1. Salesforce Buys Buddy Media: Not a Shocker http://blogs.forrester.com/print/melissa_parrish/12-06-04-salesf...
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Salesforce Buys Buddy Media: Not a
Shocker
By Melissa Parrish
Created 06/04/2012 - 10:05
Submitted by Melissa Parrish [1] on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 10:05
Blog post body
As an analyst, I make a lot of predictions about various technology offerings.
Over the last year those predictions have increasingly focused on the Social
Media Management Platform (SMMP) space, specifically about how I expected
consolidation as demand increased from marketers, and big tech players
realized the necessity and potential of these platforms. It seemed pretty
obvious to me that this space would continue to heat up, especially as I fielded
more and more phone calls every week [2] from marketers vetting the players in
this space. So in answer to the most common question Iʼve been getting since
last week: no, Iʼm not at all surprised that a company like Salesforce would
buy Buddy Media [3].
First of all, brands are maturing in social media [4] and theyʼre realizing they
need something like a true social software stack to manage it all, especially as
social media spreads across the enterprise and grows beyond the boundaries
of just the marketing department. To truly manage their growing social
presences, they need ways to get more employees involved while still enforcing
their social media policies-- and that means a software stack that offers all of
the benefits of an SMMP (robust editorial workflow management, moderation
tools, easy page and application creation, influencer identification, content
archiving, and analytics) as well as deep social intelligence [5] and CRM
capabilities. No single SMMP offers deep listening and non-social CRM today,
and no listening platform or non-social CRM offering currently delivers what an
SMMP can. Acquisitions were inevitable.
Second, when I talk to marketers about their requirements for these platforms,
one of the things that comes up high on everybodyʼs list is integration with other
enterprise systems. The two systems that get mentioned the most? Non-social
analytics (usually Omniture and Google Analytics) and non-social CRM (usually
Salesforce, sometimes Oracle and SAP.) Well, Adobe already jumped into the
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2. Salesforce Buys Buddy Media: Not a Shocker http://blogs.forrester.com/print/melissa_parrish/12-06-04-salesf...
game when they bought Efficient Frontier [6] who had previously acquired
Context Optional [7]. And of course Oracle made their play just a couple of
weeks ago with their acquisition of Vitrue [8]. Many of the SMMPs already
integrated with Salesforce anyway thanks to client demand, so they were the
logical choice for making a high-profile acquisition.
That leaves a couple of big players who are obvious choices to make a move in
this space. Google could use an SMMP to monetize social in a way that has
nothing immediately to do with search. SAP could jump in for a lot of reasons,
perhaps the most important of which is simply to not be the last one to do it.
And how about Facebook? News about advertisers feeling like their Facebook
spend wasnʼt getting them much was met with cries of, “Youʼre not doing it
right!” Should marketers focus more on engagement rather than traditional
display ad metrics on Facebook? Maybe, but thatʼs a problem for Facebook
because theyʼre not monetizing those engagement presences—the Facebook
page. Adding or acquiring SMMP capabilities would give them a way to
monetize those presences [9] without going back to charging for them directly.
Of course there are other companies who we could see make acquisitions here
too. Maybe tech behemoths like IBM and Microsoft will add SMMPs to their
comprehensive enterprise software offerings. Maybe MSPs like Acxiom, and
messaging vendors like Responsys will follow Exact Targetʼs early lead and add
these tools their arsenals. But for whoever makes the next acquisition, a bit of
advice:
Though there are hundreds of millions of dollars being exchanged in these
acquisitions, the actual revenue being earned by SMMP vendors is a drop in
the bucket compared to overall revenue in the enterprise technology sector.
These acquisitions are not about adding immediate significant revenue.
Theyʼre about adding technology offerings.
So far, the two highest-profile acquisitions have focused on the two highest-
profile SMMPs: Vitrue and Buddy Media. And while there are just a few
independent SMMPs left with decent name recognition (Wildfire, Hearsay
Social, HootSuite), there are probably 2 dozen companies out there with
growing platforms and revenues. Companies who are looking to acquire these
capabilities must be evaluating the robustness and quality of the SMMP
vendorʼs technology and services rather than the relative size of the company.
There may be a smaller vendor among these dozens whose technology is just
as solid and whose vision and culture is better aligned with the acquiring
company.
So just to be clear: I donʼt expect acquisitions to slow down just because Buddy
Media has been bought. In fact, I expect the entire space to accelerate—both
acquisitions and the adoption of these platforms by companies looking to grow
their social presences. Look for more partnerships that bring together
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3. Salesforce Buys Buddy Media: Not a Shocker http://blogs.forrester.com/print/melissa_parrish/12-06-04-salesf...
enterprise listening platforms with SMMPs. Look for SMMPs to support more
and more social networks beyond just Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And
most importantly—look for both tech companies and brands to continue to take
social more and more seriously as it proliferates across the enterprise.
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Source URL: http://blogs.forrester.com/melissa_parrish/12-06-04-
salesforce_buys_buddy_media_not_a_shocker
Links:
[1] http://blogs.forrester.com/user/melissa_parrish_0
[2] http://blogs.forrester.com/melissa_parrish/11-06-10-
how_are_you_using_social_marketing_management_tools#node-6304
[3] http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/salesforce-com-to-buy-buddy-media-for-689-
million/
[4] http://www.forrester.com/home#/Accelerating+Your+Social+Maturity/quickscan
/-/E-RES59690
[5] http://blogs.forrester.com/zach_hofer_shall/12-03-21-
listening_must_evolve_into_social_intelligence
[6] http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201201
/011612AdobeCloseEfficientFrontier.html
[7] http://allthingsd.com/20110504/exclusive-efficient-frontier-buys-context-optional-for-50-
million/
[8] http://www.vitrue.com/the-social-bar-has-been-raised-oracle-buys-vitrue/
[9] http://blogs.forrester.com/nate_elliott/12-01-31-
how_facebooks_ipo_could_transform_marketing
[10] http://blogs.forrester.com/melissa_parrish
[11] http://blogs.forrester.com/interactive_marketing
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