Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Partner News: Microsoft Partner Network Goes Social

Microsoft Partner Network
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From the Editor
Connection is one of the pillars in the new Microsoft Partner Network. We are looking to support the ties that drive business and innovation—partner to Microsoft, partner to partner, partner to customer. Each of these relationships offers an opportunity to find more business, develop new approaches to business challenges, generate innovative ideas, and inspire confidence in your solutions and services. This newsletter explores some of the actions we've taken to reach out through social media, as well as some of the resources we've developed to help make your own efforts more effective.
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Earlier this year, we established a presence on Twitter and Facebook. We knew that people were out there talking about us. We wanted to be there to participate in the conversation. Almost immediately, partners began relating to us in a whole new way. We got to know many of you better, too. Someone might announce a new solution. Or a competency attained. And we'd happily pass that on to our followers. We found out how passionate some of you truly are. We continue to learn from you every day.

Our online communities helped us organize discussions about the 2009 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC09). On the dedicated WPC09 Facebook site, partners shared anticipatory comments and invited each other to visit conference booths. Partners are still tweeting about their experience and have even begun tweeting about WPC10, which is a year away! Nearly 1,500 photos were uploaded to Flickr. The conference was a top-10 buzzing topic on Twitter, helping drive more than 150,000 viewers to the keynote addresses that were streaming live on Digital WPC. (They can now be viewed on demand.) And as the speakers presented, the tweets of the audience—physical and virtual—scrolled side by side with the streaming video. The sense of interaction and engagement was palpable.

So, in our experience, just joining the conversation can be meaningful. Where you go after that depends on your specific needs, the size of your business, and your goals. We've put together some resources you can use to build or deepen your own social media practice.
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Partner Marketing Center: Learn more about blogging, tweeting, building social communities, and tracking results.
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Community tab: Find other partners, share resources and ideas, get leads.
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Follow the official Microsoft communities of your choice on Twitter.
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Partners can use Online Technical Communities to get support—not only responses from Microsoft professionals but from other partners as well.
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Build Your Business
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Multiple Microsoft Competencies Shown to Build Revenue, Deal Size
Recent third-party research shows that partners with more than two core-infrastructure competencies sign deals that are 68 percent larger than average and enjoy 28 percent higher revenues per employee in addition to longer engagements and faster revenue growth.
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Practice Tests for MCP Exams Now Available in English
Use the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) exam practice tests for designing and providing Microsoft Volume Licensing solutions to SMBs—exam 70-671—and large organizations—exam 70-672—as tools to help prepare for the MCP exam testing environment.
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Offers and Incentives
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Windows 7 for US$77 Sofware Assurance Offer Extended
Reconnect with customers who have bought PCs in the last six months, and boost revenue by offering Software Assurance to customers who buy new PCs before August 31.
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Two New Customer Offers for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
Leading up to the next Microsoft Office system release, use the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 No Better Time promotion to offer your small- and midsize-business (SMB) customers up to 20 percent savings on up to 250 Office Professional Plus 2007 license and Software Assurance packs. And help drive sales among existing annuity customers in emerging markets with the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 Step Up promotion, which offers midsize and enterprise customers up to 35 percent savings when they step up to Office Professional Plus 2007 from Microsoft Office Standard 2007 Software Assurance. There is no better time for your customers to act: every Office Professional Plus 2007 license covered by Microsoft Software Assurance for Volume Licensing also includes rights to the next version of Office upon its release.
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Final Reminder: Open License Order Fulfillment Requirement
Beginning August 17, new Microsoft Open License orders submitted with the "End Customer E-mail Address" field left blank will be rejected. If you have not already made the e-mail field mandatory in your own order entry systems, be sure to do so immediately to ensure the best experience for you and your customers. Download the FAQ to learn more about this change.
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Software News
Microsoft Office 2010 activation guidelines.
Resources and guidance for Windows Server 2008 R2 implementation.
Windows 7 RTM
White paper: economic impact
Windows XP Mode resources
Online Readiness Kit
Tips and Tricks
Role-based training
Jump to Portal Resources
Several new case studies help you compete against open source.
Software Assurance improves customer cost management: multimedia presentation.
Visit the Microsoft Partner Network Portal

©2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Bing, Hyper-V, Microsoft Partner Network, Windows, Windows Live, and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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