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.