​​Why You Need a Social CRM: Strategy, Benefits, and Tools in 2025

In 2025, social media is the new front desk for customer support and brand interaction. 

If you aren’t integrating social media into your customer relationship strategy, you risk missing out on these crucial conversations.

This is where social CRM tools come in. Social CRM (Social Customer Relationship Management) is a strategy and toolkit that helps you engage customers on their preferred networks, provide timely support, and build better relationships. 

In this article, we’ll look more closely at the meaning of social CRM and discover how it differs from traditional CRM. 

We'll also look at the key benefits of adopting social media CRM, five actionable steps to implement your strategy and the top social CRM tools of 2025 (including Brandwatch solutions). 

By the end, you’ll see why embracing social media CRM isn’t just an option – it’s a necessity to stay competitive and connected with your target audience.

What is social CRM?

Social CRM stands for Social Customer Relationship Management – it’s about integrating social media channels into your customer relationship management strategy and software. 

In plain terms, it's engaging your customers through social networks. Whereas a traditional CRM system tracks emails, calls, and purchase history, a social CRM also captures tweets, comments, DMs, and online reviews – all the interactions happening on social platforms.

Traditional vs social CRM

Traditional CRM is mostly a one-way street – businesses store customer data, track sales pipelines, and send out marketing or support communications via email, phone, or ticket systems. The focus is on managing transactions and contact information. 

Social media CRM, by contrast, is all about two-way engagement and real-time customer interaction. It’s about listening to customer conversations on social media, understanding their sentiment, and responding in the moment. 

Traditional CRM might tell you a customer’s purchase history, but social CRM will tell you what that customer said about your product on X last week and allow you to reply to or help them publicly.

To put it another way, traditional CRM manages data, while social CRM engages people. A conventional CRM might automate an email campaign to boost sales. In contrast, a social CRM strategy would involve joining a customer’s conversation on Facebook to resolve an issue or thank them for a positive shout-out. 

There are differences between the channels used, the communication style (traditional CRM is often one-to-one and private, while social CRM is usually visible to all), and the data collected. There are also differences in goals since traditional CRM focuses on sales and customer retention, while social CRM is directed toward customer engagement and community-building.

Social CRM isn't about replacing your existing CRM but extending it to include the rich, real-time interactions happening online.

Why social CRM matters

Why invest time and resources in social media CRM? There are a few big benefits worth considering.

Meet customers on their terms (and channels)

The first benefit of using social CRM tools is simply being present where your customers already spend their time. 

Integrating social channels into your CRM allows you to deliver customer support on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and even messaging apps. 

This convenience boosts customer satisfaction because you’re making it easy for them to get help without switching channels. It also shows that your brand is listening and responsive everywhere, not just via email or call centers.

Real-time customer engagement and faster support

Social CRM tools help you take part in real-time interactions that strengthen lasting customer relationships. 

You can respond to complaints or questions in minutes, not days. This speed is crucial because public issues can escalate quickly if unanswered. 

By monitoring mentions and inquiries, your team can resolve issues fast by jumping into the right social media conversations. Quick, personal responses on social media solve the individual’s problem and demonstrate to anyone else watching that your brand cares. 

Fast social media support can even turn an angry customer into a loyal one – and it prevents little problems from becoming viral PR crises. In short, social CRM helps you be there in the moment, which modern customers love.

Identify and nurture brand advocates

Your most valuable customers are often the ones who love your brand and sing your praises online. Social CRM helps you identify these brand advocates and engage them. 

By keeping an eye on mentions and interactions, you can spot who frequently compliments your product, defends you in comments, or has a large following that listens to their recommendations. 

Once you know who your advocates are, you can strengthen those relationships – follow them back, thank them, and give them exclusive offers or shout-outs. Not only does this make your advocates feel valued, but it also encourages them to continue spreading positive word-of-mouth. Happy customers can become an unofficial marketing team for your brand. 

Social CRM systems make tagging and tracking VIPs in your database easier, so your marketing and community teams can coordinate outreach. 

Boost brand loyalty and reputation (and even sales)

Finally, investing in Social CRM broadly impacts your brand reputation and customer loyalty. 

When people see a brand actively engaging and helping customers on social media, it builds trust and a positive image. That can differentiate you from competitors who appear unresponsive. 

Over time, this leads to stronger loyalty. Customers are more likely to stick with a brand that listens and interacts. 

Moreover, a good social CRM strategy can directly impact the bottom line. Customers spend 20% to 40% more with companies that respond to customer service requests on social media.

Top social CRM software and tools in 2025

As social CRM has grown in importance, so have the number of tools available to enable businesses to manage customer relationships.

Here are a few of the top social CRM tools in 2025 (in no particular order) to consider for engaging your customers and managing relationships on social media.

Brandwatch Social Media Management

Brandwatch is a great place to start for anyone looking to manage social CRM. 

In particular, the Brandwatch Social Media Management platform helps schedule and publish content across channels, unify social media inboxes, and collaborate on responding to customers in real-time. 

With this tool, you can assign tasks, ensure all messages are answered, and keep up with customer messages all in one place.

Even better, Brandwatch supports integration with the traditional CRM giant Salesforce to help you better manage customer support and understand customer behavior. 

Brandwatch is known for its robust analytics (great for large brands looking to derive consumer insights) and enterprise-ready collaboration features.

Disclosure: This article is on the Brandwatch blog, so we’re proud to highlight our own tools!

Hootsuite

Hootsuite continues to evolve its social CRM capabilities. This tool allows you to manage and schedule posts across dozens of platforms, monitor mentions and keywords, and assign messages to team members. 

One standout feature is its integration of Sparkcentral, a tool Hootsuite acquired that specializes in social customer care and messaging. This means Hootsuite can handle public social feeds and customer inquiries coming through WhatsApp, live chat, and other messaging apps – centralizing your digital customer service. 

Hootsuite’s dashboard is customizable with streams for different social media platforms or topics, making it easier to monitor everything people say about your brand.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a well-known CRM and inbound marketing platform, and it includes built-in social media management features that create a nice social CRM combo. 

Within HubSpot, you can connect social accounts to publish posts, monitor mentions, and create streams for keywords or competitors. 

All social data ties back to its CRM contact database. So, if a lead or customer interacts with your post, that interaction can be logged on their contact record. Your sales and support teams can see social media interactions alongside email opens, website visits, and more, giving a truly unified customer view.

While HubSpot’s social tools may not be as advanced in analytics as dedicated social platforms, the seamless integration with CRM and marketing automation is incredibly useful.

Time to embrace social CRM

By now, you should understand why social customer relationship management is essential. Your customers expect it, and your competitors are likely working on it, too. It’s the bridge that connects your brand to the daily lives of your audience, allowing you to engage, support, and delight them in a human, responsive way.

The great thing about social CRM is that it scales with your effort. Start with clear goals, the right tools, and a team plan, and you can gradually expand your presence and sophistication. Every friendly reply on Instagram, every insightful trend you discover from listening, and every improved response time all add up to a competitive advantage in customer trust and loyalty. 

Brands that nurture successful customer relationships not only avoid PR disasters and customer churn; they actively win fans and drive growth. Remember, customers spend more with companies that engage on social media.

Book a demo and speak to a Brandwatch expert

If you’re ready to elevate your social customer strategy, we’re here to help. Brandwatch Social Media Management can do wonders for your social CRM approach. Don’t hesitate to request a demo – sometimes, seeing the technology in action makes it crystal clear how it can fit your business. 

Social CRM is about putting your customers first, wherever they are. So start now – join the conversation, build those relationships, and watch your business thrive. Your customers are waiting to chat.