CRM Update – Jun 04 : 12:31 pm

Salesforce has entered an agreement to acquire social media marketing platform Buddy Media for approximately $689 million, the company has announced.
The price is lower than the recently reported $800 million figure, but still a formidable investment from the enterprise software giant, which is on a seemingly never-ending acquisition spree. Salesforce had acquired collaboration tool company Stypi in May 2012, as well as social media monitoring platform Radian6 in March 2011.
Buddy Media currently works with “nearly 1,000 of the world’s largest companies,” including brands such as Virgin Mobile, HP, Matte and L’Oreal…

21 Tactics Every Successful Blogger Needs
As a blogger what do you have in common with Seth Godin, Brian Clark, and Chris Brogan? Before you tell me, “You’ve got to be kidding me, I have nothing in common with these blogging superstars.” Look in the mirror and repeat after me, “Yes I do!”
You all started blogging at the same place. What distinguishes one blog from another is what you do with your blog and how you build yours to achieve your goals.
What most people overlook is that many superstar bloggers have been doing it for years…

Manufacturers are ramping up again. So if you can move products fast and efficiently from Point A to Point B, look to logistics for big opportunities.Why It’s HotAfter sustaining a strong blow from the recession, the supply chain management industry is now poised for sustained growth. Companies offering services and products that cater to transportation management, warehousing, consulting, and logistics will see higher demand as businesses ramp up production during the economic recovery.The industry is already on the rebound: In 2011, revenue hit $141…

With more and more eco-friendly regulations on the horizon, environmental consulting is a rapidly growing industry. Here’s all you need to know to get in on the action.Why It’s HotFor years, the Environmental Protection Agency has had King Coal in its crosshairs, introducing and enforcing new regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions. While the coal industry (and the many businesses that keep it afloat) are dreading the increasing reliance on natural gas and alternative energy, environmental consultants, tasked with making the transition to clean energy happen, are sitting pretty…

Online platforms allow for almost unlimited scaling. And that’s precisely how your business can get into trouble.Today’s most powerful platforms allow for nearly unlimited scale–that is, there’s no real limit to adding more. Depending on the specific platform, more may mean more pages, apps, blog posts, songs, products, or services. As I write in The Age of the Platform, even small businesses can add a bevy of planks to their platforms at minimal cost. However, just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should…

No one likes failing. Use these four steps to make sure you’re always a winner.Today I’m going to explain something so simple, and yet so useful, that it’s amazing that so many people don’t get it.It’s a four-step process that literally makes failure an impossibility. Pay particular attention to the final step, because it’s the proverbial “doozy.”Here we go:1. Set an achievable yet inspirational goal. If you don’t believe a goal is achievable, you won’t take action to achieve it. Therefore, any goal that you set must be within the realm of possibility and tied to actions that you can actually take…

Should you add Pinterest to your social media strategy?Would you like to benefit from a flood of new traffic as millions of new users join the social media site and search for familiar brands?Could your business benefit from 482,000 followers?That’s what happened to author Sherry Petersik, on Pinterest at Sherry @ Young House Love. Talk about an early lead.In this article I’ll walk you through five things to help you decide whether Pinterest is a good fit for your business.Early adopters win big, and it's still early…

Coyote Logistics matches big shipments with underused trucking fleets. In just five years, it revved up revenue to $560 million.Jeff Silver has already built and sold one standout logistics company. He was part of the executive team at American Backhaulers, a freight brokerage in Chicago that was acquired for $136 million in 1999. Now, his current company, Coyote Logistics, also based in Chicago, is on a path to become a billion-dollar business. And he’s accomplished that feat in just six years…

As we kicked off the first weekend of the summer season here at Mashable, our posts stayed focused on the hottest social media, technology, viral videos and fascinating finds from the world over.
And find we did, with a boatload of new apps arriving, summer sports pumping up the social media, hilarious YouTube clips and tech from the near and far future.
No need to worry about missing anything — we’ve gathered every morsel in one handy place for you. So here it is, our revamped Weekend Recap, complete with a new section, “Editor’s Picks,” where I chose the posts that not only garnered the most traffic, but that I thought were the weekend’s best…

Interactive agency Rockfish not only happily hires aspiring entrepreneurs, but also actively supports their off-hours start-ups. What’s in it for the company?Last week, we highlighted a post by an expert on Gen Y who advised business owners to consider hiring candidates that aspire to become entrepreneurs themselves. Some were skeptical that employees with entrepreneurial ambitions could flourish as employees. But one company is so gung-ho on the idea of in-house entrepreneurs it’s actually going a step further: assisting existing employees to do their own start-ups on the side…

The world of Social Business Education at this point is relatively small so it’s not uncommon for the people who live in that world to run across the same people and information from time to time. This was make ultimately clear to me last week when I came across a study on Social Business from MIT Sloan in collaboration with Deloitte titled “Social Business: What Are Companies Really Doing?” that highlights its emerging values for marketing, innovation, operations and leadership within companies…

Going green is more than a fad; it’s a full-fledged money-making industry. Check out how Louisiana-based Resource Environmental Solutions is cashing in on this booming sector.To most entrepreneurs, regulation is a dirty word. But not to Elliott Bouillion. As CEO of Resource Environmental Solutions, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Bouillion has found a way to build a company on regulations.Founded in 2007, Resource Environmental Solutions is in the wetland mitigation business. What exactly does that mean? The United States has a zero-tolerance policy on destruction of the country’s wetlands and streams, so when an oil and gas company wants to build a pipeline through historic wetlands, it needs to offset the damage by restoring wetlands elsewhere…

The ability to port phone numbers from one wireless carrier (or even a landline) to another was a great victory in consumer history, making the decision to switch carriers a little easier, without contacting everyone you call or text to tell them about the number change. At least, when it works. Maybe reader A.S. should have just done that instead of living through the aggravation of having no phone service for more than a week. None. He can’t even make emergency calls on his dead, dead phone…