When it comes to social media, partners often have limited resources and small marketing departments, so they look to vendors for help, advice, and enablement. And why not? Social media produces almost double the marketing leads of trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail, or PPC (according to Hubspot).

It’s one thing to cobble together a few social media ebooks and random webinars for partners, but another thing entirely to create an end-to-end program for them.

This week, we look at VMware’s successful social media enablement program for partners that includes a monthly how-to blog series, a live video learning session (vmLive), and a content syndication platform.

The first vmLive session was a raving success with more than 450 attendees, according to Gina Bollenback, VMware Partner Communications Social Media Manager. The session covered Social Media 101 with tips to help partners communicate effectively using social and how to integrate it into an overall communication plan using many of VMware’s partner-centric resources.

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“It’s great for small companies that don’t have a dedicated social media manager,” said Gina. “And partners are really seeing the benefits. The best part — we waived the fee for partners and they get to share content that increases their reach.”

It’s always a good practice to create tools and programs that are a direct result of partner feedback–and that’s just what VMware did. This social program was born out of meetings with their Partner Marketing Advisory Council. The council noted that there is a real need for this kind of program, so VMware leapt into action to create this invaluable partner resource.

By educating partners on social media and offering resources to make the process of posting easier, VMware is able to help partners really understand how to use social for their business and take action. This, in turn, generates sales, spreads word of mouth, and increases partner loyalty.

It’s paying off so far. Gina says she’s seeing an increase in posts from partners and more than 27,000 clicks on the links within the posts per month from over 125 active accounts. VMware then amplifies content to customers to ensure partners are top of mind.

It doesn’t hurt that the resources are free to partners.

“Since we waived the fees, we are seeing about five to ten partners per week inquire about the service,” she said. She hopes to double the number of partners using the service by the end of the year.

Have a story to share about your social media or marketing programs for partners? We’re looking for your success stories or lessons learned, so drop us a note at info@channelmavenconsulting.com or send us a tweet to @channelmaven and you could be featured on our blog.

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