I’ve been pretty vocal about my search for the “holy grail” of CRM’s. There are a number of solutions out there and all are doing some pretty nice things in the way of integrating social media into a CRM platform but, nobody that I am aware of, at least not at an investment level that is affordable for the little guy, has come out with a package that I feel has yet reached that pinnacle of achievement. Let’s talk briefly about a few….

Salesforce.com is likely the defacto leader in this application field. And, they have introduced Twitter to their product but in what I would consider to be a limited fashion. It looks, feels, and acts like an add-on. What it is well designed for is scanning and identifying sales and service opportunities based on product mentions found within the Twitterverse stream. Furthermore, it can automatically create contacts from those discoveries. Pretty cool. FaceBook or LinkedIn integration? Not yet that I am aware of.

Gist is a way cool product that acts like a social media aggregator and it does gather a ton of information on every contact it encounters. Gist also boasts very tight integration with both Twitter and email. No LinkedIn or FaceBook integration yet as it pertains to updates. I know this will be coming soon particularly since LinkedIn recently opened up its API to developers and so you are now seeing those updates via clients like TweetDeck and Hootsuite. Where Gist is weak today, in my opinion, is in the creation of emails and tweets. It is great at gathering them and allowing you to go back to the original source, but not generating them.

Salesforce and Gist Integration: This is something that is very interesting and very nicely done. Put the two of them together and they do form a very very nice Social CRM with Gist doing the gathering and Salesforce doing the creating of things like standard email. I am personally convinced that these two products, and that may mean having them work in conjunction, may be the best solution in the near future for a SAAS solution to Social CRM. Because of this, I am going to be devoting a great deal of time and effort toward learning each better.

Threadsy is another very cool product and if I could splice Threadsy and Gist together, I would do it in a heartbeat. Up to three email accounts, Twitter, and FaceBook and a gorgeous interface to manage all three. No LinkedIn integration yet but from the standpoint of creating and monitoring traffic from these sites and email, it’s a thing of beauty. Honestly, I would kill to see them take this to the Social CRM level and I don’t feel that it would be that difficult to do. Listen to “Mr. Armchair Code Cutter” (smile).

This brings us to Xobni. Get ready but Xobni may be the one of the closest and simplest solutions out there and if you use Outlook, you can have it today and you can have it for free. Please take a look at the image below ….

So, what does Outlook do? A pretty fine job with email. Keeps your contact and calendar. Some people consider it to be a CRM and maybe it is. Combine it with Business Contact Manager and you do have a CRM. A “piss poor” one, mind you, but a CRM nonetheless (smile). Add Xobni and you get the column to the right that gives you at least some information about your contact in terms of whether or not they are even on LinkedIn, their Twitter stream that you can at least reply and retweet, and if they are on FaceBook. Xobni also gathers information on their network and also links you have shared as well as messages associated with this contact. Worth a look? I think so. This package gets even better with the addition of the LinkedIn Toolbar for Outlook. If you do a search within this blog site, you will find several articles mentioning this tool. Suffice to say that it brings much of the power of LinkedIn directly into Outlook and actually quite a bit more.

Well, there you have it. Something more to think about. I also wanted to add that I believe it was today that Zemanta introduced the latest version of their tool for blogging and Gmail. I am using it now as I type. Sweet. Very sweet.

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

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A crazy little thing …. (smile)

Please visit our group sites ….

Bing! - Wednesdays Noon - 1 PM

Business Minds - Tuesdays Noon - 1 PM

Earning points is a lot like collecting marbles. Well, since I could not find a suitable graphic for “collecting points”, it is now (smile). We’ll start out with a few basic rules of life. You make friends in this world by treating them with respect and through giving as well as receiving. You are a good listener, sensitive to their needs, and are willing to assist them when asked to do so. Even better, you offer to help when it is least expected.

The world of Social Media is no different. Old rules. New Tools. It remains focused on communication followed by creating, maintaining, and increasing the quality of relationships. That’s it. End of post (smile). So let’s discuss a few suggestions and we can also talk about some ideas that may help you to become the type of person who folks will instinctively wish to be associated with …..

You will likely earn points if you ..

