to timely address violations of the
Salesforce.com Branding Guidelines that salesforce.com brings to your attention;
• You acknowledge that salesforce.com may take remedial action to address any
violations of the Salesforce.com Branding Guidelines that are not timely addressed;
• Failure by salesforce.com to bring any violation of the Salesforce.com Branding
Guidelines to your attention shall not be construed as (1) authorization or permission
by salesforce.com, and/or (2) a waiver of any rights of salesforce.com

15.
Salesforce.com Corporate Branding Guidelines
• “Salesforce.com” is our corporate name and is lower case except at the
beginning of a sentence.
Ex: Salesforce.com is a company. My friend works at salesforce.com.
• “Salesforce” is the name and trademark that refers to our entire service or
overall solution—our applications plus the Salesforce Platform and/or
infrastructure—and should always be capitalized.
Ex: With Salesforce, you can sell more effectively and create custom apps
to fit your business.
• “Salesforce.com,” “Salesforce,” and any associated program names,
solutions, or related brands must be spelled out completely and never
abbreviated or modified and otherwise used properly as trademarks, as
outlined in the Salesforce.com Branding Guidelines.
Ex: DO NOT use salesforce, SFDC, salesforce dot-com, etc.

16.
Salesforce.com Product Branding Guidelines
• While salesforce.com offers a number of solutions and functionalities,
members of the salesforce.com partner ecosystem should limit references
to the salesforce.com Primary Solutions (rather than inclusive solutions) as
much as practicable. The salesforce.com Primary Solutions are:
Salesforce Sales Cloud®, Salesforce Service Cloud®, Salesforce
Marketing Cloud™, Salesforce Platform™, Salesforce Chatter®, and
Salesforce Work.com™. Please regularly visit our Product Overview page
for updates.
• Ex: Salesforce Sales Cloud® not Data.com
• Ex: Salesforce Service Cloud® not Desk.com
• Ex: Salesforce Marketing Cloud™ not Buddy Media or Radian6
• Ex: Salesforce Platform™ not Force.com or Heroku
• Ex: Salesforce Work.com ™ not Rypple

17.
Salesforce Platform Branding Guidelines
• “Salesforce Platform” is the name and trademark for our cloud platform and
cloud infrastructure and should always be capitalized. Salesforce Platform
may refer to Force.com®, Heroku®, Database.com™, Site.com™,
Salesforce Indentity™, AppExchange®. ISVForce®, and/or
RemedyForce™
Ex: With the Salesforce Platform™, building custom apps is easier than
ever.
• “AppExchange” is the name and trademark for our cloud app marketplace;
both the “a” and the “e” are always capitalized.
Ex: Salesforce AppExchange® is your best source for cloud computing
applications.

18.
Brand Family Guidelines
• Salesforce.com has expended significant resources in establishing its
Brand Families (e.g., “Force” Family, “Cloud” Family, etc.). Each Brand
Family includes a number of our solutions and trademarks and have come
to be associated with salesforce.com. While partners may want to include
a salesforce.com Family term as part of their own branding, this may
inappropriately signal an endorsement or special relationship with
salesforce.com where none exists. In order to protect salesforce.com
customers, other partners and the public at large from mistakenly
assuming your company or solution is associated with salesforce.com, you
may not use any corporate or brand name that is likely to be associated
with any salesforce.com Brand Family. Please regularly visit our
Trademark List for updates.
Ex: Force Family includes Salesforce, Dreamforce, Cloudforce,
Developerforce, Visualforce, etc. You MAY NOT use conflicting names/
brands such as Partnerforce, Actionforce, Integrationforce
Ex: Cloud Family includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud,
etc. You MAY NOT use conflicting names/brands such as Partner Cloud,
Advertising Cloud, Information Cloud, etc.

19.
Ready to blog?
Contact
jburnham@salesforce.com