 |
| Oracle CEO Larry Ellison |
Some people simply know how to make an entrance. On the same day (June 6) that Oracle launched a suite of cloud-based software services, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison—not known for being shy—joined Twitter with a bang.
Ellison fired off his first—and as of June 8, his only—tweet with a taunt to rival software company SAP. "Oracle's got 100+ enterprise applications live in the #cloud today, SAP's got nothin' but SuccessFactors until 2020," Ellison tweeted.
Oracle spokesperson Deborah Hellinger confirmed to the Washington Post that the Twitter account is real, and that Ellison is the one tweeting. As of June 8, Ellison had more than 25,000 followers, and follows no one.
SAP issued a statement of its own in reaction to the tweet, reports the Post: “As usual, you can tell who Oracle is most worried about by the competitors they criticize most. In this case, Larry’s crystal ball is cloudy.”
In any case, Ellison is late to Twitter; a March 2012 study by BRANDfog found that 50.3% of CEOs are on Twitter.
Another study found that CEOs value social media more than others in C-suite. According a May 2012 report from MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, CEOs are nearly twice as likely as chief information officers to view social collaboration tools as important to their business today (28% vs. 15%). Respondents saw the most business value in social software in the areas of “managing customer relationships” and “innovating for competitive differentiation.”
"Competitive differentiation" was Ellison's goal with his tweet—that, and amplifying media coverage of his company's new product.
Follow Bill Miltenberg: @bmiltenberg