Starting With Experience Cloud: Resources to Ramp Up Your Learning

If you find yourself navigating the vast terrain of Experience Cloud with a compass that only points to “newbie”, fear not – this blog is your trusty guide.

Here, I’ve compiled useful resources for learning about Experience Cloud, whether you’re completely new to the platform or just lacking practical experience. So, start your journey to mastering Experience Cloud with confidence and let’s get started!

Resources for Learning Experience Cloud

Experience Cloud is a Salesforce product that allows for building portals on top of the Salesforce platform, connected to the CRM data. Many companies that use Salesforce prefer having everything in one place, eliminating the need for external platforms and resources.

So, if you’re a Salesforce Admin in a company, one day you might find yourself assigned to an Experience Cloud project. Before delving into basics, like exploring licenses, choosing a domain, defining branding and structure, start by exploring the platform’s capabilities to understand what it offers.

To ramp up your knowledge on Salesforce Experience Cloud, you can explore various free resources, including official Salesforce documentation, videos, blogs, training materials, and community forums.

Here’s a list to get you started:

• Start with Trailhead, a Salesforce’s free online learning platform, to get the basic understanding of the Experience Cloud platform. On Trailhead, you can pass various trails, modules, and trailmixes to get the key concepts of the platform.
  • Expand Your Reach with Experience Cloud
  • Customize your Experience Cloud Site
  • Salesforce CMS Basics
  • Experience Cloud Site Strategy
  • Experience Cloud for Newbies
  • Create and Manage Partner Portals (PDF)
• Explore a variety of learning resources, including an official Salesforce documentation, upcoming and past Experience Cloud events, use cases, and more – all on the Learn Experience Cloud platform.
• Experience Cloud Sites Managers Guide (PDF) is your one-stop shop for learning all about Experience Cloud site management.
• Learn about security, sharing, and user access with the short Salesforce video lessons Who Sees What in Experience Cloud.
• Join Trailblazer Community groups to get best practices and valuable tips from those already working with Experience Cloud. In the Trailblazer Community groups you can also post questions asking for help.
  • Experience Cloud
  • Community Management
• Explore Salesforce Developers blog. Use a search bar to filter blogs on the platform and find resources that best meet your needs.
• Explore Salesforce Help platform to get answers to all Experience Cloud questions. Get the whole overview of the Experience Cloud platform here.

Additional Resources to Dive Deeper

Imagine you’ve already watched all the videos on Youtube, read dozens of blogs, and passed several Trailheads, but still feel unconfident with Experience Cloud? Let’s see how you can improve your learning on Experience Cloud and what resources may be useful for you…

• Udemy courses: You can find thousands of Experience Cloud courses of various levels, on different languages, with ratings and reviews. The prices are very attractive and some of the courses are free of charge. You choose what works best for you.
• Social channels like Reddit or Salesforce StackExchange: These are platforms where users often share real-world scenarios, challenges, and solutions related to various topics, including Salesforce Experience Cloud. On these platforms, you can ask specific questions and benefit from the collective knowledge of the community. You can also find questions related to specific issues, explore different use cases, and understand how others have implemented solutions in their projects. Plus, by participating in discussions, you can build a professional network within the Salesforce community, opening doors to valuable insights and career opportunities.
• Focus on Force: Although it is mainly used for the exam preparation, this platform may be useful for a more in-depth learning of the Salesforce products, such as Experience Cloud. By delving into study materials like guides, practice exams, and hands-on scenarios, you may discover new insights missed during your initial learning stages. You can also ask questions in the community and get additional insights and tips from the fellow learners.
• Salesforce thought leaderships: Thought leadership materials are often authored by industry experts and professionals with extensive knowledge of the platform and often include practical tips and real-world use cases. These insights prove invaluable as you apply theoretical knowledge to practical scenarios, keeping you informed about the latest trends, updates, and industry best practices. For instance, Phil Weinmeister, an Experience Cloud MVP and 30x Certified Salesforce Architect, has trailmixes on Trailhead specifically designed for those looking to master everything communities-related on the Salesforce platform.
• Pluralsight courses on Experience Cloud: Pluralsight is a platform that provides educational courses on various technological solutions, including Salesforce and its products. You can find some courses on Experience Cloud that may be interesting for you. Besides, there’s a Fundamentals of Salesforce Experience Cloud course by Phil Weinmeister there. Highly recommended.

Resources to Enhance Practical Knowledge

Whenever you feel comfortable with the foundational concepts and have got a basic understanding of the platform, you can jump into the practical tasks to get hands-on experience with real-world scenarios to reinforce your learning.

If you have access to the Salesforce sandboxes, use them for hands-on practice. Sandboxes provide a safe environment for testing and experimenting with Experience Cloud configurations. You can also create a Dev org and play around.

If you’ve already completed Trailhead modules and trailmixes, you may have already done some hands-on tasks as these resources often include practical exercises. In case you’re looking for more practical experience, here are some resources that may be useful for you:

• Build Your Personal Portfolio on Salesforce, a Trailhead hands-on project, is what you need to start building your first example site. In this project, you’ll build a simple Experience Cloud site from scratch and work with layouts, personalizations, customizations, website pages, etc. This is a good starting point for your practical learning.
• When you’re done with your first Experience Cloud site, look for a Quick Start: Explore the E-Bikes Sample App project on Trailhead to learn about LWC, UTAM and Experience Cloud by exploring an e-bikes retailer use case app. In this project you’ll deploy and explore the E-Bikes sample app that integrates with Experience Cloud.

Summary

Diving into Experience Cloud doesn’t have to be daunting, and with the resources mentioned in this blog, you’ve got a solid foundation to ramp up your learning! Remember: start small, practice a lot, and don’t hesitate to explore.

Experience Cloud is your playground for creating amazing digital experiences. Also, if you’re new and doing an implementation, you’re bound to make mistakes, which is absolutely fine. Everyone learns from their mistakes. So, go ahead and happy learning!