7. C ustomers are making increased • Specific social CRM tools are used to screen user posts and guide users towards (i) customer care use of social netw orks, p romp ting teams (one-to-one) or (ii) communication teams comp anies to inv est in dedicated social (community management). media resources and tools. But corp orate • The diversity of interactions, their empathic ex p ectations of th e gains look ov er- dimension, and the brand image implications are op timistic. leading companies to return instead to private messaging (one-to-one), enabling them to interact • Social media has become a favored channel to more deeply with customers. contact and interact with brands – offering strong emotional ties and many ways to engage in conversation. • The power balance between brands and customers on social media is reversing, however, as brands are targeted by social network users (for example on Facebook). “Social networks are not tomorrow’s channel for • Companies are therefore compelled to manage (i) care activities. We use it for marketing purposes customer passion including hatred as well as (ii) only”. their own media profile and online visibility– a task O nline tourism pure player requiring particular skills. O ff- site Customer R elationship S tudy | J anuary 2 016 9