Customer expectations are evolving, and the spotlight has shifted to social media as a core channel for customer engagement and building lasting customer relationships. A message, comment, or review can influence reputation and future sales in moments—yet many brands still rely on traditional CRM systems that miss these crucial online conversations. As more organizations seek the best CRM for social media marketing or powerful CRM and social media integration, it’s become essential to rethink how we connect with audiences where conversations actually happen.
Social CRM platforms are designed for this new reality: bringing together the speed and reach of social media channels with the robust organization of classic CRM tools. The result? Teams can engage, resolve, and nurture in ways that feel personal, efficient, and scalable. With the right social CRM software, businesses can view customer relationships more effectively and ensure that every touchpoint—no matter where it happens—adds value to the overall relationship building process.
This guide offers a complete look at what social CRM is, why it’s important, and which features truly matter. You’ll also discover how Lark, as a leading platform, elevates collaboration and social media CRM to new heights. Whether you’re searching for advanced social CRM tools or looking to build a unified customer engagement strategy, this resource is your starting line.
Top social CRM software at a glance
With a growing number of social customer relationship management platforms on the market, selecting the best fit can be challenging. To help you quickly compare options, here's a straightforward overview of leading social CRM software—all designed to help teams manage customer relationships, monitor customer interactions, and strengthen customer engagement across social media platforms.
What is social CRM?
Social CRM is a technology and strategy suite that integrates social media channels with traditional CRM functions. Where classic customer relationship management systems focus on tracking sales, contacts, and support tickets, social CRM platforms take things further by combining social media management, engagement tracking, and sentiment analysis, making it easier to understand and connect with customers in real time across various social media platforms. This approach allows companies to view customer relationships holistically, capturing every touchpoint—whether it's a tweet, comment, or direct message.
The purpose of social CRM
The core objective of a social CRM platform is to create a unified customer view by capturing and analyzing all social media interactions—from tweets to comments, direct messages to reviews. By syncing these touchpoints into a single system, social CRM enables teams to respond quickly, deliver personalized experiences, and gain actionable insights. This is crucial for brands looking to develop a robust social media CRM strategy, drive social selling, and leverage customer feedback to improve products or campaigns. Effective social CRM empowers businesses to enhance customer retention and build lasting connections by ensuring that every interaction is logged, measured, and acted upon.
How social CRM differs from traditional CRM
Traditional CRM systems focus primarily on structured data—contacts, email records, purchase histories—within siloed environments. Social CRM, in contrast, brings together structured and unstructured data from social media platforms and other social channels, enabling companies to:
Listen and respond to mentions, messages, and conversations across social platforms in real time, handling customer conversations wherever they occur.
Gain insights into customer sentiment, customer behavior, and public feedback.
Engage in proactive community management and social customer service.
Identify influencers and advocates, supporting social selling and relationship building.
Whereas a traditional CRM is a passive record keeper, social CRM is an active engagement engine. It’s one of the best tools for social media marketing teams that need to unify sales, support, and communications—making social CRM tools essential for today’s collaborative business landscape.
As businesses shift to omnichannel engagement models, choosing a social CRM solution like Lark unlocks seamless integration between social media and internal workflows. This drives more efficient team collaboration, timely responses, and deep customer insights all from one intuitive platform. Modern social CRM software makes it possible to analyze social data, and oversee customer relationships at scale, helping organizations address customer concerns and build lasting connections.
Key features to look for in social CRM
With social media channels evolving and customer expectations higher than ever, it's vital to select a social media CRM platform packed with modern capabilities. When comparing leading social CRM tools, prioritize these must-have features:
Unified customer profiles:
Aggregate social, email, chat, and call histories into one timeline for each contact, making it easier to understand the entire customer journey.
Real-time social listening and engagement:
Monitor mentions, keywords, and trends across major networks, and respond without switching platforms. Effective social CRM relies on being able to address customer concerns promptly and handle interactions seamlessly across multiple social media platforms.
Sentiment analysis:
Gauge the mood of your audience using AI-driven tools, helping your team prioritize replies and spot emerging issues in customer behavior and sentiment.
Set triggers to route social media tickets to the right team, schedule follow-up tasks, and automate repetitive workflows involving online discussions.
Social analytics and reporting:
Measure engagement, response times, social media campaigns' performance, and team activity directly within your CRM for actionable insights. Analyzing social media data and social media interactions provides valuable customer insights.
