
Salesforce isn’t fooling around. The acquisitions of Radian6 and Buddy Media in the last year or so have made it even more of a powerhouse as a one-stop sales and marketing solution and Social.com sweetens the deal even more. The sales pitch is that using Social.com, brands and agencies can leverage real time customer and social listening data to power their Twitter and Facebook ad campaigns. If it lives up to the hype, this does not suck. Not one bit.
The focus here is purportedly to allow brands and agencies to “reach new customers in entirely new ways” and also to “maximize return on advertising dollars” using a process-focused, self-service application. This means the magic formula of the right message, delivered to the right customer at exactly the right time. Oh, sweet data, there is so much power in business intelligence it makes me swoon. Listening, targeting, segmentation, customization, location—all components of the magic formula. And if Social.com can deliver on this, it’s a win. A win for brands. A win for agencies. A win for clients. And a win for consumers.
My only concern is that the Social.com platform might turn out to be interesting, but just average in terms of functionality. And of course I say this without experimenting with it at all, so please keep that in mind. By way of example, Radian6 is, by most accounts, an average product that captured significant amounts of mindshare based on smart marketing and identification and utilization of well-known brand evangelists. It’s certainly not the best product on the market–at best, it’s passable. But it’s one of the best-known SMM products on the market (which, again, doesn’t necessarily make it a good product).
According to data from BIA Kelsey, with marketers expected to spend up to $11 billion on social advertising by 2017 and social media being the number one consumer activity worldwide, this kind of tool that allows for listening, targeting, customization, metrics and data management and integration of all of that sweetness into your corporate CRM is a smart move. A very smart move.
The launch of Social.com comes at an opportune time as Twitter and Facebook continue to launch more advertising-related features and tools—and they’re not cheap, which means companies are interested in getting the most bang for their buck while also driving website visits and purchases. One way to do that? Create highly customized, targeted ad campaigns built on integrated listening and data. And the fact that it’s real-time information is even more important, because it gives you the opportunity to change your messaging or approach based on the most up-to-date information about your customers and prospects.
While we’re on the subject of social advertising, here’s an interesting opportunity that just appeared on my radar. You might consider making room in your schedule this afternoon for “The State of Social Ads,” a webinar hosted by Salesforce Marketing Cloud VP Peter Goodman, from 2 to 3 p.m. EDT today.
What other solutions like Social.com are out there that you’re using or thinking about using? Let me know about them in the comments, because you know how much I’d like to be checking them out.
Image via Salesforce