I came across this concept in an indirect way… I was doing a lot of testing recently in my dev org while the Tour de France was underway. I wanted a simple way to see all of the relevant Tour updates without having to bounce around browser tabs, which can be burdensome and can send you on some social media tangents if you’re not careful. I found that a well curated social news stream can be an extremely helpful and convenient feature. While a social news aggregator is a neat tool for personal consumption, I started thinking how valuable this contextual information could be inside of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution. After some research, I found a few great applications that bring news and Twitter posts for Accounts and Contacts right into my Salesforce Home Page and various Page Layouts.

 

I initially implemented a tool called RedHot News. It is freely available on the Salesforce AppExchange and was very quick and easy to install.

 

Once the app is installed, there were a few minor configuration steps, all of which were optional, depending on how you’d like to use the app.

 

Add and configure HomePage Component

Define which of your Accounts appear in this feed. Also define whether you want the ability to share articles via Chatter, Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. 

Add VisualForce Component to Account and Contact Page Layouts

You can modify the size, look, and feel. You also have the ability to share using the methods as in the HomePage component, as well as post Articles as Activities to the Account or Contact.

Wow! Now you have the ability to incorporate relevant news in reporting, List views and Search Results. Can you see the advantage of being able to see relevant news on your Accounts and Contacts before submitting a proposal on an Opportunity? What if you and your Credit Risk Department were made aware of pending litigation before offering credit terms to a client?

 

How about learning about Larry Ellison’s recent Sailboat victories (or rule violations) before going to a meeting?

The possibilities are endless and with the Force.com’s power and flexibility, these possibilities are well within reach!

RedHot was the first news aggregating app I tried, which met my needs, but there are several options in this space. Either alone, or in combination with each other, you can construct a powerful platform that organizes your sales and service cycles, while providing intelligent contextual data to help drive your sales intel and risk mitigation. Here are a few other useful tools: 

Account News Feed

Display an Account News ticker on your Account page. This is a much cleaner Page Layout component and fits the styling of Salesforce. This is because its a Force.com Labs app, so you wouldn’t need an extensive security audit before deploying.

Chatter News Alerts

Now Chatter can listen to the world with Google Alerts! Another Force.com Labs app that bring Google News Alerts into a Chatter feed for your Accounts. Share the news with colleagues by tagging them in a reply to a post. 

IKO System: Sales alerts from social networks and news sources

Get Sales Intelligence on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google News, Yahoo News. This app is focused on monitoring external channels to generate Sales Leads, as it alerts the user of personnel/title changes and partner opportunities. Looks fairly robust for a free app, so it’s definitely worth having a look.

Salesforce for Twitter and Facebook (v4.12.5)

Connect your Salesforce CRM with social channels Twitter and Facebook.

The Salesforce platform is the most powerful and flexible environment for business applications. These are just some minor examples of how it can be extended beyond conventional thinking to harness the power of the internet and social in the context of your Sales and Service cycles.

If any of these pre-built apps do not quite reach your business goals, you might consider a custom solution. Or if you would like external data across news and social channels to trigger automated business rules, logic and processes; Bluewolf’s team of Business, Technical and Solution Consultants have a true passion for creative technology innovation. Providing innovative solutions to help Sales, Service and Accounting/Finance teams achieve their goals is what we do. For more information, contact us.

Are there any other social news aggregators that you would recommend? Start a conversation below, or find me on Twitter at @JonTresko.