I normally don’t blog twice on one day, but I have the next few weeks of posts already written and need to squeeze this in.  Last weekend we uploaded a number of fixes and enhancements to the website – about 40 of them.  You might have seen some already… here’s one I really wanted to let you know about.

This is our third enhancement to what we call the Email to Log Entry feature.  It is my Number 1 feature in JibberJobber.

We first announced the feature with a 9 minute video, showing you how to create a Log Entry on a contact that already existed in your database.  You can see that announcement and learn more here (from eight months ago).

A month later we announced the important feature that helps you prevent a long email thread going into the Log Entry.  You can put a series of characters in the email, and when the JibberJobber server sees your series of characters, it will not put anything after the string in the Log Entry.  This is a very important feature that allows me to keep my Log Entries from getting big (and, keeps my email signature OUT of the Log Entries.  Learn more here.

Today, I want to announce the next enhancement, which is just awesome.  Here’s the PROBLEM it solves:

In the past (before this enhancement), I would have to add the person to my Contact list, and then I could send an email that would create a Log Entry.

Not a “big” deal, but it was a pain to have to go to JibberJobber and create a new record BEFORE you could send an email to create the Log Entry.

Now, you can send an email to your special Email to Log Entry address (see this video if you don’t know what I’m talking about), and if the person isn’t in your Contact List, it will be added!! And, the email will be added as a Log Entry!

This is HUGE.  It is a major time-savor.

Here’s what you need to know/know:

1. Again, this is a Premium feature.  This alone makes the $9.95/month worth it (so I’ve been told :p)
2. By default, this feature is turned off.  We don’t want you to accidentally create new Contact records without you knowing about it, so you have to turn the feature on.  Click on My Account, then go to Preferences, and then check the box that says this:



3. Here’s the most important thing… the FORMAT of your email needs to be one of these two:”First Name Last Name” <email@address.com>OR”Last Name, First Name” <email@address.com>So, you need to have:ONE: The first and last names IN QUOTES.  If there is a comma, then we think the last name is first, and the first name is after the comma.  If there is no comma, we think everything before the space is the first name and everything after the space is the last name.  Take out acronyms and all the other junk that can end up there to keep it clean

   TWO: The email address, in the <brackets>.

There you go.  Enjoy this super awesome feature of JibberJobber!

I have used this feature multiple times in the last day as I have found new contacts and prospects, and saved TIME with this feature… AWESOME!

If you haven’t upgraded yet, click here to see the best upgrade options.

JibberJobber is a relationship management tool.

In Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi said something to the effective of “it’s not enough to collect names and number (and email addresses), we should know how strong the relationship is with our contacts.”

He suggested a system where you rank each contact as an A contact, a B contact, or a C contact.  In JibberJobber we have a 0 through 5 star ranking system.

Debbie (who I saw has logged in more than 1,000 times – congratulations Debbie!!) asks this question:

There are the stars for rating the strength of relationship. One time you shared your one star criteria” room for improvement and want to move it forward”. Can you share your criteria for the other stars?

Right under the star section on the add/edit page (of Contacts) there is a link that says “Click Here for more info on this.”  When you click that link it shows you this:

First, you must understand that you can use this feature however you want… here is an example of what many networking “experts” suggest.

Imagine you have a friend from school, named Joe, that you’ve kept in touch with for years. You follow eachothers careers, and when you are in town, you get together for dinner or to hang out. This is a person that you trust with anything, and if you were in a bind, they would help you out in any way that they could. This person would get five stars. 

Let’s say that Joe introduces you to a friend of theirs. You can tell that this friend, Sally, has a great deal of respect for Joe, and Joe is highly endorsing you. However, the casual introduction to Sally is brief, and you don’t really have the basis of a good networking relationship. When you enter Sally into your network, you would probably give her two stars. 

Now, let’s say you go to a convention and there is a terrific guest speaker. You introduce yourself after her speech, but so do dozens of other people. You really don’t have any relationship with this person, but you know you want to develop one. Give this person one star. 

Note that the goal is to CULTIVATE the relationships with each person, so just because someone is just a  or a  that isn’t bad. You need to work on your relationship with that person, and their rank will eventually increase.

Now, almost 6 years later, here’s how I use it (mine is totally on a whim, and subject to change… you can use the stars however you want):

0 Stars: If I hear  about you and want to put your name in the system.  If I haven’t met you.  This is so I can get you in my system, but I know I have no relationship and probably have not had any communication with you.

1 Star: If I met you in person, or we have been introduced via email, and I’m not sure if there’s a relationship there, or if we don’t really have something significant to pursue.

2 Stars: If I met you in person and I really want to pursue something… we’ve had a good conversation, even if it was really short, and I think there is something there.

