We live in an app-crazed, social networking world folks.

I thought I had heard it all last week when the “drunk dial” app was unveiled for the Apple iPhone. Now comes word of a yet another new app –  one that could really help small businesses.

Introducing “Salesforce CRM for Twitter.”

When people talk about you and your business – Salesforce let’s you know.

Here’s how is works:

Salesforce plugs into the Twitter API, and customer care reps can start Twitter searches from within Salesforce’s service, bypassing search.twitter.com. If a company discovers someone tweeting about them (good or bad), a button click can import the entire Twitter thread into Salesforce’s software. From there the Twitter user is notified via software, giving them the precious opportunity to respond to the original Tweet.

This is a brilliant idea, given that Twitter users can’t possibly monitor what is being said about them in real time and respond to people’s questions. Twitter is just too large now. Too powerful.

Thankfully, Salesforce can help business owners sleep at night by giving them the tool they need to track complaints – and compliments.

This is beyond better customer care. This is could very well be the life jacket that saves many of our small businesses.

Twitter.

What would businesses do without it?