2014IIM KOZHIKODEPRASHANT YADAVPGP/16/218[SOCIAL NETWORKING AND CRM]IntroductionSocial networking sites are exploding and the hype with interest is also growing. Among these Facebook is in first place with 200 million users in 2009. However, the data does not represent the correct facts as it is still difficult to distinguish the facts from the available data. At a high level, social networking is described as the convergence of technologies that allow individuals to easily communicate and share information. But today the issue is not about social networks, but about their use in the business world. Businesses are trying to take advantage of social media as they look for unique strategies and tactics to extract value from it. Gartner research shows a notable increase in investments in social networks by companies (Metz, 2008). When used effectively, social networking sites can truly enable our salespeople, marketers and customer service agents to develop and grow meaningful relationships with customers. The true value of social networking sites cannot be achieved in isolation. Rather, organizations need to take stock of their customer management initiatives and core business processes, then identify and reflect on the task of enhancing value and extending those initiatives. The paper discusses the tangible ways in which current organizations can extract business value from social networking after leveraging it with Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The Importance of Social Networking for Business Social networking sites provide users with the ability to communicate with each other. Additionally, they allow users to find like-minded people. After they discovered themselves... middle of paper... indisputable. Yet many of today's business organizations still struggle to translate this into real business benefits. By acquiring tools that allow them to manage social networking activities alongside traditional marketing, sales and service activities, organizations will benefit from social networking without distracting from their core business. Ultimately, success will become easy for those companies that manage to integrate with social networks that provide them with a large amount of customer data, unfiltered feedback and informal conversations and convert them into insights. Microsoft helps our customers achieve this through the Social Networking Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This provides organizations with the capabilities to better understand, listen, analyze, respond and formulate social network activities.