According to sources, cloud CRM provider Salesforce.com has entered into an agreement to acquire social media services provider Buddy Media for $800 million.

The company helps enterprise clients optimize their online presence on Facebook with the promise of achieving improvements in merchandising, support and other areas that tie with consumer interactions.  The social networking firm has officially stated that it plans to expand to Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter as well sometime in the future, and there’s no apparent reason why it would not push through with this after the merger.

AllThingsD cited some earlier speculations that Buddy Media would be acquired by Facebook itself or WPP, an advertising agency that is also one of its key investors. The fact that the news came from Salesforce’s direction comes as a surprise, but it’s not all that hard to see why the SaaS vendor is looking to grow in this space. Friend2Friend CEO Roger Katz commented on the news:

“The acquisition speaks to the fact that brands and marketers are demanding the tools and services provided by SMMS companies like Friend2Friend and Buddy Media to maximize the success of their marketing efforts on social.  Marketing on social is a whole new ball game.  It demands new way of engaging consumers, a new way of implementing campaigns, and new ways of measuring marketing success than has been deployed in digital marketing for Web sites with their non-social display advertising model.”

The technical advantages of the buyout are just as clear as the competitive motive behind the deal. Rivals SAP and Oracle both announced acquisitions of their own last week to solidify their position in an attempt to better match up with player such as Thismoment.

The German BI giant sent out word that it’s buying Ariba for $4.3 billion, only a few months after finalizing the multi-billion merger with SuccessFactors. Right after that Oracle revealed that it is paying $300 million for Virtue, a firm whose core business correlates with Ariba’s to a great extent.