• Are upfront, honest, and real. Nobody likes a fake. This would include having a full profile including your photo.
• Make it interesting. Mix it up. It’s o.k. to talk about work but as one of my colleagues, Justin Foster at Tricycle Brand Development, says … “if you don’t work for either Victoria’s Secret or Ben and Jerry’s, your job just probably isn’t that interesting.”
• Give credit where credit is due. If you see a tweet that you like, retweet it don’t “scrape” it and claim it as your own. Mention your sources and publicly thank them for their contributions.
• Show good manners. This is one of my personal pet peeves. Your momma’ taught you how to say “please” and “thank you”. I’m constantly amazed by how many have forgotten those lessons.
• Are consistently responsive. This would include responding to valid emails and direct messages in a timely fashion. Pet peeve #2.
• Provide and share quality tips and information. Hey, we are all learning and I for one need all the help I can get. This certainly applies to all three of the major social media sites (Twitter, FaceBook, & LinkedIn). It’s easy to do (there are several tools to assist you can most can be found on this site) and it’s fun.
• Consider a blog and/or share your reading list. Both are ways of giving back. My reading list can be accessed by clicking on the icon in the upper right hand sidebar of this site directly below the RSS button if you wish to subscribe.
• Directly engage with others. Post quality comments on other sites, answer questions on LinkedIn, respond to updates on FaceBook, and use @replies on Twitter. All of these demonstrate your willingness to engage with others and not just sit back and continuously spew out your brilliance (smile).
• Provide recommendations. This one really kills me. There are millions of people out there wondering how to get recommendations on LinkedIn or even on Twitter. Some are bold enough to go right out and request them. Have you ever thought about giving recommendations instead of asking for them? I’ll tell you what, giving recommendations without being asked to do so is one of my favorite pastimes. Now, I don’t just give them to everybody. You do need to earn them. However, it just makes me feel good and it helps me to thank and promote those who are deserving. And, how do you think they feel when they get them? Twitter’s new “list” feature is another way of both acknowledging those you value and sharing suggested followers with others. It’s a win-win.
• Watch out for the needs of others. Should you see an article that might be of interest to a specific party, email them the article or the link. Makes ‘em feel special and they are!

Conversely, you are probably going to lose points if you ….

• Don’t practice those things that will earn you points. Whether you know it or not, even if you are not yet active on social media, you are likely already on it. That might be good or it might be bad (smile).
• Constantly “sell”. See the “Victoria’s Secret” rule (smile). This is a fine line and it certainly is very much so for me. I view Social Media as a business tool and I sometimes struggle to be interesting let alone “social” (smile). Therefore, I will softly promote our services in a variety of ways while still practicing, as best as I can, the social aspects of this medium.
• Are, or appear to be, a spammer. This includes classic spamming and many others that may be more subtle. If you are constantly bombarding me with direct messages on Twitter that promote your product or service, you sir are a spammer and will be deleted by me. FaceBook has, and for that matter encourages, what I personally consider to be “spammer-like” activities. Your constant barrage of “fan page suggestions” and requests for me to send you trinkets needed for whatever inane game you may be playing, without checking to see if I am also playing that game or are familiar with that company or organization, to me constitutes spam. FYI, I don’t play any games on FaceBook. You are also likely a spammer if your gravatar is a picture of somebody that looks like Brittney Spears who appears to be chewing on something that loosely resembles a baby’s arm.
• Auto-respond with Direct Messages on Twitter. I don’t consider these to be spam. I do consider them to be highly irritating. They are obviously automated and with no personal thought or contribution. Generally they promote your product or service. Consistently they arrive after somebody follows me and I follow them back. Some go as far to thank me for following them and then inform me that they will now follow me back. Hello! You were the one that followed me in the first place (smile)! I’m sure that they can be effective and I’m also sure that many are provided with purest of intent. I, personally, just can’t stand them. Still, I can tolerate one and one only.

In the end, he who dies with them most marbles (points) wins (smile). If you would like to see how you stack up on Twitter, at least, here are a couple of apps you can go to and find out. TwitterGrader is a fairly simple utility that will give you some scores. Klout is much more sophisticated. It might be interesting to visit both these sites now and then check back from time to time to check on your progression or …….. (smile).

