# Should I migrate from Buddy Media The room usually agrees next quarter still has a migration, before anyone has tried to log in. Social Studio was retired on 18 November 2024. There is nothing to move onto. **Published:** 2026-01-06 **Canonical:** https://synconai.com/should-i-migrate-from-buddy-media **Author:** SynconAI Architecture Team ## In short Social Studio, which is what Buddy Media became, was retired on 18 November 2024. There is nothing to migrate onto. Do not name a replacement product. Stop treating Buddy Media as a live system. An AppExchange search will not bring it back. A campaign and a case keep their own jobs and are not a destination. ## Sources - **Marketing Cloud Social Studio Retirement** (retrieved 2024-11-18) https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.mc_cc_faq_resolve_missing_data_in_social_care_display.htm&type=5 > Salesforce retired the following Marketing Cloud Social Studio subscriptions (“Marketing Cloud Social Studio Products”) on November 18, 2024. ## What to take away - The agreement that next quarter still contains a Buddy Media migration is compatible with a row that has an owner and a start date, and incompatible with a system anyone can open. - Buddy Media was combined into Marketing Cloud Social Studio. Those subscriptions were retired on 18 November 2024. - There is nothing to migrate onto. Do not name a replacement. A file from before the retirement is a file, not a live system. - An AppExchange search will not bring it back. A campaign and a case are not a restored social product. Alternatives are not ranked, and no listing is invented. ## The guide A plan for next quarter still has a row called migrate Buddy Media. The row has a start date, an owner, and no system anyone can log into. Around the table everyone already agrees the row should stay, because a plan without a destination feels unfinished. The agreement is the problem. It is easy to reach, and it fits a calendar, which is not a login. A missing login is compatible with a retired subscription, a campaign that groups members and a status, a case that records an issue, and a product name somebody would like to write in the blank. Only the retirement is a fact. Naming a replacement would be an invention. The row does not get to feel finished by acquiring a product the notice does not give. What follows are the questions that separate a stop from a pretend cutover. Each has a good answer and a bad answer, and the difference is whether the answer names something specific: a document, a date, a person who tried to log in, an empty destination. A general answer at this stage is what turns into a hunt for a login that is not there. ::: warn Social Studio was retired on 18 November 2024. There is nothing to migrate onto. Do not name a replacement product. An AppExchange search will not bring Buddy Media back. ::: | Question | Who has to answer it | What a bad answer usually means | | --- | --- | --- | | 1. Which document still assumes a login | The owner of the plan row | A start date is standing in for a system | | 2. What ended, and on which day | Whoever is still scheduling a cutover | Buddy Media is being treated as a live product beside the retirement | | 3. What do a campaign and a case already record | The administrator who can open those records | A load of old names is being called a social product | | 4. What is a file from before the retirement | Whoever still has the export | The file is being turned into a new system | | 5. What must the plan refuse | Whoever offered a product name or a listing | A blank is being filled so the row looks complete | ## 1. Which sentence still assumes you can log in? The question is not where Buddy Media should be migrated. It is which plan, contract note, or diagram still treats Buddy Media or Social Studio as a system you will use next quarter. **A good answer sounds like** the document name, the sentence that assumes a login, and the person who found it, with the right-hand side of the row left blank on purpose. **A bad answer sounds like** we will start in the next quarter. A start date does not revive a subscription. Stopping is a finished answer. It looks smaller than a project. It is the project. Leave the row in the plan and you will spend the quarter hunting a login that is not there, then filling the gap with a product name somebody likes. That name would be an invention. It is refused. If you cannot find a sentence that assumes a login, you may already have stopped. Say so, and do not invent a row so the decision looks busy. ## 2. What is the software now? Buddy Media was combined into Marketing Cloud Social Studio. Social Studio is not a current product. The retirement notice says what ended, and the sentence is quoted once: "Salesforce retired the following Marketing Cloud Social Studio subscriptions (“Marketing Cloud Social Studio Products”) on November 18, 2024." Read the date as 18 November 2024. The sentence writes it as November 18, 2024. Same day. The subscriptions named in the notice were retired on that day. Buddy Media does not remain beside them as a system you can still move. There is no current Buddy Media product to implement, connect, or trial. **A good answer sounds like** a named person who has marked each live-system claim retired as of 18 November 2024, with the destination column empty, and who can say they could not open the product. **A bad answer sounds like** a friendlier label took the publishing, the moderation, or the social care and kept it alive. No product is named here that did that. If a seller offers that label, they are ahead of the notice. Send them back to the date. People still type the old name because it is on old decks. The search keeps the word warm. Warmth is not a login. What the software is now, in the present tense, is a retired subscription. Do not plan a migration into Social Studio, and do not plan a migration out of Buddy Media into a product named here. There is nothing to migrate onto. The count of systems you can migrate onto is zero. Count the documents, diagrams, and contracts that still speak as if a login exists. Each of those is a correction, not a cutover. ## 3. What do a campaign and a case already do? On the core platform, a campaign is a record that groups campaign members. Each member has a status. The campaign records that a person was included in an effort and what status was written back. A case is a record of a customer issue that someone works. It has an owner and a status of its own. Those objects already do that work. They do it with no dependence on Buddy Media. They do not publish