Integration with popular social media networks:
Native support for channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram—plus open APIs for custom connections.
A social CRM should empower your team to engage on-the-go, supporting mobile notifications and remote case updates for better customer engagement.
Data security and compliance:
With growing regulations, secure your customer data with robust permissions and privacy features—an essential part of modern customer relationship management.
Not every CRM with social media integration tool delivers across all these areas, but aiming for a balance of automation, insight, and usability is key.
When evaluating social CRM software for your organization, Lark stands out by combining robust social media and CRM integration with effortless team collaboration—making it easier to track customer relationships and every touchpoint in one place, so your business never misses an opportunity to engage.
Benefits of social CRM for businesses
Adopting a social CRM platform is transformative for organizations seeking to thrive in today’s connected marketplace. When customer conversations, customer insights, and support requests happen across a multitude of public and private channels, relying solely on a traditional CRM can lead to missed opportunities and delayed responses. Social CRM bridges this gap, driving multiple strategic benefits for businesses of all sizes—helping them connect better with their audience and improve customer loyalty.
1. Enhanced customer understanding and personalization
By integrating data from social networks with CRM data, social CRM software gives your team a complete 360-degree view of each individual. Social media discussions—whether feedback, complaints, or praise—are logged alongside emails and purchase activity, enabling truly personalized outreach and faster, more relevant responses.
2. Real-time engagement and improved response times
With social media CRM platforms, your team can engage directly with customers on their preferred social media channels—responding to tweets, comments, and messages from one central dashboard. This immediacy drives higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, setting your brand apart as responsive and customer-centric. Being able to manage online conversations across social platforms is essential for building strong customer sentiment and enhancing brand loyalty.
3. Advanced analytics and actionable insights
The best CRM with social media integration goes beyond communication: it delivers robust analytics. You can track campaign performance, customer sentiment, social media data, trending topics, and agent effectiveness, equipping decision-makers with the data needed to refine strategy and improve ROI.
4. Better social media crisis management
With unified monitoring and alerting, social CRM tools can quickly flag negative sentiment or viral issues, allowing you to react swiftly. Your business can move from reactive to proactive, protecting your reputation and building stronger brand advocacy. Social CRM platforms enable teams to monitor brand mentions and address customer concerns promptly, which is crucial for maintaining positive customer sentiment.
5. Increased efficiency through automation and integration
Top social CRM software streamlines workflows by automating repetitive tasks. For example, you can set rules to assign mentions or tickets to specific teams or automate follow-ups on unattended social messages—saving your team valuable time and ensuring no customer slips through the cracks. This level of automation is key for streamlining how teams connect with their audience across multiple social media platforms.
6. Strengthened social selling and influencer relationships
Building genuine connections on social media platforms is key to modern selling. Social CRM identifies influencers and potential advocates, tracks engagement with them over time, and makes it easy to nurture your brand’s most valuable connections. This approach is invaluable for lead generation, fostering loyalty, and driving targeted marketing campaigns.
Adopting a social CRM strategy means your business is future-ready, able to scale with changing customer expectations and digital channel growth.
When comparing solutions, Lark isn't just another social media CRM tool—it’s a powerful hub for collaboration, automation, and proactive engagement, making complex workflows simple and unlocking new levels of customer satisfaction for modern teams.
8 best social CRM software reviews
Selecting the right social CRM solution can propel your customer engagement and operational efficiency to new heights. If you’re looking to buy social CRM software that truly fits your needs, it's crucial to compare the top contenders. Below, we walk you through the top eight social CRM platforms, outlining each platform’s core strengths using a consistent structure. Each of these tools is designed to help organizations track social data, oversee online conversations, and foster strong customer connections across various channels.
1. Lark: a collaborative workspace for customizable social CRM
Overview
Lark is a next-generation digital workspace that redefines social CRM by integrating it into a single, collaborative hub. More than just a communication suite, Lark connects messaging, video conferencing, and collaborative docs with advanced CRM and social media integration features. This allows your teams to build stronger connections with customers seamlessly by aggregating social media data and internal chats into a unified view, making it one of the best CRM with social media integration.
Key features
Unified social media message aggregation: Lark integrates with major social platforms to pull all customer messages and mentions into a single, searchable inbox within Lark Messenger. This eliminates the need to switch between apps, allowing your team to view, prioritize, and assign social queries directly. You can use labels and filters to categorize messages, ensuring critical customer queries receive immediate attention.