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

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shutterpoint.com

This is going to be fairly quick post as, frankly, I just don’t have the energy to go too deep into much of anything. Turkey hangover (smile). That being said, here are four social media applications that peeked my curiosity this past week. They are HootSuite, Mr. Tweet, Klout, and Feedly. I have not had much time to play with any of these other than to get them set up and give them a whirl. I would suggest that you do the same as each has some very interesting applications.

HootSuite has been around for some time and has been viewed by many as a very effective Twitter client. Some folks swear by it over more well-known tools like TweetDeck and Seesmic. Well, it just got better. To my knowledge, HootSuite is the first to integrate LinkedIn updates into its feed selection. Mind you, others will follow and will follow quickly now that LinkedIn has opened up its API to developers but, there is something to be said for being first (smile).

Unlike TweetDeck and Seesmic’s Desktop client, there is no software to load. It is entirely web based. You can track both multiple Twitter and FaceBook accounts and will also follow your FaceBook fan pages starting next week. You may display up to 3 columns on a page at any time. However, you can have more columns than that and it is super easy to scroll across the page to reveal the additional columns. Not being able to do that easily is something I have always hated about both TweetDeck and Seesmic. Then again, maybe I’m just stupid and can’t figure it out (smile). In addition to columns, you can also add multiple tabs. So, I have a Twitter tab and one for FaceBook and one for LinkedIn. Each tab can also have columns. Think searches and, yes, it also supports Twitter lists and can import those from your account.  Hootsuite will also let you update to Ping.fm which gives you a variety of other sites that you can send to. For example, I use Ping.fm for Ning.

There are two features about Hootsuite that I have always loved. You do have the ability to send your updates now or at a specified time later. You can even do that with FaceBook. And then there is the Hootlet. This button sits on my toolbar and when I am at I site I find interesting, I can just click on that button and an update is created, the URL is shortenend, I can select any or all of my feed accounts, and decide to send that update now or later. That’s why I call this HootSweeet! Finally, HootSuite will also handle RSS feeds. I am thinking of it as an alternative to Twitterfeed which has been a little bit flaky as of late.

Mr. Tweet is a name that I had seen before but had never investigated. Yesterday I was followed by a local company and received an automated message that they had found me on Mr. Tweet. Hmmmm, said I. So, I went there to take a look. Sign up and Mr. Tweet will go to work analyzing your Twitter account and will direct message you later (about 1/2 hour) when it is prepared to share that information with you. Builds that sense of anticipation and curiosity (smile). Get your notification and follow the link to your page. What it does is analyze who you follow and who follows you and based on a set of algorithms suggests folks that you may wish to follow. If you do, they will get that automated message. It also suggests folks that you seem to engage with a lot and offers you an interface, if you wish, to write them a recommendation. Now, in my humble opinion, if you are out on Twitter and LinkedIn and begging for recommendations, you are truly missing the boat. Nothing makes me feel better than to write a recommendation for somebody who I appreciate and so doing without being asked. And the person that opens that little unexpected present … how do you think they feel about that? Probably the same way (smile).

Klout  is another interesting Twitter analytic tool. It takes your account, analyzes it, and provides a wide range of statistical information in various categories about just what kind of Tweeter you really are. It also makes suggestions on how to improve. Klout also suggests who in your circle are likely influencing you and others in your circle who may be influenced by you. It gives you and overall “Klout Score” which I would interpret as just how much of a Twitter heavyweight you really are. I would suggest that nobody gets “participation points”. Klout is a tough grader. I got a 33 and, yes, that is out of 100 (smile). Another interesting feature is that you can enter anybody’s twitter name and, if they are registered with Klout, you can learn the same things about them. Knowledge is …power (smile).

I’ve heard this name on and off for some time. Most recently, I have seen a number of articles about how this application will soon be available for Chrome and how excited folks are about that and that they may now be willing to switch over from FireFox. Chrome is starting to offer extensions now in case you missed that. At any rate, Feedly works with my Google Reader and presents these articles in a more user-friendly format. I can also share articles to Twitter, FaceBook etc. I can even do this with folks that subscribe to my reader or Feedly account. Feedly also comes with a little toolbar that pops up vertically on the lower right corner of the screen. You can disengage this, by the way. This toolbar is another “sharing tool”. If I like what I am reading on a page, I can click on the Twitter or FaceBook icons to share it our even email it. I really have not played with this app, however, I do have an idea for a business model where it may come into play.

