BatchBlue Software was kind enough to give me a big sized account to try out managing my contacts with their BatchBook product. They let me do five things, if I’m so inclined: manage contacts, keep track of my communications, slice my contacts into lists (remember this one), manage to-do lists, and use their SuperTags to build small custom databases of meta information around my contacts. All of that is relatively neato, and something that lots of us aren’t especially doing well today (how many of you use a spreadsheet somewhere to track your important conversations?)

I should state that I know Michelle Riggen-Ransom (marketing goddess) and Adam Darowski (UX prince) through meetings at various social events, like SXSW, the occasional Tweet-up, etc. When you know the people who make the things you’re using, there’s a whole sense that everything could be customized or something. When I talk to Mario Sundar at LinkedIn, I feel the same kind of thing: like they care about their user base. Well, with BatchBlue, they are passionate about their customer base.

Things I Like

In the fun category, I like the little touches they’ve thrown in. I went to upload my latest LinkedIn database into BatchBook and combine it with my Gmail accounts. That ends up being around 6,200 contacts (boiled back down with dupes to 4760). When I uploaded the CSV file, here’s what I got:

Yep, the little touches like that are great.

Because I can tag things lots of ways, it means I can sort them lots of ways:

I further like that I can upload pictures for contacts, should I want a visual reminder of who they are:

But what’s coolest is the list feature.

Messaging Distinct Sets of People

Here’s where BatchBlue does something that most of my contact systems do not. Plaxo shares a lot of features with BatchBook, and it has one over on BatchBook insofar as user data on there updates when the other contacts change their information. Meaning, if you’re connected to someone on Plaxo, and that someone changes jobs, phone numbers, email addresses, your files are updated right away. Okay, cool.

Try messaging more than one person on Plaxo. Ditto LinkedIn. Ditto Facebook.

Grueling.

BatchBook has lists. For every one of the tags you assign a contact, you can sort those tags into lists, then download those lists into distinct addressable groups. So, for instance, if I want to email all the people I know who are related to PodCamp, I can. If I want to message everyone in the Boston area, I can. If I want to message people I’ve labeled as “mediamakers,” I can.

That’s the clever bit.

A Quick Note About SuperTags

They also have this feature called Super Tags. Basically, you can add all kinds of other fields and metadata around certain tags, such that you collect even more useful, sortable data on different kinds of contacts. I haven’t dug into that yet, but judging by the way Michelle and Adam talk about it all the time, I suspect that’s a cool feature and that I’m missing out.

In the End

I recommend BatchBook for the list sorting ability, for the tagging and slicing ability, for the Super Tags (though I’m not 100% clever on them yet), and if you have no other form of client relationship management software, this would be a great lightweight tool. I’m not using their todos or several other parts of the software, but that’s okay. I think it’s worth it for what I’m getting. Hey, I’m not a DBA, and this is a whole lot better for me to manage than a spreadsheet.

If you check it out, I’d be interested to know your take.

BatchBlue Software’s BatchBook might be just right for you.

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We are governed by many things in our lives: laws (both natural and those created by man and religion), rules (those things that we abide by to maintain a certain level of order), norms (the way most of society acts, including courtesy and manners), and habits (those things that we’ve ingrained in ourselves for one reason or another. Understanding these things more deeply benefits you more than you can imagine, and I’m not talking about social media today. I’m talking about social norms, the way people act, the way YOU act, and what you can do with this knowledge.

Understanding Which Is Which

First, accept and understand that we follow and break human laws all the time. There are several hundred laws written by many hands, for matters of state as well as those of religious leadership. Do you believe that these laws are all there to protect you? Do you believe that they are in your best interest? The answer is often “yes,” or “most of the time.” That’s how we have a functioning society, and in case you’re wondering if I’m pointing you towards anarchy, I’ll save you some reading. No.

We also have rules and norms, which are less formal than laws, but that also guide our actions. For instance, we don’t yell at other people in a grocery store or an office on balance, because it’s not especially appropriate behavior. But there’s no real “law” against it. And sure, some people yell, but it’s the norm that people do not. Follow?

Habits are a little more tricky. Habits come from repeated practice, and some sense of reward (negative or positive) for the actions we take. Self-esteem (the low kind) is partially a system of habits designed to attempt to protect yourself against negative feelings. It’s a faulty system, but it’s the one lots of people install through establishing a series of habits, because it helps us manage our hurt.