Integrated customer data and visualization: Connect your existing systems with Lark to create a unified customer profile. Using Lark Base, you can build customizable, real-time dashboards to visualize a customer’s online conversations, purchase history, and support tickets in one view. This holistic perspective helps your team personalize responses and turn followers into loyal advocates.
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AI-powered sentiment analysis and insights: Lark’s built-in AI analyzes social messages to detect sentiment (positive, neutral, negative) and identify key themes. It can automatically generate summaries of conversations and tag messages with smart labels, allowing your team to act proactively on high-priority issues or praise. This makes it an intelligent social CRM tool for gauging public perception.
Customizable workflow automation: Streamline your social media CRM strategy by automating repetitive tasks. In Lark Base, you can set triggers to route social media tickets to the right team, schedule follow-up tasks, or send notifications for unattended messages. This ensures no customer concern slips through the cracks and improves overall efficiency.
Real-time collaboration for customer queries: When a complex query appears on social media, your sales, support, and marketing teams can align instantly. Using threaded discussions and @mentions, you can attach the social post directly to a chat, add context in a shared document, and tag team members for a consistent and informed response.
A dedicated mobile-first experience: Lark’s robust mobile app empowers your team to manage the entire social CRM workflow on the go. Whether in the field or working remotely, your sales and marketing teams can submit information, track progress, and collaborate with the team from anywhere, ensuring real-time updates and seamless field-to-office communication.
Secure, collaborative case management: Resolve social support tickets using an integrated suite of tools. Teams can assign, track, and collaborate on cases using Lark Tasks and shared notes, all within a secure environment with granular permissions to protect sensitive customer data. This is a core part of effective CRM social media management.
Pricing
Lark offers a flexible pricing model with a feature-rich free plan and tiered subscriptions for advanced CRM integrations and automation.
Free plan: Includes core features for up to 20 users, making it a great entry point for small teams and an ideal starting point for businesses adopting their first social CRM.
Paid plans: Starts at $12 per user per month (billed annually), offering advanced features and scalability for growing businesses in need of advanced social CRM capabilities.
Best for
Lark is ideal for collaborative teams—especially those in fast-paced environments—who need to unify communication, social media CRM, and workflow automation in a single, user-friendly interface. It’s especially suited for organizations seeking to foster loyalty, improve audience connection, monitor brand mentions, and gain valuable insights from every online conversation.
2. Sprout Social: a premium platform for social listening and engagement
Image source: sproutsocial.com
Overview
Sprout Social is a widely recognized platform tailored for social media management and customer engagement. It offers a suite of social CRM tools that blend social listening with multi-channel engagement, empowering teams to monitor brand mentions and analyze customer sentiment effectively.
Key features
Social media CRM functionality with unified inbox
Scheduled publishing, monitoring, and social listening across platforms
Comprehensive analytics and reporting
Workflow automation for team collaboration
Pricing
No free plan; offers a free trial for 30 days.
Standard: Starts from $199/seat/month
Professional: Starts from $299/seat/month
Advanced: Starts from $399/seat/month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Best for
Best for marketing teams and agencies aiming to analyze and engage across multiple networks at scale, particularly those seeking enhanced customer engagement and relationship building.
3. Zoho CRM: a highly customizable CRM for social lead management
Image source: zoho.com
Overview
Zoho CRM brings social engagement into its sales and marketing suite, making it easy for teams to track social leads alongside classic CRM data. Its CRM and social media integration helps businesses monitor customer interactions, score leads, and automate follow-ups efficiently.
Key features
Integrated social CRM tools for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Social lead generation and scoring
Customizable workflows and dashboard reports
Integration with Zoho’s suite of business apps
Pricing
No free plan; offers a free trial.
Standard: Starts from $14/user/month
Professional: Starts from $23/user/month
Enterprise: Starts from $40/user/month
Ultimate: Starts from $52/user/month
Best for
Best for SMBs wanting flexible CRM with social media integration with extensive customization and those prioritizing customer engagement and customer retention.
4. Salesforce Social Studio: the enterprise platform for ai-powered social engagement
Image source: salesforce.com
Overview
Salesforce offers enterprise-grade social customer relationship management through Social Studio. This platform excels at monitoring brand mentions, analyzing social media interactions, and providing AI-driven insights. Its scalability makes it a top choice for organizations with complex social CRM strategy requirements.
