Salesforce.com: Social Media Is Our Next Horizon

Salesforce.com, the cloud pioneer, has a new mission—building the Social Enterprise.   

I think they may be on to something.

Marc Benioff is SFDC’s Founder and Chairman.  

Benioff opened the June 2011 Cloudforce event in Boston by calling for a “Social Revolution.”

“Salesforce.com was born cloud, but we’re being re-born social,” Benioff declared.

Benioff discussed how social apps—think Facebook, Twitter, and the like—have essentially replaced traditional Internet uses like search and static web pages.  “Facebook is rapidly becoming the Internet,” Benioff stated.  

Benioff made his assertion commercially pertinent by declaring our colleagues and  customers are exponentially social—they already live and breathe social media.

On this point he went to town, declaring B2B and B2C interactions “are all about delighting your customers, which means knowing who they and what they like.”  Benioff’s point is you must use social media to really understand and build dialogue with your prospects and customers.  “Your brand is now a series of real-time conversations” not just a packet of memories and past consumptions.

In sum Benioff’s point is online social applications are dominating the Internet and our LIVES, so businesses better go where our colleagues and customers already live.

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I agree.  A decade ago Starbucks wanted to provide a “third location," a place where you could hang outside of home and work.  SBUX’s formula worked.  And social media now provides a new, DOMINANT place to hang for important segments of the population (maybe not you and me, but the stats around Facebook use are staggering). 

Moving to specifics, I think Benioff’s recommendations around HOW businesses should harness social media are less than revolutionary.

“Connect to the public social networks and pay attention to what people are saying about you, not just listening and engaging, but also marketing to customers.”  Benioff provided cases where Gatorade, KLM Airlines, and Bank of America all monitored and built dialogue around Twitter and Facebook feeds.  Makes sense, I guess, but it strikes me that social media is only one part of the marketing mix.

“Use social networks within your own organization.”  Benioff mentioned Symantec (18.5k users) and Dell (120k users) as early adopters.  I totally agree: one look at SFDC Chatter application and you totally get how private clouds foster collaboration and community.  I think you’re going to see companies move away from email and SharePoint and move toward SFDC’s Chatter or SAP’s Streamwork tools.  The key, Benioff said, is to build your private cloud to look like popular social systems, “like Facebook or Twitter, not Exchange or Lotus Notes.” 

“Make all enterprise apps truly social.”  What this boiled down to, I think, was equip your assets to message you through the social media, which seems a bit of a stretch.  Benioff mentioned Toyota cars that tell you when their tires need air, Coke Machines that award you swag by recognizing your iPhone, and Enterasys “social switches" that provide real time updates via “Facebook, Twitter, and Chatter.”  There’s no question that all sorts of devices are going online, and messaging via the Internet, but I don’t think I want my refrigerator telling me to ‘buy more Bud” via Twitter.

One somewhat obvious point: Benioff’s roadmap for becoming a “Social Enterprise” maps neatly to SFDC’s product portfolio.  Nothing wrong with that, we all have to make a living.

But the larger point is this social thing is exploding.  Organizations need to think of ways to smoothly and effectively join the party.

I’d suggest you start by looking at the private cloud apps, especially the previously mentioned SFDC Chatter and SAP Streamwork. Both show powerful potential to measurably improve collaboration.   

If interested in exploring either app I have some partner-level views I’m happy to share.

The company that told us “just say no to software” more than a decade ago—well before anyone really understood what the cloud was or would become—is once again messaging that a new approach to business is emerging.

Best to consider