Social customer relationship management (CRM) platforms work with social media, enabling you to track engagements, listen to your audience on at least one social channel, and better manage ads. Combining CRM software with social media allows you streamline customer interactions through all lifecycle stages and provides richer contact data. We’ve selected six social CRM platforms to guide you in determining which one is best for your business.
- Zoho CRM: Best overall social CRM for small businesses due to price and social integration options
- Agile CRM: Excellent choice for teams that frequent LinkedIn but don’t require LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- HubSpot CRM: Free CRM option for companies that routinely utilize Facebook Messenger
- Salesforce Essentials: Best for customer support and interaction via social media channels
- Nimble: Solid option for teams needing unified cross-platform customer data profiles
- Sprout Social: Best for integrating multiple social channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest
How We Evaluated the Best Social CRM Platforms
CRM software provides a wide range of features, including opportunity creation, pipeline management, app integrations, and productivity tools connected to your email and calendar. When you add social media to the mix, you expand ways to target and engage potential customers by monitoring and tracking where online communications occur.
Overall, we chose Zoho CRM as the best social CRM due to its various social media integrations, affordable pricing options, and ease of use. It offers a wide range of pricing options, including a free-forever plan, multiple social integrations, and excellent customer service, making it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes.
Click on the tabs below to explore our evaluation criteria:
40% of Overall Score
As social media platforms are free, we looked for social CRMs that allowed for the best pricing options for small businesses, including free and affordable plans that can scale with business growth.
20% of Overall Score
We evaluated CRM integrations and their social media features. We also explored customizations and mobile app options so you can message and manage sales opportunities on the go.
15% of Overall Score
As a small business owner, running your business is already a lot of work. Thus, your social CRM should be easy to use so you can dedicate more time running your business rather than learning a new platform.
15% of Overall Score
Robust customer support alleviates issues users might have with the CRM. We evaluated customer service hours, phone support, live chat support, and email support.
10% of Overall Score
We gave the social CRMs an expert score from review sites based on factors such as popularity and standout features. We also based our expert scores on first-hand experience and how it impacts small businesses in terms of overall value for money.
Zoho CRM: Best Overall Social CRM for Small Businesses
Zoho CRM
What We Like
- Variety of social integrations
- Social listening tools
- Messaging features
What's Missing
- Social integrations on free plan
- Visual pipeline in mobile app
- Customer support during business hours
Zoho CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Supports up to three users
- Standard: $14 per user, per month
- Professional: $23 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $40 per user, per month
- Ultimate: $52 per user, per month
- Free trial: 15 days
*Based on annual billing. Monthly subscriptions are also available at slightly higher rates.
Zoho CRM is one of the most affordable social CRM software options on the market. It offers access to a visually appealing CRM and integrates with your social media channels for your business. Integrating Zoho CRM and your social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is a great way to interact more with your prospects and customers without the need to jump around from platform to platform.
Zoho CRM Features
Zoho CRM Facebook Integration (Via Zoho CRM)
With the Zoho Social integration via its marketplace, you have access to features such as:
- Social listening that allows you to keep up with mentions of your brand via social media within your CRM
- Message or reply to your customers on Facebook, whether it’s a post or message, directly from Zoho CRM
- Create opportunities from conversations that occur in Facebook
Zoho CRM also integrates directly with LinkedIn Sales Navigator as long as you have a Sales Navigator Team subscription, which starts at $103.33 per month, billed annually. This seamless integration allows you to view your connections’ contact information, access icebreakers available through mutual connections, and discover new leads with Sales Navigator.
Zoho CRM LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration (Source: Zoho CRM)
Head over to our Zoho CRM review to learn more about the pros and cons of this popular platform.
Agile CRM: Best for Teams Prospecting on LinkedIn Without Sales Navigator
Agile CRM
What We Like
- Social listening tools
- Social media post publishing and scheduling
- Inbox and direct messaging
What's Missing
- LinkedIn integration
- Instagram integration
- More than one social media integration requires higher-tier pricing plans
Agile CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Up to 10 users
- Starter: $9.99 per user, per month
- Regular: $39.99 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $64.99 per user, per month
*Based on annual billing. Monthly and two-year contracts are available as well.
Agile CRM is an excellent social CRM choice for small businesses as its user interface looks modern and is easy to navigate. It has a free plan that supports up to 10 users, which is a better option compared to Zoho CRM’s three-user free plan.
This software allows you to connect social media channels like Facebook and Twitter to better interact with your customers. However, to use multiple integrations with Agile CRM, you have to subscribe to a Regular or Enterprise plan. If you’re connected to email, your calendar, and one social media channel, it’ll prompt you to upgrade. Thus, we recommend a Regular or Enterprise plan to fully maximize Agile CRM’s capabilities.
Agile CRM Features
Agile CRM LinkedIn integration (Source: Agile CRM)
When you set up your social integrations, you gain access to features like:
- Social listening tools for monitoring brand mentions across multiple channels
- Publishing tools, allowing you to cross-post from a single platform
- Post scheduling to automate your social media content calendar
- An inbox that allows you to message customers via your CRM
We published another article providing an in-depth look at CRM systems that integrate with LinkedIn. In this article, you’ll find that Agile CRM does not directly integrate with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. If your team already has a Sales Navigator subscription, we recommend exploring an alternative, such as HubSpot CRM or Zoho CRM. However, Agile CRM does connect to your personal LinkedIn account seamlessly.
You can also read our Agile CRM review to understand this platform further and determine if it provides solutions to your specific business needs.
