There's no longer any debate about whether social media's going to have a huge impact on customer relationship management. The questions are, how huge will the impact be, when will it be felt?

Gauging that may be difficult. Social media's a little different than the usual emerging business technology, mostly because it didn't begin as a business technology. It started with consumers -- and how they use it varies dramatically.

That places companies seeking to harness the power of social CRM in an interesting position: They have to understand how their potential customers use social media, the best social media outlets to reach them, and the best way to engage with them through those outlets. Doing this effectively requires a lot of imagination and an ability to really understand your unique customer base. 

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