From social enterprise to customer enterprise

Salesforce boasts that more than half of the Fortune 100'sCompany already with the new marketing Cloud including Nestlé, Ford and Unilever. Many Customers were gained through two important acquisitions in the past 24 months: Buddy Media (a Marketing-Platform for Social media) and Radian6 (Analysis- and commitmentSolutions for Social media).

With the Marketing Cloudwhich integrates these two new acquisitions into the existing platform, Salesforce.com is aiming to become the market leader for social listening, content marketing, social media and social networking. Advertising and Customer Service under the link.

Terminologically, we are moving with the marketing Cloud away from customer relationship management and towards social relationship management.

Social Listening is based on Salesforce's analysis tools, which can be used to track and measure brand-relevant activities of customers and communities.

Content Marketing amplifies brand stories and boosts conversion rates and leads, while social Advertising Social Media-campaigns can be automated and analyzed.

All of these processes are closely linked to the customerServicewhich in the Company key role in the processing of all SocialMarketing-activities.

The comparison makes the difference

Only a direct comparison with the competition will show how powerful the new product functionalities actually are. However, we see the great strength of the Social marketing-Salesforce's single sign-on offering and the holistic customer view that enables the integration of the newly acquired Solutions into the suite as a whole.

However, the foray into automated Social Marketing for Salesforce is not only associated with opportunities, but also with challenges. The latter include greater localization - Salesforce must gear its approach more towards local conditions, as social networks are used differently depending on the geographical area.

For example, the German public is more sensitized to the issue of data protection than Anglo-Saxon countries. In certain countries (e.g. Russia and China), Salesforce has to work with local networks that may be more popular than Facebook or Twitter.

To be successful, Salesforce must also address a new group of buyers: the marketing department. The provider must therefore expand its (already extensive) partner channel.

In order to reach CMOs, Salesforce must work with new partners such as creative and advertising agencies in addition to traditional system integrators.

Vertical specialization

In terms of opportunities, vertical specialization should help Salesforce to differentiate itself in the long term, as Customers from different industries different Marketing-metrics and requirements or are subject to different regulations.

Salesforce could also realize the potential of its Marketing-The company could also explore analytics capabilities beyond the marketing department, for example by asking what Human Resources or other departments could use the analytics tools for. However, these opportunities could be thwarted by the way Salesforce has recently presented itself as a brand.

Whereas just a year ago, social enterpriseCompany whereas the emphasis today is on the customer company. Salesforce now believes that the social aspect has always been part of its DNA, while the customer company message better describes the provider's ambitions.

George Mironescu, Senior Analyst at PAChas been working for the market research company for around ten years. His main areas of expertise include enterprise application software, Cloud and Mobility as well as Application Services, Consulting and System Integration.