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While I twiddle my thumbs waiting for a true Social CRM (it is coming and if it actually does what I have seen and have been told, it’s name is Nimble), a lot of folks want to harness at least a part of that technology today. My take on Outlook is that it is a helluva’ email client but not so much a CRM. Maybe a poor man’s CRM but maybe also all the CRM that a lot of folks want and need. When you also consider, and I have no idea of what the actual statistics are, that a bunch of people use Outlook for their email client, and particularly businesses and corporate America, you have to at least acknowledge it’s significance. There is an add-on program for Outlook that will turn it into a more complete CRM called Prophet. I have never used it but no others who have and they seem quite pleased with it. Retail starts at around $200.00 for a single user license.
In this post we will briefly discuss four add-ons, all free, that you can install today and become instantly social with your contact base. Each tends to overlap the other in terms of features, but each also has it’s own unique set of benefits. I have all four loaded in my Outlook but that is not something that I would recommend for you. I can tell you that I have had zero issues with any of these applications conflicting with Outlook itself or with each other. Here we go ….
LinkedIn Toolbar for Outlook: This was the first tool that I ever found and it is sweet. With it you can …
- Open LinkedIn from within the resident browser window that is available in Outlook itself.
- Have it look at incoming emails and tell you if that contact is on LinkedIn and it will then provide you with an interface to invite them to join or to connect.
- It interfaces your Outlook contact list with your LinkedIn connections and among other things will advise you when one of your Outlook contacts joins LinkedIn.
- It will update your Outlook contact records with new and revised information as it comes in.
- The toolbar will track unfinished tasks and provide you with reminders that maybe you need to get back in touch with people.
- It has a function called “Grab” that allows you to highlight the signature line of an incoming email and will then automatically create an Outlook contact record for you right then and there.
Xobni: Xobni is “inbox” spelled backwards and it does a ton of stuff. It is visible when you are looking at an email or at a contact record. On the social side, it displays recent tweets from Twitter, updates from FaceBook, your contact’s LinkedIn profile (no updates), and also information from a service called Hoovers which I believe is more of a profile database of larger corporations. Xobni will show you some contact relationships that are related to your particular contact. Finally, it does some pretty slick things with your email including searches, threaded conversations, and files exchanged. Xobni is also available for Gmail as part of Google Apps but, at the time of this writing, only provides the Hoovers interface which strikes me as being odd and lame.
Gist: Unlike Xobni, you will need a separate Gist account in order to use this add-on. My advice to you … get one! Gist is the ultimate social media aggregator. It is very very similar to Xobni in terms of features. I think the interface is a little cleaner but it does take up more real estate. In contact mode, the module shifts from a column to more of a box (which I prefer) whereas Xobni does not move let alone shift from being in a narrow column format. The real power of Gist is the dedicated Gist site itself which powers this add-on. Go to the search bar at the top right of this page and type in “Gist”. You will find plenty of articles that I have already written about this fantastic tool. Gist is also available for Gmail through Google Apps and that version, while a different design interface, is as equally complete.
Outlook Social Connector: I loaded this add-on up a few months ago when it was first introduced and went, “o.k”. At the time it was for LinkedIn only and it seemed to slow my system down substantially. From what I could tell, it did not provide me with anything that I was not already getting with the other three tools. And, I’m still not sure if it does. Microsoft had declared that FaceBook and MySpace were planned but no Twitter. What? No Twitter and who in the hell in corporate America uses MySpace? Maybe more than I am aware of. The other day they did announce that FaceBook was available along with with Windows Live which I do not use. So, I decided to give it a try and load it up again. Please be aware that you will need to load a separate application for the FaceBook Connection. If you do not have the most recent version of the main application (I did not), this will be identified and you will be taken immediately to a wizard to get it. This latest version does not seem to slow my system down but I also recently did an extensive mailbox cleanup so that conclusion may be difficult to support. The one thing I do like is that it comes in a horizontal format at the bottom of the screen. One columnar tool is fine, two is too much, but three? Unbearable. Like Xobni and Gist, the Outlook Connector also works in contact vs. email mode. There was an early rumor that the connector was available for Outlook 2010 only. That is incorrect. There are separate downloads for 2010 users and for 2003/2007 users.
Here’s what it looks like with everything running at the same time. LOL. You can hide some of these and then display them when needed. For example, I will typically hide “Xobni” and then call it up when needed.
Moving left to right … Outllook’s Social Connector is bottom left, the blue “info” button above that is part of the LinkedIn toolbar, the middle column is Xobni, and the right hand column is Gist. Is that enough “social” for you!? (smile).
Oddly, none of these tools support actual LinkedIn updates which I find to be very strange. I know you can get an updates feed and I have another standalone tool called NutShell Mail that sends me email digests of updates from each of the three main social networks. For that matter, LinkedIn will send you a similar report for that service only.
Is there a case for using multiples of these tools at the same time within Outlook? I think so. If one breaks, I have a backup. They also, for whatever reason, seem to adept at finding different information on the same contact. A good example would be that one may identify a FaceBook account whereas the other will not. Don’t ask me why. They just do.
Thanks for visiting!
Craig
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- Connect Facebook and Windows Live with the Outlook Social Connector – Outlook Social Connector (ducknetweb.blogspot.com)
- Xobni’s uber e-mail search tool primed for Outlook 2010 (download.cnet.com)
- Add Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn Info to Your Gmail Contacts [APPS] (mashable.com)
- The Value of Connecting LinkedIn With Outlook (compukol.com)
Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. NetWorks! Boise Valley is a business to business networking organization for the most serious sales and marketing professionals only.