a social post. They do not listen to a network. They do not restore a Social Studio subscription. A case can hold notes a person typed about a customer. It is not a queue of social messages brought back from a retired product. If the comparison starts from the campaign or the case, write those limits before anyone compares anything. **A good answer sounds like** an administrator who has opened a campaign and a case, named members, status, and owner, and said plainly that neither is a social subscription. **A bad answer sounds like** loading old names into a campaign or a case brings the product back. The campaign can still group people. The case can still track an issue. Neither is the retired product. There is no native object here that is Buddy Media under a current name. If you cannot open Social Studio, you do not have a silent copy of it in a campaign. Keep three lines apart. Campaign and case: their own jobs, already described. Buddy Media and Social Studio: retired on 18 November 2024. Destination: none. A plan that cannot keep the three lines apart is inventing a product. There is no score. ## 4. What may you do with a file, and what is that not? A file exported before the retirement, if you still have one, is a file. It is not a live system. Knowing whether the file exists is a yes or no. It is not a migration. The file is not turned into a new social product here. If the file matters to some other work you can open, that work needs its own name, and it is not Buddy Media. **A good answer sounds like** a yes or no, with the file name and the person who can open it, and with no load designed against it. **A bad answer sounds like** we will attach the file and call the attachment a cutover. Put the file in a drawer or attach it to a record you already understand. Reading is not a versus. It does not create a native social object that has been hidden from you. A weekend, a sprint, and a phase plan are schedules for a destination. You do not have one. Take those dates off. The only date to stand behind is the retirement date already given. The mark is stop. It is not "move to". A mark that needs a product name on the right has failed. Erase the right-hand side. If someone offers a product name to fill the blank, refuse it in the meeting. Write that the offer was refused, and that there is no destination, so the next reader does not pick it up. When every live-system claim has been marked stop, the decision is finished. An empty destination column is the successful outcome. Do not fill it. ## 5. What is the plan using instead of the date? The substitutes are a product name, a listing, and a rank. **A good answer sounds like** a refusal, written by the owner of the plan row, of three things: a named replacement, an AppExchange listing, and a ranked list of tools. **A bad answer sounds like** a link to a listing. No listing is invented here. An app, a publisher, a review count, and a price would be an invention. The product was retired. An AppExchange search will not bring it back. A listing, even one you find yourself, is not Social Studio restored, and it is not Buddy Media under a new publisher. Do not treat a search result as a reversal of 18 November 2024. Ask which system they can open that is the retired subscription. They cannot. The link stays outside. The row in the plan comes out. Other tools exist in the market. They are not named here in an order, and they are not ranked. A reader who wants a winner has asked for a judgement that is not made here. If your organisation later chooses a tool for a stated job, that choice needs its own name. It is not a Buddy Media migration. If a slide arrives with ranks, take the slide off. There is no list to sort. The meeting can proceed from the retirement date and the word stop. ## What stopping actually looks like All five answers are measured against an alternative, and the alternative is usually left unstated, which flatters a future quarter. State it. Stopping means the plan no longer treats Buddy Media as something you can move. The campaign and the case keep doing their own jobs. Nobody spends the quarter hunting a login. The cost of a false move is a product name written into a blank, which then acquires a budget, a phase, and a connector to a subscription that ended on 18 November 2024. There is no version of this decision in which a migration is the kinder outcome. The system is gone. An organisation that strikes the row first avoids inventing a social product in order to keep a plan looking busy. **A good answer sounds like** the plan row struck through, the date 18 November 2024 written beside it, and the word stop, produced by the owner of the row. **A bad answer sounds like** we should still have a destination so the plan is complete. Completeness is the invention. The destination stays blank. ## Where the neighbouring questions live Notes that are still about the old name, and not a build of a product that is gone, sit on [the Buddy Media implementation page](/buddy-media-social-studio-retirement). The retirement as history, and the question of what was bought, sit on [what happened to Buddy Media](/what-happened-to-buddy-media). There is no live connector to repair. The page that says so is [integrating Buddy Media with Salesforce](/integrating-buddy-media-with-salesforce). ## Questions ### Should I migrate from Buddy Media to Salesforce? No. Social Studio was retired on 18 November 2024. There is nothing to migrate onto. Stop treating Buddy Media as a live system. Do not name a replacement product. ### What is Buddy Media software now? It was combined into Marketing Cloud Social Studio, and those subscriptions were retired on 18 November 2024. There is no current product to open. ### How does Buddy Media compare with native Salesforce features? A campaign groups members and a status. A case records an issue and an owner. Neither publishes a social post, and neither restores Social Studio. There is no migration target. ### What are the alternatives after the acquisition? Stop. No replacement is named here. Other tools are not ranked, and no listing is invented. A later choice of some other tool is a different decision, under its own name. ### Will an AppExchange listing bring Buddy Media back? No. The product was retired. An AppExchange search will not bring it back. No listing is invented here. --- SynconAI is a Salesforce Select Partner and an OpenAI Select Partner, delivering architect-led Salesforce and AI programmes across the United States and Australia. Related service: Marketing Cloud Next (https://synconai.com/salesforce-marketing-cloud-next).