Key features
Multi-channel social media monitoring and response
AI-driven sentiment and trend analysis
Deep integration with Salesforce CRM and automation
Collaboration tools for large teams
Pricing
Salesforce Foundations: $0
Starter Suite: Starts from $25/user/month
Pro Suite: Starts from $100/user/month
Best for
Best for large organizations needing advanced analytics, automation, and scalability in managing customer relationships and monitoring brand mentions.
5. HubSpot CRM: a growth platform connecting social media and inbound marketing
Image source: hubspot.com
Overview
HubSpot’s CRM suite integrates social media CRM functionality within its all-in-one marketing and sales platform. With features like social post scheduling and monitoring, it enables teams to manage customer interactions on popular social channels and provides valuable insights into customer behavior.
Key features
Social post scheduling and monitoring
Customer tracking with CRM social integration
Analytics on engagement and conversions
Automation for follow-up and nurturing
Pricing
Free Tools: Free for up to 2 users
Marketing Hub Starter: Starts from $9/month/seat
Starter Customer Platform: Starts from $9/month/seat
Marketing Hub Professional: Starts from $800/month, includes 3 core seats
Marketing Hub Enterprise: Starts from $3600/month, includes 5 core seats
Best for
Best for growing businesses needing integrated marketing, sales, and support, especially those focused on relationship building and managing customer interactions.
6. Freshworks CRM: an intuitive platform for unified customer engagement
Image source: freshworks.com
Overview
Freshworks CRM offers social media CRM integration to support teams handling multi-channel communications. Its unified team inbox allows businesses to manage customer interactions from social media, email, and phone in one place, while its AI-powered insights help improve customer engagement.
Key features
CRM with social network connectors (Facebook, Twitter)
Automated lead capture and segmentation
Team collaboration and communication tools
AI-powered insights
Pricing
No free plan; offers a free trial.
Growth: Starts from $9/user/month
Pro: Starts from $39/user/month
Enterprise: Starts from $59/user/month
Best for
Best for small to mid-sized customer-facing teams seeking simplicity in managing customer relationships and improving customer retention.
7. Nimble: the smart CRM for building relationships from social data
Image source: nimble.com
Overview
Nimble emphasizes relationship building by merging CRM data with real-time social media signals. The platform enriches customer profiles with social data, allowing teams to track and manage customer interactions effortlessly and making it a strong asset for social selling CRM.
Key features
Social profile enrichment
Unified inbox for contacts and social streams
Sales pipeline and deal tracking
Integration with productivity suites
Pricing
No free plan; offers a free trial for 14 days.
Clear & Simple CRM Pricing: Starts from $24.9/seat/month
Best for
Best for SMBs focused on deeper customer relationships, relationship building, and social selling.
8. Agile CRM: an automated CRM with integrated social media marketing
Image source: agilecrm.com
Overview
Agile CRM supports automated sales, marketing, and customer service—including social media integration. Its robust social CRM features enable teams to listen for brand mentions, engage with customers in real-time, and automate marketing workflows to maximize efficiency.
Key features
Social listening and engagement within CRM
Marketing automation workflows
Multi-channel communication history
Reporting and sales pipeline management
Pricing
Free: Up to 10 users
Starter: Starts from $8.99/user/month
Regular: Starts from $29.99/user/month
Enterprise: Starts from $47.99/user/month
Best for
Best for companies wanting an all-in-one CRM with integrated marketing and social capabilities, and those aiming to manage customer relationships and monitor brand mentions effectively.
As shown above, the best social CRM platforms empower your business to automate social engagement, streamline workflows, and build richer customer relationships. Lark’s holistic approach—merging seamless collaboration, workflow automation, and robust analytics—ensures your team can manage customer relationships, monitor customer interactions, and delight customers everywhere they interact, all with unmatched efficiency.
How to choose the right CRM for your business: A step-by-step guide
Choosing the best social CRM software for your business is a strategic decision that can shape the way you interact with customers across every channel. The right CRM with social media integration helps unify communication, unlock real-time insights, and drive sustained growth. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you identify the ideal solution for your unique needs, making sure you can build better connections, monitor social data, and address customer concerns promptly across multiple social media platforms.
