How does Social CRM change how you determine 'high value' customers?

Social media marketing is a cost, just like a catalog, web site or retail space. It is also a component in brand management, just like a catalog, web site or retail space. How much weight to give it in a customer score depends on how customers make their buying decision for a product.

Is brand awareness important? Do people check online reviews and comparison shop? Are there groups devoted to the brand or product and how much do they influence your customers? Will customers rush to buy if there is a sudden price decrease?

If social media can change the frequency and monetary value of what your customers buy, and whether they will return soon or stay away, then it must be included in customer scoring.

Yes it does change how brands should determine the high valye consumer, because it adds the dimension of social value to the metrics need to calculate the value. Financial value + high social value of the consumer = very high overall value.

I think there is also another dimension. Social media, if leveraged properly can be turned into an asset that helps collect a wealth of timely, rich information about your customers. No longer is a firm restricted to the specific interaction they have had with clients and their ability to capture and integrate relevant data.
A properly managed and stimulated online community can significantly sharpen the detail on the picture of the 'high-value customer' much like adjusting the focus of a camera lens. Incorporating this richness into analytics modeling can then facilitate intimate understanding of those most valuable to your organization.

The advice we give our clients is that the primary value of Social Media is as a lever to KNOW everything about your customers better before you start trying to use it as a marketing or sales tool. In this respect it can provide massive insight about those in the high-value camp as well as other categories.

That's my $.02...

Brad