For many people, keeping all of your business and personal contacts organized is a drag – the process can be monotonous, time-consuming and frustrating. We, at SocialGrow, feel that maintaining an online contact management system does not have to be that way. We will show you how to make the process of building and maintaining your contact databases more efficient and less time-consuming.  Once built, you will have your contacts organized in order to be able to both leverage your network effectively and be able to systematically grow and improve it.



Getting your contacts organized starts with the goal of creating a master contact list. To do this, you will need to export the contact databases from your email programs and social networking accounts. Eventually, we will merge all of these export databases into Excel or Google Docs so you will have one spreadsheet of all your contacts. There are two good reasons to do this exercise. First, a complete contact list gives you comprehensive view of your relationships so you can begin to categorize and rank your contacts. Second, the list provides an essential backup of your contacts.



While exporting your data from a web service is typically a straightforward process, recent developments have made this exercise more difficult on some web sites. Over the past month, Google and Facebook have been debating policies regarding the export of user information. Google has always been about “open access,” while Facebook has chosen to continue to restrict the exporting of certain user data. This dispute is far from over and is one we should all pay attention to – learn more about it at these links:



• Google Warns Facebook Users of “Trap” Before Data Export
• Google to Facebook: You Can’t Import Our User Data without Reciprocity
• Give Us Our Data, Facebook


Here is the process to export your contacts from the top email programs and social networking services.



Facebook

While Facebook allows you to download your Facebook content, your Facebook export will not include your friends’ email addresses. As a workaround, Lifehacker has put together an effective trick using the Yahoo Address Book to export your contacts.



Gmail

Go to Gmail and click on Contacts. Choose More Options. Before you export, choose merge contacts first. Choose Export. Choose All Contacts and Google Export.



LinkedIn

After logging into LinkedIn, go to Contacts and then My Connections. At the bottom right side of the page, you will see Export Connections. From the next screen, you can download a CSV spreadsheet file.



Outlook

Open Outlook and go to File. Choose export, export to file. Create an Excel 98-2003 File. Choose Contacts as the export folder. Click Browse and give the file a name. Your export will download to a CSV file. If you choose Map Custom Fields, you can choose Default Map or select certain fields. To ensure you download all fields choose Clear Map and then Default Map. Name the file and click Export.



Twitter

Sign into MyTweeple using your Twitter credentials. Synchronize your account and choose Tools. Choose Export into a CSV.



Yahoo

Go to Yahoo Address Book. Click on View All Contacts and choose Tools. Choose Export and Choose Yahoo! CSV.



Unless you have another web service with your contacts, that is it – now you are ready for the next step to merge your contact databases together into one spreadsheet, which we will cover in the next post in the SocialGrow Content Series on Social Networking and Online Contact Management. In the meantime, let us know how these contact management tips worked out for you or if you have any suggestions on how to improve the contact database export processes.



My friends all know this of course. It’s not like it’s something you can hide really, especially when you help people to grow their social networks and to make better use of social media.



I received an e-mail this week from my friend Tim out in Phoenix. Wave “Hi” Tim, you’re about to be internet-famous. Tim and I went to B-school together, and he is in the process of closing down an e-commerce website. Knowing many of you have similar questions about social media, I asked Tim if he’d let me share my response back to him with you by blogging it. He said “yes” by the way. I always knew he wanted to be internet-famous.



Ken,



-Tim



Hey Tim,



You will no doubt be thrilled to hear that you do *not* have to relocate your family from sunny Phoenix to rural Montana. Most people have now heard the buzz about social media, and many have tried it for themselves, but are not (yet!) seeing the results they want.



Results are the right place to start. As a form of communications, the first question to ask — if you are using social media for anything other than entertainment — is “What do I want to achieve?” Take the time to identify what it is, specifically, that you want to achieve. Increase your revenues? Reduce your costs? Get new customers? Find a date for your sister’s wedding?



I read five questions (cries for help?) in your e-mail Tim. I will address each of them in order:



1. Why is social media important?

Social media is important — and I am defining “important” here as an effective strategy for individuals and organizations to achieve their objectives — because it makes it fast, easy, and [in most cases] FREE for you to create and share content.



For example, with traditional (”paid”) media, you purchase print, website, radio, TV, and/or billboard space, and then you pay someone else to articulate the value of your particular product/service in a compelling way to catch peoples’ attention — all in the hopes of persuading people to buy. With social (”earned”) media, you are no longer in direct sales (”BUY MY STUFF!”) mode. Instead, you are engaging your target audience by freely sharing the value of your expertise with people who are interested in it. And yes, along the way, you are letting it be known that your products and services are available for purchase. Earned media is not a magic cure-all, but an effective addition, and booster, to your existing marketing mix of paid and owned media.



2. What is the value of Twitter?

One of the values of Twitter is that it is a powerful lead generator. Each and every 140-character SEO-rich tweet is indexed by Google in almost real-time, getting you and your content on the first page of Google’s search results.



3. What is the value of Fousquare?

One of the values of Foursquare is that it enables you connect more frequently with your network live and in-person. When I worked for Realogy, our building had a central staircase between the first and second floors that everyone used. Arguably, more business was done on that staircase than in the rest of the building combined, because it facilitated people running into each other. Likewise, Foursquare exponentially increases the opportunities for you to “run into” the people you know.



4. What is the value of Facebook?

One of the values of Facebook is that it enables you to reconnect with people from your different schools, companies, and organizations. The personal and professional possibilities multiply when you are able to more easily stay in touch with the people you know.



