"This is the defining concept for everyone in our industry over the next few years," Benioff said. "Salesforce.com was born cloud, but we were reborn social."

Benioff cited recent statistics showing an uptick in the amount of time people are spending on social networks such as Facebook. It's come to a point where companies simply have to change the way they find and serve customers, he argued.

The old thinking used to be to pack corporate websites with every possible piece of information customers might need, and that would suffice, Benioff said. "It was a great pitch 20 years ago, but our industry doesn't stand still. [Social sites are] where your customers are spending time more and more each day."

Companies should follow a three-step process to become social enterprises, Benioff said. First, they must connect to public social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter. Next, they should create a private social network, and finally, their enterprise applications should be made social, he said.

Benioff positioned Salesforce.com as a company prepared to help customers accomplish this process through its array of technologies, which include the Force.com development platform, Chatter social networking tool, and more recent additions to the catalog, such as the acquisition of Radian6, maker of a system companies can use to monitor and track what customers are saying about their products and services on the Web.