HubSpot CRM: Best for Facebook Messenger Integration
HubSpot CRM
What We Like
- Facebook Messenger integration
- Post scheduling features
- Social reporting capabilities
What's Missing
- Affordable social integration options
- Pinterest integration
- Mobile social media features
HubSpot CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: For unlimited users (limitation on features)
- HubSpot for Startups: Ranges from $40 to $89 per month
- HubSpot Marketing: Ranges from $45 to $320 per month
- HubSpot Sales: Starts at $45 per month and goes up to $1,200 per month
*Based on monthly billing. However, you can also opt to pay in full annually.
HubSpot CRM offers robust integrations with social media channels, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. However, the integrations require at least a Professional or Enterprise Marketing Hub Plan, which starts at $450 per month. If your small business needs a lower-level pricing tier, we recommend pursuing Zoho CRM or Sprout Social. However, the Facebook Messenger connection is separate and comes with the free plan.
While HubSpot CRM is a game-changer in marketing automation, it’s quite extensive in terms of contact and lead management, deals and pipeline features, and its suite of social media integrations. The pricing can be a limiting factor for small businesses, but it’s an incredibly valuable tool for relationship management and marketing automation.
HubSpot CRM Features
HubSpot social media integration (Source: HubSpot)
The social integrations are easy to set up and are very robust. The features include:
- Scheduling posts to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn
- Reporting on all social media channels in one place
- Facebook Messenger integration so you can interact with your customers
Our article, The 5 Best CRM for LinkedIn Integration, outlines HubSpot’s robust LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration. However, it requires at least a Professional or Enterprise HubSpot Marketing Hub plan similar to the social integration options.
Hubspot LinkedIn Sales Navigator Integration (Via Hubspot)
Check out our HubSpot CRM review for more information on how this software helps small businesses grow.
Salesforce Essentials: Best for Customer Support & Interaction via Social Media Channels
Salesforce Essentials
What We Like
- Multichannel customer support
- Automatic case and ticket creation
- Messenger integrations
What's Missing
- Social listening
- Social posting
- Native integrations for Essentials users
Salesforce Essentials Pricing at a Glance
- Essentials: $25 per user, per month, billed annually; $35 per user, per month, billed monthly
- Free trial: 14 days
Salesforces Essentials is a great social CRM tool for small businesses because it offers many of Salesforce’s popular features at an affordable price point. With plans starting at $25 per user, per month, you gain access to several ways to interact with and service your customers. For instance, it allows you to integrate your Salesforce Cases (similar to a ticketing or task system) with requests that come in via webchat or Facebook Messenger.
Salesforce Essentials Features
Salesforce Essentials support tickets example (Source: Salesforce)
Some Salesforce Essentials features include:
- The ability to provide support via email, webchat, and Facebook Messenger
- Organize customer interactions into cases and tickets
Salesforce also offers a Social Studio feature via its Marketing Cloud. However, the pricing starts high, at around $1,000 per organization for the Basic plan. With this option, you can activate social listening and monitoring tools, post from social media channels, and access detailed reporting features.
For most small businesses, we recommend the Salesforce Essentials option. If you need more advanced social publishing and listening tools, we recommend Sprout Social.
Not sure if Salesforce Essentials is the right tool for your business? Read our Salesforce Essentials review to know how it works.
Nimble: Best for 360-Degree Cross-platform Customer Data Profiles
Nimble
What We Like
- Ease of use
- Consistency across app integrations
- Single pricing structure
What's Missing
- No free trial
- Lacks an Instagram integration
Nimble Pricing at a Glance
- Nimble Business: $25 per user, per month (or $25 per user, per month when billed annually)
- Free trial: 14 days
Nimble has a CRM browser extension to embed in platforms or tools that your team is already using to gather leads and communicate with customers. You can install Nimble’s extension to various platforms that it integrates with, such as Gmail, Outlook, and LinkedIn. Rather than jumping from platform to platform, you can experience using the CRM while prospecting or working on other tasks.
Nimble Features
Nimble’s LinkedIn, Gmail, and Google Calendar integrations (Source: Nimble)
Nimble’s Prospector tool allows you to bring your CRM to your platforms. As shown above, your Nimble widget is used as a pop-up in whichever platform you’ve integrated with. It can integrate with:
- Email inboxes, including Gmail and Office 365
- Social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
- Calendars like Google Calendar and Office 365 Calendar
- Email marketing tools, such as Mailchimp
- Other CRM software, such as Zendesk Sell and Pipedrive
Sprout Social: Best for Integrating Multiple Social Channels
Sprout Social
What We Like
- Integrates with all primary social channels
- Easy to use and set up
- Advanced publishing and posting features
What's Missing
- Lacks lower-tier pricing options
- No visual pipeline
- Does not include opportunity and deal creation
Sprout Social Pricing at a Glance
- Standard: $99 per user, per month
- Professional: $149 per user, per month
- Advanced: $249 per user, per month
- Free trial: 30 days
If you routinely use social media professionally for your business, you’ve probably heard about Sprout Social. One of the best things Sprout Social offers in terms of social media integrations is the number of platforms it supports. You gain access to integrations with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Google My Business, Reddit, TripAdvisor, and Glassdoor.
Some of the CRM software on this list, such as Agile CRM and Nimble, do not integrate with Instagram—which Sprout Social and HubSpot CRM do. Sprout Social is also an excellent option for agencies that manage social media on behalf of clients.
Sprout Social Features
Sprout Social Features (Source: Sproutsocial.com)
Some of Sprout Social’s features include:
- Engagement across all social media channels, such as messaging, reputation management, and chatbots
- Post publishing and scheduling, including content calendar options
- Social listening tools
- Robust reporting and analytics with a clean, user-friendly dashboard
