CTO Journal

Appirio, a Sequoia/Salesforce.com-backed start-up, has developed the widgetry to link Salesforce’s core business applications – and them that use them – with the Facebook crowd figuring Salesforce users could benefit from viral contact with Facebook’s 150 million users to raise product awareness, create closer relationships with customers and – should companies ever start hiring again – to recruit new employees.

Appirio also imagines employees recommending friends in their network who would be a good match for job openings. The application searches Facebook for friends who match keywords in open job descriptions with Salesforce tracking the process.

Appirio Referral Management Solution builds on the free but little-used [email protected] Facebook application that Appirio introduced late last year and now calls Refer2myFriends. It’s asking $25,000 to start for a subscription to the core engine and levies other charges based on the size of the network and number of referrals.

Appirio claims Facebook has been attracting an older, more moneyed business crowd than the kids it started with. Pew research suggests Facebook is still largely 18 to 24 year olds.

Success with Appirio would then appear to depend on what you’re hawking. A push-up bra might do well.

Initial accounts reportedly include Dell and Starbucks, both of which can use all the friends they can get these days.

Appirio’s planning on adding other social networks.

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