On Wednesday, Microsoft introduced Looking Glass, its new social media monitoring tool at Advertising Week in New York.
Christopher Heine at ClickZ rightly notes that the field of social media analytics is fast maturing, but Microsoft’s ability to integrate key business elements like customer databases, CRM centers and sales data via Microsoft’s enterprise platforms like Outlook and Sharepoint could be a big win for Microsoft and its customers.
Mel Carson of Microsoft Advertising writes, “LookingGlass is part of a broader shift under way within the platform strategy group. For the past two years, the group has been driving strategy around how to move marketing and advertising into the software-plus-services arena.”
“If we at Microsoft can change the discussion from banner ads to how do you provide a rich, relevant experience on the Web, we can start having a better business conversation. With LookingGlass, and some of the other proof-of-concepts we’re working on, we’re taking a big step toward changing that conversation,” Jamey Tisdale, group product marketing manager at Microsoft told Carson.
Abbey Klaassen of Ad Age writes, “Microsoft wants marketers to see it in a different light — not only as an ad seller but as a smart company full of geeks who can help it solve business problems. And the tech giant is using social media to prove it can do so.”
