Social Networking Overwhelm, Integrated Social Profiles in Outlook

As challenging as it may be to manage, serious Internet marketing and small business marketing pros know they have to engage in multiple social networks as a part of their web 2.0 marketing strategy.  Managing all the contact information can be challenging, and while there are tools out there that help, I found one that centralizes everything in Outlook.  Your inbox might flip for Xobni (inbox backwards), and you might too.

Social Networking Overwhelm, Integrated Social Profiles in Outlook

What is Xobni?

Xobni is software that runs on top of Outlook.  It makes searching Outlook fast, displays threaded conversations, email analytics, file attachments are much easier to find, you can navigate by contacts in your inbox, extracts phone numbers from emails and social profiles, intelligent calendar scheduling, and offers web services and social network integration.  It currently integrates with LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo Mail, Skype, and Hoovers.

My Experience with Xobni

When I went to download it, I saw these clear notices about it not working with Outlook when configured with caching (Caching allows for offline access for Exchange users).  Bottomline, if you are using Outlook with an Exchange server and have caching enabled don’t install Xobni, otherwise you are good.

After completing the install it had to index my Outlook inbox, this took some time (lots of emails , after that, I was off and running.  I found the interface intuitive and simple docked on the right side of Outlook.  Facebook gives me the most recent status update for a contact, as well as any recent photos, LinkedIn tells me their title, number of connections, both let you click to directly access their social profile.  It also ranks contacts based on volume of communications with them.

Important Update from Xobni (Per Evan’s Comment Below):
Hi guys, I work with Xobni. I just wanted to clarify that Xobni does work with cached exchange mode (or non-cached exchange mode, your choice).
Let me know if you have any questions.

How it Helps Small Business Marketers

It is a time saver.  For those in online marketing, speed of information is just as important as information quality.  I’m finding that centralizing these social networking profiles creates awareness of my connections and this can create more opportunities to connect with them and add value.  I’m in Outlook a lot, and I find this helps me keep contacts top of mind, it also is another data point for information in my market.  The search capabilities are pretty impressive, and very useful if you don’t have everything filed just right in Outlook, and the one-click scheduling feature for contacts is something I’ve not seen before.  I have included a video below which reviews the features in greater depth.

Who is Xobni For?

Anyone who has a Hoovers Online account, Facebook, or LinkedIn social networking profiles, and wants to centralize information to increase your connectedness with contacts should consider Xobni.

Important Update from Hoover’s: Per Adam’s comment below:
Just a quick correction for you: Hoover’s data in Xobni does NOT require a Hoover’s account. It is available free of charge to any Xobni user.

Outlook users who want faster search, easier scheduling, threaded conversations, and nifty email analytics, Xobni does that (and a few other things).  If you are getting started with your online marketing or small business marketing ventures and use Outlook you might want to start out with Xobni sooner than later.

Let’s Talk! Would centralizing social networking contacts benefit your web 2.0 or social marketing strategy? Are you logging into Facebook, LinkedIn, and other services multiple times a day?  Using Xobni?  If so, what do you like most about it?  First time hearing of Xobni?  You going to give it a shot?  Leave your comments here on the blog.

Technorati Tags: Social Marketing, social marketing plan, Social Networking for Business, web 2.0 marketing strategy