Salesforce Shifts Gears with Chatter, Goes on Social CRM Crusade

While we deal primarily in computer rental products, we tend to keep our toes in the water concerning industry developments. And one particular evolution has stuck out like a sore thumb: the rise of social media.

There’s a reason that the stock of companies like LinkedIn and Facebook are rising – the public knows the importance of social media.

Moving forward, when it comes to advertising, communications, and business as usual, we can expect to be social about it.

And salesforce.com is on board with that. According to Tien Tzuo, the company’s CMO, Salesforce intends to go beyond CRM’s limitations to a realm where every aspect of a business platform (including social media) can be leveraged.

Part of me feels that Tzuo and the rest of the Salesforce gang might be a little late to the party. When technology is involved, it’s usually the first innovator to the starting gate that wins the prize.  I can think of one juicy Apple of an example, but that’s not really relevant to the conversation.

In the realm of business-related social media, LinkedIn is king.

Salesforce boasts that it is the first company to achieve a “run rate of $2 billion,”  which gives it a certain level of influence. Enough, perhaps, to loosen LinkedIn’s death grip on the industry.

According to ZDNET, Salesforce has been acquiring social media related projects – Jigsaw, Heroku, Radian6, DimDim, etc. – with the intent of branching out.

ZDNET’s Paul Greenberg complimented Salesforce’s enterprise-level social media enterprise in an article entitled Social CRM: The Conversation. In the piece, Greenberg said, “This is a distinction that only benefits salesforce in their definition of how to become the company that powers the social enterprise. It clears up what was detritus in their messaging - the equivalent of a floater in an otherwise clear eye.  Now it’s no longer the case. And it clarifies what it is about the cloud that they bring. Way to go here for sure.”

Greenberg wasn’t conveying all fluffy feelings for Salesforce  –  he pointed out its weakness in the cloud marketing arena, and pointed to the competitions strength in that particular area.