Today's announcement of enterprise software maker and CRM provider Oracle buying marketing automation vendor Eloqua for $811 million has many people -- including this analyst -- blindsided. After all, Eloqua just went public in August, raising $92 million. And a little more than 4 months later, it gets acquired? It was unclear from the news announcements if it was an all-stock deal, but clearly, Oracle is trying to do battle with the other enterprise software maker and CRM provider … [Read more...]
Experiencing Social at Eloqua Experience, Part 2
After attending the Eloqua Experience conference in Orlando last week, I got warm fuzzies that demand generation marketers are getting more social. After all, if the leader in the space is pushing social, then the rest of the industry will be soon to follow. Eloqua is a marketing automation and revenue performance management software provider. The main engine of the platform primarily performs outbound marketing that pushes emails offering webinar invitations or content pieces (whitepapers, … [Read more...]
With Scribe 4.0, Copyblogger Provides Social Tools for Marketers to Connect with Influential Publishers
Though most tools to create a website and social presence are free, we all know that for more customized and automated experiences, we need to pay. Earlier this year I caught up with Brian Clark, CEO, and others from content marketing software and education provider Copyblogger, who have been keeping me apprised of new products in their portfolio, which includes Studiopress WordPress themes, Synthesis hosting, Premise landing pages, and Scribe SEO content optimization software. (Disclaimer: … [Read more...]
Experiencing Social at Eloqua Experience
This week, I'll be in Orlando, Florida attending marketing software company Eloqua's annual conference, Eloqua Experience. Over 1,000 attendees are expected to attend. Though not traditionally known as a conference that attracts social media or social business types, I'm keen to see how things may have changed in the last year or so since everyone has been preaching a gospel of 'collaboration' and 'integration' of various marketing efforts that all seek to unlock that all-elusive … [Read more...]
Surprise! Social Technology Still Needs People
Though I didn't attend Dreamforce two weeks ago, it's still reassuring that software companies -- and not just marketing and PR people -- are understanding the power and role of social in today's enterprise. That social media marketing platforms such as Involver and Vitrue were sold to Oracle, and Buddy Media to Salesforce, and not to ad agency holding companies like WPP, Omnicom, and Interpublic warm my heart -- and let all of us who work tirelessly in the social media world know that 'Yes, … [Read more...]
The New Data.com Social Key: Taking on InsideView?
Salesforce's Dreamforce conference, held in San Francisco this past week, included a number of new product announcements, notably the launch of Data.com's Social Key, a tool to deliver social data and integrate it with customer and account information kept in Salesforce. According to the blog, By injecting social into traditional with just one click, the Social Key humanizes your business data and brings it to life through real-time updates and a 360-degree perspective. Social Key will … [Read more...]
If You Don’t Think Demand Generation Can Be Made Social, Think Again
In my last job, I was continually having to be the one trying to convince the marketing department to include social features and and add social elements to our demand generation programs. Quite simply, they didn't want to hear it. I always wondered why there was a difference in opinion. Perhaps it was because social media was considered the domain of public relations/communications -- inbound marketing -- and demand generation is owned by marketing -- specifically, outbound … [Read more...]
Facebook Has the Audience, But Your Website Has the Content: What To Do?
In a great guest article last week in Forbes, Listening To Social Media Cues Doesn't Mean Ceding Control, Gigya CEO Patrick Salyer discusses the problem facing most marketers: while creating multiple social identities has afforded a company to extend its reach and find new customers, it has become increasingly difficult to keep those customers engaged. Companies have spent billions of dollars in the creation, deployment, maintenance, and measurement of their wholly-owned web properties to … [Read more...]
Do You Really Need a Social Media Risk Management Program?
This tweet today from Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Group Report: Build a Safe Social Business Program by Guarding the Gates trib.al/GDE05ZWeekend Reading — Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) August 11, 2012 alerted me to a new report from Altimeter Group on social media risk management -- an idea which I expect is intended to pique the interest of social media naysayers. Much of the findings should come as no surprise to any social media or social business practitioner. … [Read more...]