I was recently part of a social media panel at a Human Resources Association conference in Southern Maryland. The topic of my panel was Social Media and Human Resources. The discussion began by discussing tools such as Linkedin and other social networks useful to Human Resources professionals in the recruiting process.

Then the topic turned to ‘ Social Listening ‘.

Maryland was the first state in the nation that does not allow employers to ask for passwords to employees social media accounts. I like this law as I would not voluntarily surrender passwords to my social networks, especially to my email accounts. However, I do understand the implications employees can cause by saying the wrong things in the social streams and the importance of HR professionals and recruiters doing their due diligence by researching what potential job candidates are talking about.

One of my panel mates, a recruiting manager for a very large national accounting firm, gave an example of a current employee of their company tweeting a message stating how a recent job interview went and that they coud not wait to leave their current position with their company. Discussion then moved to social listening and gaining access to potential candidates social media accounts.

The Answer – Nimble social listening features.

Just a tiny bit of data, (first name, last name and email address) , allows Nimble to perform it’s magic by automatically searching for a contacts social profiles on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Google + . This can be done without requesting passwords from prospective or current employees and without violating any laws.

If you are a Human Resource pro or a recruiter, take advantage of Nimble social listening features during your hiring process. It could make all the difference in the world.

CRM? – Social CRM? – Organzier? - Calendar? – Reminder? – Email Platform? –

Sales Management Tool? – Social Network? – Lead Generator?

How about all of the above and more? When asked to describe exactly what Nimble is, I have always used the term ‘Social CRM’. As Nimble matures and adds new features, I no longer favor using that term because Nimble does so much more.

At it’s core, Nimble is a robust Social CRM , loaded with useful features. You can find many posts discussing Nimble’s features so I decided to do something a little different. Below are 10 ways Nimble simplifies my life. These are actual examples of how I use Nimble every day. Take a look and see if these examples could make you more organized and increase your reach and efficiency.

Top 10 ways I use Nimble every day 

#1 – Email - I have 4 different email accounts synced with Nimble and can view them all at once or each account separately. Sending emails from any of those accounts is as easy as selecting from a drop down.

#2 – Contacts – No skimping here. I currently have 21,282 contacts in Nimble of the allowed 50,000. It so nice not wondering if I should import a contact or not because I am nearing the contact limit.

#3 – Social Profiles – Before I call a new prospect I add them as a contact in Nimble. If have a first name, last name and email address Nimble goes to work, identifying their social profiles on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. One click allows me to add those profiles in the contact record and clearly view what that contact is talking about and who they are talking to in the social streams. This feature alone is intelligence that can win deals.

#4 – Tags – I tag contacts based on categories such as ‘influencer’, ‘prospect’, ‘previous client’, ‘job title’, ‘industry’, ‘keep an eye on’, ‘synergy partner’ or whatever new list I want to create. If I need assistance with a project, I simply click that ‘synergy partner’ tag and all my choices of who to call are displayed. Clicking inside an individual contact I can see complete email and social stream interaction and history which I view before deciding who to call.

#5 – History – All emails and social engagement are saved in Nimble contact records. No longer do I have to do a search on every platform to view past engagements with a contact. I communicate with a lot of people daily, on many different platforms. This is a feature I rely upon heavily to review past messages with a contact before contacting them.

#6 – Notes – Nimble allows you to take notes inside a contact and time stamps it with date and time. Whenever I talk with a contact, I keep the notes field open and log specifics about the conversation.

#7 – Shared Connections – This feature is similar to what Linkedin offers but it pulls from several platforms. Identifying shared connections could be the difference between making a new connection or not. Very valuable feature.

#8 – Daily Digest – This is another feature Nimble offers that is similar to Linkedin’s daily update, but it pulls intelligence from several social platforms and even suggests engagement opportunities. I get this information every morning and it is a quick, easy way to find opportunities for engagement I otherwise would have never found.

#9 – Stay in Touch – By clicking the contacts tab, I can search all contacts by people, company, recently viewed, recently added and even recently contacted. Each contact displayed in the search results tells me the last time I touched that contact.

#10 – Deals – Nimble allows me to manage active deals and view won and lost deals. Inside each deal I can view related notes and gain intelligence on each contact that may be involved in that particular deal. Clicking on a contact displayed in a deal, I can then view who they are talking to in the social streams, shared connections and other information that could be a differentiator in making a sale.

Magical

Let’s say I just got off the phone with a potential client, who happens to be a national mortgage lender. Below is how I load a new contact into Nimble SCRM and learn valuable information quickly and painlessly.

Step 1) – ADD CONTACT -

The more data you have on a person, obviously the stronger a contacts profile will be, but many times all I really need to get a good snapshot is First Name, Last Name and Email. Next I select continue editing and enter phone number, any social account handles, company name and tags. For example, the prospect described above I would tag “mortgage” , “prospect” , “national acct”  or maybe even tag them by a hashtag or group.

