Oracle's move into the on-demand BtoB software market required a strategy to listen to, and process, the requirements of prospective buyers and generate sales leads in a more web-focused and "social" way. The company departed from its standard process of having IT and Sales partner on product development and marketing, and adopted, instead, a social strategy driven by online content.

Working with the community building and marketing firm Social Media Today, LLC. (SMT), BusinessWeek, CNET and its ad agency, Starcom, Oracle launched The Customer Collective, an online community targeted at sales and marketing professionals in corporations. TCC provided a peer-to-peer listening platform that has facilitated Oracle's move into the software-as-a-service space and increased leads substantially.

The Customer Collective runs on a social software platform called WordFrame that allows members to create profiles, blog directly on the site or add automated feeds from their existing blogs to the content flow, comment, rate posts, and connect directly with peers if they choose to do so. To ensure that the content is fresh, SMT built a network of more than 75 of the top sales and marketing executives bloggers. TCC's sub-community, Sales Sandbox, features a new marquee host each month and is often used for lead generation promotions.

In addition to the registration process, SMT works closely with Oracle to:

• create marketing and lead generation support for the community, including such services as webinars, podcasts, blogger outreach programs and customized research
• leverage the power of TCC bloggers' existing networks, i.e. site subscribers, proprietary email lists, and a Vortex widget that syndicates content from the community to create a virtual, trusted network for Oracle's' marketing campaigns
• use the platform for specific lead capture by offering premium content, such as white papers, events and webinar registrations, and create leads that are pre-qualified by the chosen content asset

Business Results

In the past six months, The Customer Collective has attracted 4,100+ registered members, virtually all of whom are sales or marketing executives, and with its partners generated more than 10,000 leads. Reaching that number required setting aggressive goals for the Asian, Latin America and European markets and tailoring content, including creating an eBook in four languages, posting translated whitepapers on the site, and using targeted marketing--i.e., telemarketing in Australia--to drive success.

The Customer Collective has provided Oracle with an active, engaged community forum to listen and respond to direct feedback from users and industry experts about its new SaaS offering. It has positioned Oracle as an innovator and leader in social media and conversational marketing.