Should Microsoft Dynamics GP Customers Have Their Own Blogs?

If you are in the software selection process or you already use Microsoft Dynamics GP your best source of product information is often educational blog articles. If you do an online search for Microsoft Dynamics GP topics you will find plenty of content. But most of it is written by Microsoft or by Microsoft Dynamics partners/resellers. But there is another group that should be sharing their expertise – Dynamics GP Users!

I know what you are saying...blogging takes time, why would a user want to do this? Here are two reasons I think make sense.

 1)      Build a KnowledgeBase

At Convergence 2013 I talked to John Lowther, a Dynamics GP MVP who is the Director of Software Development & Integration at a company using Dynamics  GP.  He told me that when people at his own company ask him how to solve an issue in Dynamics GP, he doesn’t just give them the answer, he writes the answer into a blog post. Then he can send them a link to the post. They can refer to it anytime, plus anyone else in the future who has the same question can be sent the link. He said that the younger generation of workers at his organization are much more comfortable reading a blog post than reading a software manual. John is building a Dynamics GP KnowledgeBase for his own organization and at the same time sharing his expertise with others. Check out John’s blog site “The Dynamics GP Administrator”.

It is true that many companies use Microsoft Sharepoint or Dynamics CRM to store their internal KnowledgeBase articles. But why not share the expertise with others who can benefit from it too? In return you build social relationships that can provide you with answers and assistance you need. Bloggers are a pretty tight community and always willing to help fellow writers. 

2)      Job Security

I think that Dynamics GP experts should consider blogging to “build their own brand”. If you are looking for a new job one day, you can tell someone on a resume that you are a Dynamics GP expert OR you can show them links to all the articles you have been writing for years. Which do you think is better proof? A person who becomes a prolific blogger and active in the social community builds a name for themselves. And that person will be in high demand in the job market. Being recognized as an expert in your industry is the best way to ensure job security.

Where can Dynamics GP users start their own blog?

The Microsoft Dynamics Community site will host a blog for free on their site if you meet some minimum requirements. You just need to reach out to the Dynamics Community team to have the blog created.  According to Nick Hoban, Community Project Manager on the Microsoft Dynamics Community Team, “To my knowledge we have two customers who have their own blog. I believe that a number of customers would like to blog, it’s just that they don’t have time and there’s no monetary incentive for them to blog. I do think if we could get more customers to blog this would help give a different voice in the blog space. I think it would be interesting to hear what’s working well for our customers. Or if there are things that are not working well, how they are getting around those challenges.”

Another resource is GPUG (the national Dynamics GP User Group). With the roll out of the new GPUG Collaborate site they are encouraging their members to blog!  For example, check out the blog posts by Howard Swerdloff and others.

GPUG Director, Kim Peterson says,  “I’ve heard from many customers that they have plans to get started with blogging. Now with GPUG Collaborate – they can make their goal of blogging happen in minutes.  Sharing experiences with fellow users is a great win for the Dynamics GP community!”

So if you are a Dynamics GP user, why not start blogging? Your colleagues (and your career) will thank you for it.

By Anya Ciecierski, Director of Marketing at CAL Business Solutions and Blogger www.calszone.com