Step 2) – SOCIAL PROFILE MATCHES -

Now I focus on Social Profile matches at the top right of my screen and add each social account of that particular contact.

Next I take notice to our Shared Connections. I might even click on some of those shared connections to see if there is any other intelligence I may find.

Finally I check out my new contacts social stream. At this point, I can clearly see who my new contact/prospect is talking with in the social streams, where they are talking and what they are talking about. Clicking through my contacts social streams, I also have the ability to follow and import people my new contact is engaging with and identify how influential they may be by viewing number of followers, Klout score and the social streams they engage in….which in turn would be the social streams I may want to engage in.

THAT’S IT -

You can clearly see adding a new contact in Nimble does not just provide a home for a name, email address and contact number. Nimble is also a very powerful listening tool, data mining tags and social streams and providing large amounts of intelligence about a contact.

To get started using Nimble today – click here

I use Nimble everyday. If you have specific questions, give me a call directly – 301-637-2200

Description: 

“Real”ationships in Real Estate

I recently had the fortune of speaking on a panel regarding Real Estate and Social Media in Montreal. The tone of the panel was suggesting the “basics” of engaging online are often overlooked by personal brands. Simple and easy to understand examples of social media strategy are explained.

Getting started:

So many companies use snap decisions and shop by job cost when building a website. Understanding the elements that make up a website, including what name the URL is being registered in, will prevent you from making irreversable and all too classic website build blunders.

In the past few months I have come across several clients who have reached out to me for web design services. These clients already had a URL (Domain Name) and simply wanted their website updated with a modern looking design, social integration and current applications. I do my design work on a development server where clients request changes in order to keep their current website up and running. Once a website project has been approved I upload the new design to their current domain or to their new hosting platform.

This is the point where recent dilemmas have appeared. When my clients had their previous web design / web maintenance shop create their current site, I assume the dialogue went something like this -

“Hey Mr Client, this is Billy Bob’s web design company and we think that this domain name would fit your company just right”
- or –
“Mr. Billy Bob web design company, I really like this domain name, could you see if it is available and purchase it for me please? “

Sound familiar? – I hope not!

What happened was these Mr Billy Bob web design shops did in fact purchase the clients domain, but on their behalf they decided to register the URL in their design firms name. When my clients decided to take their hosting plan elsewhere, a dark secret emerged. They did not own the URL that they called home for years. Their old website shop did in fact purchase the URL for my clients, but they also registered it in their name, which by all legal terms means that the web design firm owns the domain name, not the client.

Sure these web shops were willing to lose a client, but they were going to charge them hundreds of dollars in premiums to take their beloved domain name with them. Learn from these mistakes people …. During your next web design project, ask your design team what name they plan on registering the ned URL in. Better yet, set up an account with a company like godaddy and purchase the URL yourself. This way you will be the one controlling the shots.

I have been living in the social streams 24/7 for the past 2+ years.

Wanna chat with someone who eats, sleeps and breathes this stuff?

Social Media is about sharing and giving…        it’s about you, you, you and not me, me, me….    it’s about saying “hi”, “hello” and “thank you”…

LINK DROPPERS -

Most everyone who reads this content is currently engaging in some type of online community be it facebook, a linkedin group, twitter, a review site or a favorite blog or forum to name a few examples. Online communities, also referred to as ‘digital tribes’, are made up of passionate followers of a brand, service or cause and trust me when I tell you, they put their heart and sole into the cause. As digital tribes grow larger and mature, the bond between tribe members strengthens. I have seen this first hand many times over the past several years. Digital tribes become very protective of their own and although many open group online communities are inviting to everyone, true engagement in the communities social stream is how you really earn your respect.

The Link Dropper:

We have all seen the Link Dropper, you know, the person with no profile picture (usually they are an egg) or maybe even an eye catching icon. Link Droppers are what I call hit and run specialists. They do not attempt to participate in group discussions and never engage with group members. Yet they have a strong presence shamelessly self promoting their brand or service down countless consumers facebook walls and twitter feeds or maybe even hijacking a Linkedin group with repeated discussion posts in an attempt to dominate the real estate in the stream.

