Saying "thank you" face to face, praise for a job well done, a thoughtful gift, a handwritten note. These are all ways we build trust in our relationships like we build our bank account with deposits. In our world of social media, "social networks have value," too, which is becoming known as "social capital," as Wikipedia explains. A positive Facebook mention, retweeting a business associate's blog post, congratulating a colleague on LinkedIn for their promotion, and sharing helpful information with a client through the customer community are all ways we make social deposits.
"Personal branding is the key to your professional success, and we believe that your relationships make or break your business success," says Eric Quanstrom, CMO/VP of Marketing and Sales of the leading social relationship management software. "Nimble transforms who you know into how you grow. We built it to smartly manage your relationships in one place. With intelligent context and insights to your contacts, you can be quick, agile, and smart with your relationships."
Criticism, corrective feedback, reprimand, asking for extra favors, canceling plans, or being late are ways we lose trust in our relationships like we withdrawal money from our bank account. Inappropriate posts, berating replies, and overdue responses are some ways we deplete our social capital. Additionally, Wikipedia indicates, "social capital is spent by non-use ('use it or lose it')."
However, Dunbar's number says there's a limit-150 to be exact-to the amount of people with whom we can maintain stable social relationships. How many of your 500-plus LinkedIn connections are being neglected? When was the last time you connected with a particular prospect? Did you remember to share the industry research with her? Nimble is like your personal accountant, helping you manage your relationships and showing you which to invest in, when, and how.
The software that was founded by Jon Ferrara in 2009 unifies your contacts and social engagement. These tools on the platform help you grow and maintain your personal brand in four steps:
1) Identify important contacts in your existing and extended network.
2) Listen to what is being said so you can pinpoint needs and wants.
3) Engage with important contacts and add value with timely and knowledgeable insights.
4) Share content that resonates with your network and adds value to your relationships.
Nimble also helps automate the processes of keeping in touch-when, where, and how it's most effective. The software even makes it possible to manage thousands of contacts with features like:
- Profiling those in your network.
- Staying on top of follow-ups and follow-throughs.
- Having a ready history of past communications.
- Ability to switch streams effortlessly between communications networks without missing a beat.
- Segmenting your network in manageable cohorts.
- Having status and insights of your contacts immediately available.
"In short, Nimble makes it hard to drop a ball, and easy to do the right things at the right time," Quanstrom says. "It gives peace of mind that the most important people, tasks, and communications will reach you in a timely way. And that as you grow your network, smartly, you have the tools to keep pace in a noisy, multi-channel world."
Matt Charney, Managing Editor at RecruitingBlogs.com can attest to all of this. "Nimble combines all my social contacts, emails, and CRM leads in a single, simple, and easy-to-use interface that's completely configurable and customizable," he says. "This means that instead of needing to manually enter or merge contacts or leads, I'm able to work directly in Nimble to add and share leads, notes, and opportunities with the rest of my team while ensuring that I have enhanced visibility and insights into contacts' digital footprint, influence, and the highest-impact engagement opportunities with a single sign-on."
Knowing our financial status is just as important these days as knowing our social relationship status. Who is that? What's their background? What is their relationship to my team or me? What did we talk about when we met? What details are critical to the relationship that I need to know? Actions I can take with them? History of the relationship?
"Nimble is constantly answering these questions and building on this foundation," he says. "You can expect our next featured releases to strengthen and deepen the trust our customers place in us-to help them understand, grow, and manage their relationships effectively."
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Social Startups is a weekly Social Media Today column written by Shay Moser about the newest and most innovative social companies. Look for the next installment next Wednesday morning. Logos by Jesse Wells.