Facebook: My Friend CRM

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A few minutes ago I was trying to explain Facebook to a group of older business folks when it came out that Facebook was my, “Friend CRM.” After spurting that out, I paused and restated that Facebook was actually my “Friend Relationship Manager.” Not that I ever struggled with finding value in my Facebook efforts, I often faced questions as to the value of it and would spend an exhaustive time describing it to someone.

Leveraging a familiar term, like CRM, which everyone knows was designed to better the relations between a customer and a company (often for the sole benefit of the company) when talking about Facebook allows you to easily set ones mindset as to why you use Facebook. You use Facebook to better relations between you and your network of friends (whether personal or business). Facebook is my Friend Relationship Manager (FRM).

When I think about Facebook as a FRM it exactly describes how I use Facebook. I send updates to them on what I am doing,  I can see what they are doing, I can log our conversations and build upon our current relationship through a myriad of platform functionalities (even VoIP). Facebook does everything for you that a CRM does for a business.

What is best about the term Friend Ruild Relationship Manager is that it doesn’t just apply to Facebook – it applies to any social networking platform that you use to build your offline relationships through online channels. So the next time you a struggling to explain to other why you use Facebook or another social network, try using the term FRM (Friend Relationship Manager) and save yourself some breathe.