5. What is the value of LinkedIn?

One of the values of LinkedIn is the ability to identify and connect with people you want to reach through “friends of friends”. Because of its near ubiquity among business professionals, it also enables real-time access to first-hand information about your customers, suppliers, employers, and employees.



You’re already following me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/socialgrow), connected with me on Foursquare (http://foursquare.com/user/kenherron), have friended me on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/kenherron.fb), and connected with me on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenherron). So what is it that YOU want to achieve with social media?



-Ken



SocialGrow Blog Readers: Do *you* have social media advice that you would like to share with Tim? Please feel free to include your recommendations in the comments section below, both on the importance of social media, and how he should be using Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, and LinkedIn.



Boston, MA. — February 26, 2010 — SocialGrow Inc., a Microsoft BizSpark program member, today announced that it has launched the alpha release of its patents-pending SocialGrow Application at http://socialgrow.com. The SocialGrow Application automates the search and connection processes across multiple professional and personal social networks. The SocialGrow Application also helps social networks around the world to accelerate their membership growth. At launch, the SocialGrow Application is compatible with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace, with additional global and regional social networks being added throughout the month of March.



“By automating the process of inviting people to join users’ social networks, SocialGrow makes it easier to connect with people you don’t know and faster to connect with people you do,” said Marsh Sutherland, President of SocialGrow. “Facebook and LinkedIn users know the larger their relevant networks, the more people their professional and personal messages will reach.”



“SocialGrow simply allows Rec.fm to grow our customer base faster,” said John Appler, President of social recommendations website and 2010 SXSW Web Awards Finalist Rec.fm (http://rec.fm/video). “By quickly expanding the number of users creating and using our ‘high fidelity’ product recommendations, SocialGrow has also accelerated our revenue growth. We are very fortunate to be their first business customer.”



SocialGrow was recently named Microsoft BizSpark’s most promising “Start-Up of the Day”, and selected by MassHighTech (The Journal of New England Technology) as one of their “Five Start-Ups To Watch.” Additionally, SocialGrow’s Chief Marketing Officer Ken Herron was named one of the “Top 5 Chief Marketing Officers on Twitter” by Systemic Marketing for his use of Twitter on @SocialGrow (http://twitter.com/socialgrow).



Twitter-Friendly Quotes



Microsoft BizSpark @SocialGrow today announced the launch of the Alpha release of its software application at http://socialgrow.com.



“We make it easier to connect w/people you don’t know & faster to connect w/people you do” – @SocialGrow President @marshsutherland.



“@SocialGrow allows @recfm to grow our customer base faster” – @SocialGrow business customer and @recfm President @johnappler.



About SocialGrow



SocialGrow Inc. is a global social networking software, consulting, and professional services company. SocialGrow’s flagship software application helps individuals, small businesses, corporate enterprises, government agencies, academic organizations, and non-profit associations around the world to more quickly and easily grow their social networks. SocialGrow was founded in July 2009 by Marsh Sutherland, Ken Herron, and Charbel Elkhoury. SocialGrow’s mission is to help people realize the value of social networks. For more information, please visit the SocialGrow website at: http://socialgrow.com, and follow SocialGrow on Twitter at @SocialGrow (http://twitter.com/socialgrow).

Regardless of the state of the economy in general, or your local job market in particular, “the larger your network, the faster you will find a job.”  We have all heard this truism before, but did you know that the same rule also applies to your professional online social networks?  The more people you have in your professional online social networks, the faster you will find your next job.



Whether you’re a beginner just sitting down to create your profile on http://linkedin.com for the very first time, or a seasoned veteran with a dozen profiles on different mainstream and niche sites, here are six things you should do to leverage your professional online social networks to more quickly find your next job:



1.  Ask your http://linkedin.com connections who work for each of your target companies to write a recommendation for you.  Your connections may respond to your requests more quickly, if you first write a recommendation for them.



2.  When you submit your cover letter and resume on an internet job posting, send messages to your connections within the company to help you identify the hiring manager or HR contact.  Job postings on http://simplyhired.com and http://linkedin.com have this feature built-in, but you can do this for a job ad on any website where the company is named.



3.  Write a brief note introducing yourself to the hiring manager or HR contact letting them know you submitted for the job, and ask one of your connections within the company to forward it to him/her for you.



4.  If you are not able to reach out directly to the hiring manager or HR contact through one of your connections on http://linkedin.com, check to see which groups they belong to and join that particular group.  Most group members allow other members of the group to message them directly.  Also, joining relevant professional groups on http://linkedin.com, such as http://WebExecutives.org, is one more opportunity for you to expand your professional network.  Alternately, you can send the hiring manager or HR contact a LinkedIn InMail(TM).



5.  A heads up that if a contingency recruiter or their agency has already submitted you to the company as a candidate *or* if you submitted for the job on a recruiting agency’s own website, you should NOT contact the company’s hiring manager or HR contact directly, as it creates a serious conflict of interest which could get you ejected from the candidate review process.  Don’t miss out on job opportunities, or alienate recruiters and their agencies.



6.  Finally, be sure to use the SocialGrow web and mobile phone software application when it is released, to easily grow your connections on all of your professional and personal online social networks!



The “new normal” is that most of us will have more employers in our lifetime than did our parents, which means your next employer will likely not be your last employer.  Continuing to nurture and grow your online professional social networks, even after you have found your dream job, will accelerate your career growth for years to come!



- Marsh (President)