The concept of linking CRM applications with social networks has already been established as a pretty good idea. But once you do that, it will become pretty evident that the people using your CRM applications are going to need a hierarchical approach to managing various social networks.

This is because not all social interactions have equal value. The opinions of a person who works at a major customer of your company has a lot more value than say the opinions of a recent college graduate still looking for work.

To help solve that challenge, InsideView has come up with an online service offering that tracks the relevance that users assign to various conversations on different social networks. That data can then be streamed into any CRM application, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft, SugarCRM, Oracle and Landslide.

That capability allows sales people using the CRM software to more easily discover in real time information about specific business events that can be used in prospecting for leads and then qualifying those leads once they are generated.

The service is available in two versions. There is a free basic version that provides basic conversation tacking services. The version that integrates with CRM systems is priced at $100 per user per month. That version also includes a search and analytics capability that make it easier to analyze what is being discussed on various social networks using natural language queries.

The fact that more people will be following more conversations could be a boon for social networks in terms of making them a lot more useful. At the same time, it could also have a chilling effect on the conversation because more people will be able to quickly discover what those conversations are all about.

Whatever the ultimate outcome, we're just at the beginning of understanding the potential ramifications of making social networks a mainstream element of doing business.