Step 1: Define your goals and use cases
Start by assessing the primary objectives for your CRM social media management. Are you seeking better customer engagement, improved support response times, a comprehensive view of customer journeys, or more robust analytics? List your pain points—and your must-have features. Think about your current social engagement strategies, whether your teams are able to track all online discussions, and if you are missing valuable insights from social data.
Step 2: Evaluate your existing workflows and tools
Inventory your current software stack, including marketing automation and sales platforms. Identify gaps in your workflow, especially regarding how your teams handle social media CRM interactions and manage leads from various channels. Evaluate if your current process allows for efficient relationship building, fostering brand loyalty, and the ability to monitor brand mentions and customer sentiment in real time.
Step 3: Prioritize essential features
Refer to the core and advanced features outlined earlier: social media CRM integration, sentiment analysis, workflow automation, analytics, and collaboration tools. Separate “must-haves” from “nice-to-haves” based on your goals and budget. Prioritize tools that enable you to nurture customer connections across social media platforms, analyze online discussions, and provide actionable insights that support targeted marketing campaigns.
Step 4: Consider scalability and usability
Choose a CRM for social media that can grow with your team. Look for intuitive interfaces, mobile support, and transparent onboarding resources—especially if your organization is distributed or expanding rapidly. Ensure the platform can scale to handle multiple social media platforms, monitor brand mentions at volume, and support sales and marketing teams as your customer base grows.
Step 5: Shortlist and compare platforms
Narrow your options to a few top social CRM tools. Take advantage of free trials, product demos, or peer reviews to assess how well each platform fits your requirements, and get feedback from key stakeholders. Test whether these platforms allow you to handle online conversations efficiently, analyze social data for valuable insights, and automate workflows for improved brand loyalty.
Step 6: Evaluate security and compliance
Ensure your chosen social CRM software meets your organization’s data privacy and security needs—particularly if you operate in regulated industries or regions. Secure handling of customer data and online conversations is critical for maintaining trust and addressing customer concerns promptly.
Step 7: Plan your implementation and training
Design a stepwise rollout strategy and identify training resources that will help your team adopt the new CRM social media platform with ease. The best CRM for social media marketing becomes a powerful asset when everyone uses it effectively. Focus on training your sales teams to leverage the new system for relationship building, audience connection, and fostering strong connections.
As you work through these steps, Lark stands out for its intuitive user experience, robust social CRM integration, and flexible collaboration features—making deployment and adoption smooth whether you’re a startup or scaling enterprise.
Final thoughts on social CRM
Social CRM has evolved from a trend into an operational necessity for businesses that want to lead in the digital age. With customers making their voices heard across countless platforms, it’s no longer enough to rely solely on traditional CRM strategies. Social media CRM enables organizations to foster customer loyalty, monitor online discussions, and address customer concerns promptly—meeting audiences where they are, responding dynamically, and building connections through meaningful, timely engagement.
The journey to adopting a social CRM solution should be rooted in your unique business needs, but the rewards—better customer connections, more responsive engagement, and smarter operations—are universal. By bringing together communication, automation, and analytics within a secure, user-friendly environment, Lark empowers your team to deliver outstanding customer experiences at every stage of the journey, strengthen customer retention, and unlock valuable insights from every social interaction. Explore what Lark can do—your future customers are already reaching out, and every interaction is an opportunity for relationship building and business growth.
FAQs
What is a social CRM?
Social CRM integrates social media channels with traditional customer relationship management systems. This strategy allows your business to monitor conversations, engage with customers on their preferred platforms, and gather valuable insights from social data. It provides a more complete view of the customer, enhancing both marketing efforts and customer service efforts.
What is the difference between social CRM and traditional CRM?
Traditional CRM focuses on structured data like emails, calls, and purchase history. In contrast, social CRM incorporates unstructured data from social media—such as comments, mentions, and messages. This makes social CRM a more dynamic tool for real-time engagement, proactive customer service, and understanding public sentiment.
What are the 4 types of CRM?
The four main types of CRM are Operational (automating sales, marketing, and service), Analytical (analyzing customer data for insights), Collaborative (sharing customer information across teams), and Strategic (focusing on building long-term customer relationships). Modern platforms like Lark often blend these types, especially collaborative and operational features.
What is a CRM in social work?
In social work, a CRM is a system used to manage client cases and relationships rather than customer transactions. It helps social workers track interactions, manage documentation, coordinate with other professionals, and maintain confidential records securely. The goal is to improve client outcomes through organized, efficient case management.
