What is your favorite social relationship manager?

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There are a slew of social relationship managers that have been released in the past year and the space is really heating up.

There’s Gist, here’s CEO T.A. McCann talking about it in front of the Google IO conference.

But there’s Xobni, Rapportive, eTacts, and others.

I’m trying them all.

So far Gist is my favorite. Why? Because of its completeness of information about other people it brings into my view and because of its web centricity. Xobni is nice if you use Outlook, for instance, but I don’t use that anymore.

Rapportive is nice because it works on regular old Gmail. Gist just shipped support for Gmail, but only if you are using Google Apps. I don’t use that either.

But which one is your favorite? Have you considered using a relationship manager? They aren’t for everyone, but if you need to keep up to date on a large number of people, which usually means executives, PR people, or salespeople, then these things are really great. It’s interesting that everyday Gist sends me an email and presents information about the people I’m emailing with the most. That often lets me learn about people in a new way that I miss on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

For instance, you can see my public profile on Gist and get an idea of the kinds of things it presents about the people in your life. Now, imagine you were headed to a meeting with a VC, or trying to sell something. Wouldn’t having all this data about that person be useful? Also, Gist has a nice iPhone app that shows you info and it just got an update today that lets you import your iPhone’s contacts.

By the way, I’ve created a Twitter list of “weapons for entrepreneurs” like these and other tools, people, and services that help entrepreneurs do their jobs better. Why aren’t you following that?

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Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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11 thoughts on “What is your favorite social relationship manager?”

  1. Gist, because it gives you all the information of your contacts, not only the e-mails one's, The Twitter abd Facebook contacts are listed as well.

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  2. Gist seems good, but as you said it's only for Google Apps. I do have a Google Apps account, but all my contacts and emails are on a regular Gmail account, so I am using Rapportive and it works fine.

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  3. It works with regular Gmail, just doesn't display on Gmail the way Rapportive does. But Rapportive doesn't give you nearly as much information as Gist does. I hope Gist shows up on regular old Gmail soon.

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  5. I'm a big Gist fan. A friend recommended them and then I had TA on my show to chat about why he created it and how he uses his own product (always good to hear). Plus, they have very solid customer service. They respond quickly and respond to positives, negatives, etc. The key to success, in my opinion, is simplicity. The idea is there: Integrate everything to one spot and being able to rank on relevance. Sweet. The easier they make it for folks to get all their information in and organized, the better IMHO.What I love it for is a few things. One to mention here is before meetings. It is easy just to type in someone's name and get a lot of information in one easy snapshot. How is there is business doing? Any big news? Perhaps it is their birthday…etc.

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  6. The first thing Gist did when I logged in was ask for my Google password – no way they are going to get that for any reason.. ever.It is the key to my business, or it could be looked on as my achilles heelI don't give the password to any site not owned by Google, and I change the password frequently.The silly thing is they manage to access Google contacts by API later on in the process

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  8. I too am a huge Gist fan. It's been a sort of zen experience. Like I wish it to be and thus, it is. What more could anyone ask for… I'm anxious to see if they can deliver my next wish on my never ending wish list… hummm.. yes, we are connected and it is good.

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  9. Robert -Thanks for the interview with T.A.! It's true that the Gist Gadget is not yet available for regular old Gmail. However, Google's made it really easy to transfer an existing domain to Google Apps for Domains at no cost or start a domain at low cost ($10/year). Here are some details: http://blog.gist.com/2010/05/22/want-the-gist-g… If anyone reading this requires extra care and attention, simply send us a mail at feedback@gist.com and we'll help you out.Regards,Greg MeyerCustomer Experience Manager, Gist

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  10. Andy -Thanks for your feedback. The Gist Gadget uses oAuth to connect to Gmail when in a Google Apps for Domains setup, and soon, Gist will support this oAuth connection for all Gmail connections. Google recently made this ability available and we're working to implement this now.Regards,Greg

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  11. Been using etacts for now, like Gist's setup, but maybe I'm missing something…Really like how I can set “reminders” w/in etacts to follow up with someone once a month, quarter, year, etc…can that be done in Gist as well?

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