3 Stars: When we’ve had a few conversations, or when I can tell that you are a networker and would value the relationship (ie, if you do me a favor, or are an evangelist, etc.)

4 Stars: When our relationship has moved forward and I feel it is really strong.  This is a great place to be – I am confident that goals align, or that you love what I’m doing and will be a champion/advocate for me, etc.

5 Stars: When our relationship is awesome, and I feel like I can call on you for anything and you’ll respond and help… and that I’d bend over backwards to help you if/when I can.

So that’s how I kind of use it… what do you think?

After I do the user webinar (about twice a month) I have people who say “I uploaded 3k contacts, but now I know I want to do it differently… how do I delete what I have put in?”

Here’s how… it’s fairly easy, and deleting the 3k will take just a few minutes once you get this down:

From August 13, 2009: How to Delete All of Your (JibberJobber) Contacts

My customer service team bcc’s me on their responses to customer questions, so I can stay in the loop on what people are hung up on, and what suggestions they have.

J.L. asked a question I’ve seen a number of times before, which is:

How do I see JUST the open jobs I’m tracking, instead of all of the jobs I have in the system?

On the Job List Panel we show you everything.

But if you want to see just the open jobs, simple search for status:open, like this:

Then, click the search icon, which is the magnifying glass by the red #1.

To CLEAR a saved search, click on the broom icon, which is by the number 2.

Notice on the right there is a PLAY button, to show a video of how this all works…

Cool, huh?

I am a nut for job journals.  When I speak I tell job seekers to take an entire day, go somewhere quiet (mountain?), and brainstorm past accomplishments.

I think, for multiple reasons, this is more important than spending all day on the computer.

Get away, document and brainstorm, and remember the great things you’ve ever done in your career.

Steve Levy, a recruiter in New York, recently tweeted this:

Then he followed up with this:

In JibberJobber we have a place where you can put these emails, transcribed kudos, reports, etc.  and store them.

It’s all about CAREER MANAGEMENT.

Collecting this stuff helps you define your brand, and craft stories to communicate what you’ve done and why you are awesome.

As Steve says, “you don’t think you can remember all of these?”

You absolutely won’t remember all of them, especially when it most matters (in a networking setting, or in an interview).

That’s the premise of my most commented post, Depression Clouds Everything.  The idea is that when your emotions get in the way, you get clouded, and can’t recall why you are awesome, or that you’ve ever done anything good in your career.

You might not use all of the stories, but just having them could really help you communicate much better, because stories back up what you say about yourself.

To get this in JibberJobber, login and then go to TOOLS, then Job Journal:

Seriously – take the time to do it and you’ll reap the benefits for many years to come!

This is a guest post from Tom Clifford. Read more about Tom below, at the end of his post. Tom has been a long-time friend and heavy user of JibberJobber, having logged into his account more than 850 times. I sincerely appreciated this unsolicited post — you know I hardly, rarely do guest posts, but I was so flattered that Tom wrote this… here ya go!

Let’s do something really crazy.

Let’s not keep track of anyone you meet.

For added measure, let’s ignore who you know, how you know them, what you did for
them and so on.

What do you think will happen over time?

Like a bucket with a hole in it, details about each person will drain out of your memory.

Of course, there’s a simple solution to this: Find a way to plug the leak.

Plug the leak, and you won’t have to worry about remembering everything.

But how do you plug the leak? By having a “net” for your network.

Why bother having a “net” for your network?

Having a “net” when you’re networking helps you “catch” (or remember) the people you
meet over time. Remembering so many people over so many years just isn’t possible for
the brain to do, right? What happens when you don’t have a “net”?

If you don’t have a “net” that “catches” this valuable information, someday you’ll
wake up and find your networking efforts in shambles. To help pull the pieces of your
networking puzzle together, you need a simple, yet powerful, networking system.

What’s a networking system?

A networking system is a way to give structure, organization and meaning to all the
people you meet throughout your career.

Having a networking system is more than just collecting names, phone numbers and
email addresses. It’s a system to help you move your career forward by making it easy
for you to manage your relationships—while still being flexible to your needs.

What does an effective networking system look like?

Here are a few key ingredients that make a (nearly perfect) networking system:

• Keeps track of critical ideas people shared with you
• Knows the people your network referred you to
• Tracks documents you sent to each person
• Creates and stores your various elevator pitches
• Sets personal goals and tracks the progress of key relationships
• Sorts and prints information numerous ways

You get the idea. You need a system for organizing, managing and keeping track of your
network for the long haul.

Unhappy with the networking systems that existed, Jason Alba created his own “net” and
networking system. He called it “JibberJobber.”

JibberJobber?

Yup. JibberJobber.

