What Salesforce.com’s Radian6 Acquisition Means to Social Marketers

March 30, 2011

Salesforce.com, who specializes in contact management software, purchased Radian6, a social media monitoring platform (buzz monitoring) for $326 million. Read today’s press release here.

This is an exciting move. We have a customer data giant plus a customer social media data “listening” giant well on their way to some significant integrations.

Here’s what it means to social media marketers, and marketers in general:

  1. They will bring us closer to answering the real question we get asked all to often by our stakeholders: What’s the ROI of social media?
  2. Integrated brand communications with less duplication and more relevance to audiences. (Salesforce.com is also famous for it’s email marketing integrations)

What I look forward to measuring someday with solid data:

  • How does a long term customer relationship nurtured in social media channels impact buying behavior?
  • Do potential customers influenced by friends in social media about the brand really become customers? Are they more valuable in a dollars sense?
  • What is the value of an influencer beyond their own personal buying habits with the brand?
  • How long is this social media sales cycle? What does it really look like?
  • Are my Facebook customers more valuable than Twitter? What are their differences and how can I market it to them better?
  • How affective is my communication mix from telephone, email, Twitter, blog, Facebook…?

If you could get answers from the Salesforce.com/Radian6 genie about your business what would you ask?

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2 Comments

  • Reply Lloyd Ravn March 31, 2011 at 9:23 am

    Hi Melonie. Great post! I agree – yesterday’s news is exciting for the whole social media world.
    I’m looking forward to being part of the changes that are going to come as a result of the Salesforce purchase of Radian6, and continuing to work with you to help show your clients the ever-increasing benefits of social media!

    • Reply Melonie Gallegos March 31, 2011 at 10:18 am

      Thanks Lloyd! Keep me posted on the developments I can’t wait to see what Radian6 does with this.

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