It’s already shaping up to be a busy week for tech. And it’s only Monday.
After rumors and speculation about Buddy Media being swooped up by Salesforce.com, it is official today.
From one tech entrepreneur to another, “CONGRATS” to Michael Lazerow and his team. The amount made and the future success of the deal is important, but reading about it this morning made be think deeper about the current trajectory of the digital marketing space.
For some time, many Social Media / Digital Marketers have referred to their space as the “Wild Wild West.” Lots of innovators, hundreds of products, and limited synergies in company’s marketing channels. Each channel (at times) looked more like dueling gunmen at high-noon competing for budget and marketing attention.
So, WHY does the Salesforce acquisition matter? It matters because companies want a unified approach to communicating with their external messages. They want a clear method (read, dashboard) for communication measurement and activity. They want to know what is effective communication for generating awareness, engagement, influence, and here’s the big one – SALES. If a company is investing its resources (time, talent, money, energy), no matter the sum, it wants to know that it is getting something of value in return. If not, then it should do something else for communication.
The next phase of innovation for tech won’t be in Social Media. It will be with mobile. Mobile provides unique opportunities and challenges for all companies, enterprise and SMBs. Mobile communication, done rightly, should be more than just numbers of inbound and outbound messages sent. It must also be measured and analyzed for its effectiveness to drive engagement, efficiency, AND sales. When a company, like Buddy Media, can show that it does, then a tech startup is valuable to not only its customers and community but to a profitable acquisition.
Patrick Goodman
Red e App Product and Engagement Lead
