CRM Gets Sociable

Social networks are key venues for companies to manage relationships with their customers.

Twitter has emerged as a primary destination for customer comments and complaints. Consumers have quickly realized that Twitter has the potential to give them a larger voice than a blog or company-feedback Web page can.

Between June 2008 and June 2009, the number of people who used Twitter grew 1,928 percent to nearly 21 million unique visitors, according to Nielsen.

Not surprisingly, Twitter had the top growth rate among social sites in its peer group, followed by Facebook, up 198 percent to 87 million-plus, and Tagged, up 166 percent to more than 7.6 million.

LinkedIn grew 19 percent, while MySpace and Blogger each rose 6 percent.

Among the top 10 sites, three showed declines: Yahoo Groups fell 15 percent, TypePad declined 10 percent, and WordPress dipped 2 percent.