How Salesforce Tames Twitter for Big Business

In May, Angela Ahrendts, the chief executive officer of Burberry, met with Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff in Northern California’s Half Moon Bay. During their meeting, Benioff grabbed a hotel notepad and sketched out ideas for how Salesforce could help Burberry harness the excitement around social media sites to boost sales and customer loyalty. Then he took out his iPad, snapped a photo of his handiwork, and, using Salesforce’s own social networking technology, called Chatter, sent it to a group of his executives. Within 10 minutes they were responding with their own ideas. Ahrendts was impressed. “We want to get [Burberry] globally connected after 155 years,” she says.

Many big businesses have been slow to experiment with social media, a freewheeling realm where they can’t easily control the conversation. At Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on Aug. 31, Benioff will explain why his customers should go social—and let Salesforce help them. The pitch, in short, is that while consumers are online shopping, trading product tips, and discussing their vacations on Facebook, Twitter, or elsewhere, Salesforce software can help companies understand and profit from those desires and complaints. Bank of America, for instance, is already using Salesforce software to respond to customers on Twitter. “Businesses need to become social enterprises,” says Benioff. “This is more than just websites. Here’s how to make your customers your friends.”