Social media is often talked about a a great marketing tool, but it can be equally powerful when it comes to customer relations management (CRM). Here’s how top brands are using Twitter, Facebook and other networks to develop strong relationships with, and gather data from, their customers.

This infographic comes to us from CMSWire, and explores the current state of social customer relationship management.

For starters, they found that 38 percent of marketers simply do not have a plan in place for developing social media as a customer relations tool – and they’re missing out.

The top three uses of social media when it comes to CRM are:

• accelerated sales: customers who have some interactions with a brand via social media spend 20-40 percent more on that brand
• understanding customer experience: customers often want coupons, discounts or exclusive deals from the social channels of the brands they follow
• customer support: 17 percent of consumers in the past year have used social media for a customer service response

The infographic also details the priorities that senior marketing executives place on different aspects of social CRM, the three biggest challenges, and the percentage of spending that social CRM receives across the board. Take a look below:

(Infographic courtesy of CMSWire; Customer service image via Shutterstock)