What is exactly does a Link Dropper do?:

Here is an example – I am a strong advocate of Linkedin groups, having started over 50 of them myself, and am pretty sure you must be a member of at least a few. Group topics can be highly defined and have a very tight halo they focus on. Highly targeted spammers get this too. Consider a group focused on raising money for Non-Profits. Let’s also say this particular group is very engaging and has multiple discussions going on at the same time, many different members commenting on an assortment of discussions, all for the common good of the group. Along comes the Link Dropper who creates a compelling headline with not much content but rather something like this :

5 Secrets to Raising Money for Non-Profits  -  Click Here

It’s that – click here – where the problem lies. Those ‘click here‘ links land on their website and allow cookies to be planted, browsing history to be analyzed, data to be mined and house sexy data capture forms disguised as free offers. Straight up shameless self promotion in a online community disguised as a compelling offer. Sheer infiltration…

Another Example:

I am a strong believer that growing your followers, friends and contacts exponentially grows your true reach. In other words, I accept just about all connection invitations until someone proves me wrong. I understand the power of  true reach and how a disruptive topic can spread like wild fire. Common link droppers on my facebook wall are real estate agents. I might have friended an agent because they were a friend of a friend, had written an interesting post or a myriad of other reasons. You know what I’m talking about. The ones that stream properties for sale down your facebook wall relentlessly on a daily basis.

Excuse me – I dont even know your name! - #Unfriend

The next time you post content on the web, take a step back and ask yourself -

Am I offering up valuable content that my audience will find useful or am I just really trying to make a sale?

Let’s begin with this presumption…

Social Media and Customer Service go hand in hand.

Social Media is not just Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest or any of the other gazillion online platforms where people engage with one another. Social Media is very much a platform where consumers turn to comment, review and critique In Real Life (IRL) experiences with brands products and services. If they love you, consumers are priceless. If your service or product sucks and they hate you with a passion – Look Out! Things may become very disruptive.

No longer does a killer website and slick marketing grow sales by itself. In today’s marketplace, regardless of your product or service, online review sites are a starting point for many purchase decisions.

What does this mean to you?

It’s very simple. Your product or service cannot suck. Every customer experience… every customer touch… from the very beginning to the very end (must it really ever end?) should exceed expectations. Consumers know the power of a negative or a positive review online and often contribute to review sites when they experience exceptional or horrible service or if the product flat out sucks. Quite often, simply average service goes unnoticed.

So what does this all really mean?

The entire customer experience has the potential to crowdsource from loyal followers who love your stuff and help a brand grow legs or could force a brand into a major damage control mode or even worse, kill a brand. Eliminating bad social stream reviews and sentiment is a time consuming process that is always painful and extremely necessary at all costs. Can you imagine the price you would have to pay for damage control if there was chatter in multiple social streams that your brand ‘sucks’ and your ratings stink on major review sites? … could prove devastating…

How bout an example?

Glad you asked…. Yesterday I went to a well known supermarket on the way home to pick up some dog food. That was the only item in my purchase. The cashier said “It will be $24.99″. The price on the shelf said it was on sale for $19.99, which is a nice savings. I had yet to pay for this item and when I advised the cashier the item scanned incorrectly he said, “yeah, it’s happened before, after you pay me, just go to the manager and he will issues you a refund”. I had yet to pay! I told him to fix it at the register. There was a line forming behind me and the cashier was refusing to correct the mistake at the register. Get this – it’s the second time it’s happened to me at this store. With the same cashier!

I did not go to the manager, I paid the extra $5.00 and left the store. Hold that thought….

Big deal, you got mad…

Living in the social streams for the last 3 years pretty much 24/7 I have developed a tight following of people I engage with every day. The number of engaged people who are connected to my engaged people (actual engagement matters) is what’s called my ‘true reach’ or in other words, numbers of eyeballs that could potentially read any review or comments I post about my shopping experience described above. Understanding the amount of true reach and influence I carry in the social streams forces me to give some deep thought regarding posting anything negative in the social streams. And let me tell you, I was steaming pissed off at that cashier. - ready to Disrupt.

Could there be a possibility my negative post may spark others with similar negative sentiment about that grocery store and trigger a stream of comments on social platforms such as Facebook, further bringing to the public other shortcomings at that store? – Disruption  ….wonder if the store knows that?

It can work the other way too…

The latest social platform craze is Pinterest . Yesterday on twitter several of us were discussing Gentlemint , which is supposed to be a men’s version of Pinterest. A few people in the conversation were commenting on how long the ‘invite code’ from Gentlemint was taking. I decided to google ‘gentlemint’ and the first result was Chris Brogan (highly influential social media guy) stating how cool the site was. So I tweeted, “I wonder how long Chris Brogan waited for his gentlemint ‘invite’. He responded within a few minutes to my tweet “quite a while”.

Chris Brogan has so much influence he can single handily disrupt enough traffic to a site to get it trending. The props he gave gentlemint in the social streams and the fact that his name was prominent in the google searches is priceless. How gentlemint responds to the negative sentiment from brogan and many others in the social streams regarding slow invites remains to be seen. If gentlemint is using social media monitoring tools, is actively listening for mention and chatter and reaches out and touches those in the social streams, addressing their concerns, it could be a huge win for them. If not, they could be another flash in the day of our ever evolving social media world.

Lesson to be learned -  don’t suck… everyone matters, no matter how influential or engaged they are, everyone matters!

Word of the Day – DISRUPTION