Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to create an understanding of how customer engagement, communication / interaction and customer insight are driving forces behind the use of Social CRM from a leadership perspective.

Method: The purpose of the study, we believed it was appropriate to use a qualitative approach to conduct the study. The empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The sample consisted of 10 companies located in the Gävle area who are active on social media. The interviews were coded to obtain keywords and patterns. These patterns and keywords are then analyzed to arrive at the study's results.

Results and contributions: Our results suggest that all the identified benefits, customer engagement, customer insight and communication are driving forces to make use of social CRM. However, they are used to different extents with different purposes. The two main drivers are customer engagement and communication. Customer insight is the driving force that is used least extensively and least consciously. Our investigation has confirmed much of the already existing research in this area but also highlighted that all driving forces do not have the same priority. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the driving forces behind the use of social CRM.