A recent McKinsey report says that social media may be worth around one trillion dollars to the global economy. Yet many CMOs I speak with are still struggling with fundamental questions: Where do I start? Where do I listen? How do I engage? How do I find content to share? Where do I publish it? What about social media advertising?

Over the past few years dozens of products have cropped up to address enterprise social media challenges, but it’s a complex, fragmented world of point solutions. Piecing it all together and making sense of it is a full-time job, and a job that changes every day.

Now that Buddy Media has become a part of the Salesforce family, we’re ready to take the next step in helping companies achieve their marketing transformation. When Salesforce acquired Radian6, they got the leader in social media listening and engagement. With Buddy Media, we welcome the leader in social media publishing and advertising. Combine the two with Salesforce’s leading CRM solution, and you can see why I’m excited. The vision that has driven me, Marc Benioff and Michael Lazerow is becoming a reality.

By tying it all together, we simplify the CMO’s world and become a single point of knowledge and insight for marketers and anyone else inside the organization who wants to see a holistic view of their customers, connect their social profiles to their customer profiles, gain insight about what they want and act on that insight with content and engagement — all while analyzing the bottom-line impact.

We could have acquired a number of companies in this space, but Salesforce is about leadership. Buddy Media has the best solution, the best customers and an unmatched level of thought leadership and respect in the community. It’s natural that we’d want to work with the best. It’s a strategy that succeeded with Radian6, and we know it will succeed with Buddy Media as well. Together, we’ll take the transformation of business to the next level: the integrated social marketing platform.

I want to extend my own personal and sincere welcome to Michael Lazerow and his team, and say once again how happy I am they’ll be part of the Salesforce family. They have accomplished so much, and done it all while exemplifying the values and attributes of a true social enterprise. I know we’re going to do great things together.

Read the official press release.