Salesforce gives the Cloud a new social direction

Is this an aggressive marketing move? Or, is this a step to stay ahead in this social revolution age? Salesforce launching today its new social media analytics software suite “Marketing Cloud” is regarded as a timely push to bring in consumer social media features into business and industrial settings.

Salesforce is no longer a company that provides only online software managing your sales process. It has evolved itself to explore new markets like social media marketing in order to sustain growth. Marketing Cloud is a product of Salesforce's closely watched, $689 million acquisition of Buddy Media. However, the company is getting tough challenge from its rival Oracle, which has captured headlines with its social media-related acquisitions recently.

Marc Benioff, CEO and founder of Salesforce, said at the Dreamforce conference 2012, “Are you and your company going through a social revolution? We see your customers and your employees and your partners are all connected.”

Yes, Mr. Benioff. You are right in saying so. Everyday or rather every moment, big brands face challenges from social media either in the form of opinions or reviews or customer sentiment. Listening, analyzing and engaging – these are the three ways how one can counter the challenges and this forms three closely-related market segments called Social Media Analytics, Social Media Marketing and Social Media Consulting. All the big players like Adobe, Oracle, Microsoft and Google have their own interest to dominate this market. This might be too early to predict who will win the race, but this competition is slowly getting very interesting to watch out for.

IDC report - optimistic on social vendors

IDC MarketScape has released its "Worldwide Pharmaceuticals Social Media Analytics 2012 Vendor Assessment" report. The report says that there is an increasing interest in social media software applications and profiles the vendors such as Brandwatch, Cognizant, Genpact Social and Digital Transformation Services, Indegene, ListenLogic, Meltwater, Radian6, Semantelli and Visible Technologies.

Congnizant has been recognized by IDC MarketScape as a leading vendor for pharmaceuticals social media analytics for the year 2012. As per the report, “Cognizant is highly focused on the pharmaceutical industry and is considered by its customers to have very high pharmaceutical industry expertise.”

Eric Newmark, Program Director of IDC Health Insights' Life Science Business Systems service, was quoted in the release, saying, “Many pharmaceutical companies are ramping up their investment in social media analytics as a large majority of consumers now go online to research their medical condition and treatment alternatives. The information they find, combined with their physicians’ opinion, is often the largest influencing factor on the prescription or treatment sought. Hence companies should understand what consumers are finding online and closely monitor its effect on their brand.”

This is very true. Social media has a measurable impact on PR and analytics. It also gives huge boost to brand recognition. However, many companies are still struggling to identify clear social attribution. Branding in this social media age is very crucial and challenging, where the biggies always need to keep an eye on the social media listening trend.

The findings of the IDC report will surely help the healthcare and pharmaceutical companies to choose the right analytics application and right vendors to analyze their social media brand perception.

“Adobe Social” - will it be a game changer?

Last week, Adobe entered the race of social media analytics by launching its first end-to-end social media marketing and analytics software suite “Adobe Social.”

AllFacebook, the “Unofficial Facebook Blog,” gives Adobe Social a strongly positive review. The blog recommends the product for its extremely user-friendly interface. It states, “Adobe Social’s ability to create and demonstrate business impact from social media will enable the social marketer to secure a seat at the planning table.”

Over the past decade, social media has become an unavoidable and integral part of business strategy. With Adobe Social, the company promises to move social media users “from social media intuition to marketing insight.”

“The ability of Adobe Social to reveal deeper connections across the social activities of our fans and manage key business results and hundreds of Facebook pages and Twitter profiles across a single platform is incredibly valuable,” states Gretchen Fox, VP Social Media, LiveNation, at Adobe Social’s official product overview.

The Tech Crunch blog also gives it a positive review by saying, “The other big selling point is the integration with other products in Adobe’s Digital Marketing Suite — as Adobe puts it, it’s breaking social advertising out of its silo.”

The social media analytics market is currently dominated by Radian 6, Cision, Vocus, etc. and will offer a fierce challenge to Adobe Social. It will be watchable in near future how Adobe Social will penetrate into this market segment and proves itself as a game changer.