In 2009 the world felt a shift: the number of social networking users surpassed that of email users (Comscore, June 2011). Today, the opportunity for businesses to connect and learn about their customers through social outlets is greater than ever. As Angela Ahrendts, CEO at Burberry and Salesforce.com user affirms, ”You have to create a social enterprise today. You have to be totally connected with everyone who touches your brand. If you don’t do that, I don’t know what your business model is in five years.”

This week, Silverline was proud to sponsor a Social Media Breakfast with Salesforce.com. The event was complemented by speakers Ryan Barretto, Area VP at Salesforce.com; Ralph Bastarache, Sales Director at Radian6; and Jonathan Fishman, Director of Business Development at Stonehenge.

Ryan highlighted Salesforce.com’s three step formula for creating a Social Enterprise:
1. Develop a Social Customer Profile: Create a database and track your customers’ social information
2. Develop a Employee Social Network: Employees should be able to collaborate and integrate business processes and work flow
3. Develop a Customer Social Network: Connect your customers and product on a social network where you can listen and analyze

The importance of listening to your customers with the aid of tools such of Radian6, Google Alerts, Twitter searches, Social Mention, and BoardTracker/BoardReader was emphasized by Ralph. He also touched on how to engage customers, advising companies to, “Share a lot of what’s useful to the customer, and they’ll accept a little promotion from you.”

Jonathan demonstrated the ways in which Stonehenge, a Silverline customer, is using Salesforce.com at the core of everything they do. When it comes to social media interactions, Jonathan encourages companies to remember the mantra, “Content is queen. Context is king.”

A big thank you to our speakers and attendees. We hope to see you again soon!