We allow Vendors to join the Tribe and post in the Community as they can add lots of value, insight, and outside perspectives.
However, we don’t allow any pitching or promoting.
This includes both blatant promotion.
(e.g. a new thread promoting your product)
And, more subtle promotion.
(e.g. posting new threads or replies with little or no value, so your profile is regularly seen)
The basic guideline is that it’s OK to reply to a thread mentioning your business / product only if it's very directly relevant to a question that someone has already asked AND your answer is helpful for the rest of the Tribe.
If it’s not directly relevant and it could be seen as under-handed or subtle promotion, it will be deleted and you will be given a Tribal Warning.
As a guide, here's some examples of what is allowed and what isn’t allowed:
EXAMPLE OF ALLOWED:
If a Triber is asking in a thread how to stop their techs from cherry-picking tickets to better manage the queue AND your product helps out with this, then it’s perfectly OK to post a reply to their question with something like:
“You might want to consider looking at <our product> where we solve this exact problem by doing X, Y, and Z. I’m the founder and so of course, I’m a little biased, however, feel free to ask any questions in here so my answers can benefit the rest of the Tribe”.
By suggesting the member asks any questions in the thread, means the rest of the Tribe can benefit from the discussion/answers.
EXAMPLES OF NOT ALLOWED:
- A new thread promoting a new feature of your product or a link to one of your blog posts
- A new thread with Security or Industry news (using news to get your name shown more regularly is not allowed). If there's a timely security issue that could affect a lot of MSPs (e.g. an RMM tool was hacked), use the Anonymous Posting feature instead.
- A new thread asking for product, service or offer feedback from our members, including using the Tribe to try and find if there's a big enough need for a new product or business idea you might have.
- A new thread promoting something (e.g an upcoming or recorded webinar, a blog post, an event etc)
- A new thread starting a conversation on a topic. If there's a topic you think would benefit from being posted, email us on [email protected] and we'll consider it for posting
- A reply to an existing thread simply saying “Look at <Our Product>” that adds no additional value
- A reply to an existing thread saying “We have an Upcoming Webinar” when no one has asked about it
- A reply to an existing thread that simply links to one of your blog posts/videos/white-papers/website etcwith no additional value. If you do have some existing notes that helps answer the question, then please add them to the post instead of linking externally.
- Anything else that could potentially be seen as promotion (even subtle promotion)
If you’re ever unsure if something is OK to post, shoot an email to [email protected] and we'll confirm for you.
Also as an FYI – there are some Communities and Groups out in the world such as ASCII (USA), Network Group (UK), and SMBiT Professionals (Australia/NZ) that have paid vendor sponsorship programs that do allow you to promote your products/services/offerings. It’s worth considering if a Paid Sponsorship of those groups is beneficial to you as well.
Click here to see some guidelines around private messaging our members.