The Only Laws That Can’t Be Broken Are Natural

Most of us, and I’ll presume about 99% of the folks who will read this post, live within a very specific paradigm that goes something like this: try to be polite, nice, healthy, do good work, loving, and earn your rewards. Right? That last part is a lot of where the trick comes in, by the way, so watch for it.

I was once told that police don’t exist to protect people: they exist to protect property and the general order of things. (Pause while I say that I greatly admire our law enforcement professionals, and am grateful for their services.) Most of what we do on an airplane is often called “security theater,” because truly, the act of us removing our shoes will not likely save us from anything. The reason we turn our cell phones off is a lot less likely to be because of a potential signal interference, and much more likely because it’s really annoying to have that many loud conversations in an enclosed space.

There are oh so many times in your life where, if you observe it, you’ll note that “the rules” and the laws and the norms and your habits are skewed towards keeping things in a fairly decent order, without a whole deal of racket, and usually without a lot of potential emotional damage.

Once You Realize You Can Impact a System

When was the last time you broke a law? You don’t have to answer, but I bet the answer is much more likely “yesterday” than it is not. What about the rules? Have you broken those lately? Did you text while driving, or fail to wear your seatbelt for a mile or two? When did you skip out on a norm, like not sending thank-you notes? What happened? What REALLY happened?

I’m not recommending that you go out and become lawless anarchists. I said that earlier. And yet, I am suggesting that you look around yourself at the systems by which you’re allowing your life to be governed. Choose how you will obey the laws you obey. Decide how you will interpret the rules and norms of the society where you live and function. And most of all, explore and evaluate all your existing habits, good and bad, and determine whether they are serving you.

And if you do start making changes to how you’re living, if you do re-evaluate WHY you’re doing the things you do, I wonder where it will take you?

Thoughts ?

–

Photo credit, Jerine

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TripWolf is a social site for travel, loaded with all kinds of goodies, like map mashups, people-recommended sights to see, friends and “trip gurus” to add for specific places, journal/blogs for your travel experiences, and the ability to meet up with other folks as part of your travel experience. I did a reasonably fast pass through the site and found it loaded with all kinds of information and facets that would make your holiday travel plans a little easier.

The other things I noticed that seem cool are Facebook integration, user-added info (kind of wiki style), geo-locative data (codes everything nicely), pictures (and you can upload yours, of course), and maps. Great maps that you can print, actually.

It’s backed by a larger European travel company, but it has a very standalone startup feel to it (the site, at least).

All in all, a decent launch for travel season. What do you think about it?

(I got word of this via a nice email from Jennifer from Tripwolf).

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Forever the thinker, Jeremiah Owyang posted about the future of corporate websites. He cites Kristie Connor and Christopher Smith, who won a contest for their efforts to describe such. It’s a great question. I’d recommend reading Jeremiah’s post and commenting on that, but if you want to talk about it more, it’s a great question.

People Want Information

Not marketing. When I go to Staples.com, it’s because I need a store locator, or the price of a USB drive. I don’t mind being sold potential values and bargains around the information I seek, but I sure don’t want to hear marketing-ese about whatever you think the summer value plan is going to be.

People Want Simple

When I go to GM.com, they give me three easy choices right off the bat: corporate info, vehicle info, and “experience GM,” whatever that is. That’s not bad, because they slot me pretty quickly, but the risk there is that the site is static, and definitely “cold” in color and experience.

People Want Connection

Want the real secret magic? People want to feel “seen.” There are ways to do that. One is something we do all the time on blogs: we comment back. Another is through polite (!!!) use of cookies to remember that you like things set up a certain way when you are visiting.

Further, people would like to connect with the people at an organization, not just through forms and chutes, but in as many ways as they can conceive. Know who does this well? Sun? Go to http://blogs.sun.com, and you’ll see that there are blogs to suit most every taste. That means, there are conversations to be had at lots of levels. Cisco and some other great tech companies are doing it. Are retail or consumer companies ready for this?

What do You Think?

You travel the web all the time. You need information from various companies. You visit sites to buy things, to learn about things, to make decisions. What do you think people want from your site?

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

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