Happy day after Thanksgiving! Thanks for visiting!

Craig

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I was going to say “stitching” and I lied when I called it a “Very Nice Job” (smile). Let me put this all into perspective. I have been eating and breathing social media since the beginning of this year. This entire blog is evidence of that. I have also looked at, and I have no idea of how many, various Twitter and other social media aggregators that are out there. I have evaluated and blogged on about the same number of CRM packages, some very good add-ons that pair them with social media, and a number of other wonderful packages like Gist which is still something that I would encourage you to keep a very close eye on.

All that being said, I have yet to find a package that has come remotely close to the level of excitement that I am feeling right now with Threadsy. That does not mean that there is not something else out there that I have not yet seen or, for that matter, something may very well be released tomorrow that will vie for my affections. Today? Nothing I have encountered to-date has come so close to pulling me away from my beloved iGoogle Home Page. Here is why that may change…

I am so sorry that my crappy screen-shot utilities do not allow you to fully see the detail of this page. It is a thing of beauty in both design and function. So, what is Threadsy? It combines up to 3 email addresses (I have one on Google Apps and one Gmail), multiple Twitter accounts, and your FaceBook page and places them all on one page that allows you to both monitor and compose. “So what”, you say, “I can do that with TweetDeck and several other clients!”. Did you miss the part about email? I live on email. I also use both Twitter and FaceBook but would not call myself a power user of either. I just want something simple that works. And, I don’t like to jump back and forth between screens.

I’m still learning about this product and that is fortunate for you as otherwise this post would be about ten pages long. At least (smile). I plan on writing more about Threadsy in the future but will give you the “Cliff Notes” version for now ….

1. Up to three email accounts and, as stated before, I use both Google Apps and Gmail. You can read emails, reply, compose, everything. Emails that I generate via Threadsy automatically sync with those accounts. You can choose which account you wish to send from. Emails can be viewed in a smaller pane or enlarged to full screen width. “Reply” can actually be up to three levels: a quick reply without even leaving the “inbox”, reply in the smaller pane, or go to full pane in your reply. I have only found one reason to go “full pane”. It is the only way I have found to get to the interface to add a link to my email, something I hope that they will correct. There does not appear to be an auto signature line capability but it might (I don’t know) be able to use your standard one that comes from your email provider. I use the WiseStamp add-on for Gmail with FireFox and it did not grab that. Bummer.
2. The wide pane on the left is my inbox and that can also toggle to see sent messages. Notice that I said “messages” and not “emails”. This pane does include Twitter @ and direct messages. Sweeet!!
3. Click on any message to expand the message to read and/or reply and then, hang on, that right side pane is going to magically convert to an info screen for that particular person, their social media sites, their recent updates on Twitter and FaceBook, and photos that they may have posted. OMG! I can comment on their FaceBook postings and do anything I want with their tweets. Retweet, reply, the works. I can even choose to follow or unfollow.
4. The narrower right pane is typically used to track your Twitter and FaceBook activities only. You can choose to show everything together or just look at a specific Twitter account or your FaceBook friends. They do another nice thing that is also done by my BlackBerry client, SocialScope….my updates appear with my photo on the right of the post while my friend’s photos appear on the left. Makes it easy to separate the two.

I’m going to stop here before I get too far into other features that will make this post entirely unmanageable. Threadsy is only available via a beta invite at this time. Go to their site and submit your email address to request one. I’m guessing it took me maybe 3-4 weeks to get mine. I’ll still be using my iGoogle page for certain social media applications like sharing buttons but, Threadsy is hot, very hot! I’ll also say that when I got on it this morning, it would not load up for me. I lamented about this on Twitter and Udi from Threadsy was on me so fast it made my head spin (smile). Immediately, we had exchanged some information and my account was back and running. High marks from the CraigMeister (smile)!

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

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