Each week, whether it’s during #toolschat (a fun Twitter chat on Wed. at 10 pm ET) or through my own web surfing, I learn about new tools that are always great to use. Here are a few online tools I think you should certainly look into.
This is a great social CRM tool to have for your Gmail. When you email someone and are composing your message, you will see this picture (left) on the right side of the email of the person you are emailing. Rapportive provides an image of the person behind the email address, location and what they do. It also shows links to their social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn. If you hover over the icons for the social networks it will show the most recent posts too. What I like best is that it makes the email feel more personal. Seeing the face of the person I am emailing creates a whole different feel to the process. A valuable relationship management tool I believe you will find useful in your career.
I first learned about Embedly in a blog post from the great Jeff Bullas. It is a great resource and time saver when scrolling through your Twitter stream. It allows you full media previews of tweets with links. Click the tweet and it will open up and show a snippet of an article, video or image. Being able to read the first paragraph or two of an article, without having to click to view the entire page in a new window, is a great option to have available. Note, I believe it only works as a Chrome extension.
If you’re a job hunter, like myself, then you NEED to be using this bookmarklet! I recently came across this site in an article on Mashable and boy am I glad I did. The main goal for Huntsy is to keep your job hunt organized. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had 20 or more tabs opened on my browser at once because I didn’t want to lose that job listing. First, you have to download the bookmarklet or Chrome extension for your browser. When you begin searching for jobs and come to a position you want to apply for, click the Huntsy tab and a small screen will slide down on your page and fill in the appropriate boxes provided, which include company, title and job description — by extracting it from the position listed. When you are in the dashboard you have options to schedule events like interviews or set reminders as well. For more a more in-depth look at Huntsy, click the link to the article from Mashable (above) or download the extension and toy with the options. This is a highly recommended tool for anyone in the job hunt or professional keeping their options open.
Pocket is one of my favorite new Chrome extensions. Whether you’re surfing the web or clicking on, and loading up, numerous articles from your Twitter stream, it never fails where I have too many articles to read and not enough time. Formerly “Read It Later”, Pocket is a superb bookmarking tool to help save time and can also be used as an extension for Twitter. Actually, Pocket is integrated in over 300 apps. When you are viewing an article you want to read later, click the Pocket bookmarklet and a screen will pop down to let you know it is saved. It will also give you the option for tags to sort through saved articles. To read articles you’ve saved, go to GetPocket.com and click on “My List”. The image below is an example of what I have in my Pocket at the moment, I can’t wait to finally read them!
Of the five tools listed, Crowdbooster is by far my favorite. Although this isn’t something new, I just started using it recently. Crowdbooster is a social media analytics dashboard that provides stats and recommendations for Twitter and Facebook accounts. Some of the things measured include followers, tweets, mentions and retweets for Twitter as well as fans, comments, mentions and likes for your Facebook page. There are graphs and tables to provide input during certain dates as well. You will find graphs and tables for follower growth, impressions, top retweeters and engagement for each post. This allows you to tailor your content for your fans to maximize engagement. The free version allows you to manage three accounts at once. I’m new to this platform so I haven’t been able to fully utilize all the features available.
If there are things I have missed, other great tools you know about or feel like offering your thoughts on tools reviewed please feel free to comment below. I appreciate all feedback!