JibberJobber is a web-based “personal relationship manager.” JibberJobber is a complete
networking management system to help you keep track of everyone you meet.

Think of JibberJobber as your “one-stop relationship manager.” It not only holds all the
information related to your connections, but it is also a system featuring unique tools that
you can easily customize to deepen certain relationships critical to your own career path.

Cool, huh?

Can your networking system do that?

Sure, there are a gazillion programs that allow you to enter the names, addresses, emails
and phone numbers of people you meet. But remember: JibberJobber is NOT a contact
management tool.

JibberJobber is a relationship management tool.

It ties all of your relationships together unlike any other system.

If your current networking system has leaks in it, JibberJobber can plug those leaks right
up. With JibberJobber, you won’t miss a beat from any of your networking activities.

Does your system plug your networking leaks?

Plug your networking leaks.

Plugging any potential leaks in your networking efforts is a breeze with JibberJobber.

You probably won’t use all the tools in JibberJobber each time you meet someone, but
here are a few things you can do with it:

• Upload the documents you gave your contacts—resumes, articles, etc.
• Keep track of expenses. Did you incur any expenses meeting someone? If so, you
• can keep track of it in one place.
• Add a networking event.
• Write and revise your 30-Second Pitch. Write several versions of it while you’re
• at it!
• Enter your answers to questions people frequently ask you (that way, you can
• always review the answers before an important sales call, etc.).
• Scan the Article Library for new or interesting articles related to various aspects
• of career development.
• Add a book and a short personal review to the Book Library.
• Use the Tree View to see relationships between people.

Not bad for free, right? (Heck, that’s just the beginning of what’s possible.)

Don’t want to bother learning a completely new system?

Learning and using JibberJobber is a breeze. All you have to do to get going is import
your address book into JibberJobber. Once your contacts are loaded, start playing around
with it for a while. You can always keep using your current contact management system
until you become more familiar with JibberJobber’s features. [note from Jason: also, jump on a user webinar, which I do about twice a month]

Can anyone benefit from JibberJobber?

Yes, anyone can benefit from using JibberJobber. It’s a great tool for everybody
who’s serious about managing their careers and their relationships. Job seekers love
JibberJobber because it was initially designed with them in mind, but really, everyone
can benefit from using it.

Sounds like JibberJobber will cost a pretty penny.

What’s the catch? Well, there’s no catch. JibberJobber won’t cost you a penny.
You can get up and running for free with the basic version. If you like the free version,
you can upgrade to the premium levels at any time.

Managing relationships is one of the key secrets to your success.

• Remembering who said what, where, when and why is impossible.
• It’s important to have a “net” to keep track of people you meet over your career.
• A networking system is your “net” to tie all your relationships together in one
• place.
• JibberJobber is your relationship tool to manage all your relationships.
• JibberJobber can plug any potential leaks in your current networking system.
• JibberJobber is a snap to learn—and it’s free.

Want to learn more?

To learn more about JibberJobber, head on over to the website and check out the cool
videos.

—

Thomas Clifford is an award-winning business communicator and blogger. Tom’s copywriting focuses on jargon-free marketing articles, homepages, landing/sales pages, e-books and B2B case studies.

Before copywriting, Tom spent 25 years producing over 500 marketing and branding films (and interviewing more than 1,500 people) as a documentary producer.

You can follow Tom on Twitter at @ThomasClifford. His blog, “Humanizing Business Communications,” is packed with new media business communication tips and writing
strategies.

His e-book “5 (Ridiculously Simple) Ways to Write Faster, Better, Easier” is free to new subscribers.

Some of you have noticed the old “Manage Columns” link is now gone… and there’s a new icon in its place:

When you are on your List Panel page, click on the icon the red arrow is pointing to, which allows you to:

• add or remove columns on a List Panel,
• reorder the columns in your List Panel,
• add/remove icons on the right,
• change the number of rows to view,
• reset the “order by”

While we’re here, a little reminder:

Search box A does a search on your entire database… including Contacts, Jobs and Companies.

Search Box B does a search just on the the List Panel you are in… so if you just want to search for companies, go to the Company List Panel and then search in the B box…

Enjoy!

I had an idea a few months ago regarding my #1 favorite feature in JibberJobber, which is the ability to create a Log Entry just by sending an email to the server.  We’re still working on other enhancements, but we I just saw one released yesterday that thrilled me!

If you don’t know what the Email to Log Entry (aka: Email2Log) feature is, read this post, and watch the 10 minute video (here at the same link).

Okay, now that we are on the same page, here’s the problem.

Let’s say that I email you, and that goes into the Log Entry I have for your contact record.

You email me back, and I reply, you reply, I reply, you reply… before we know it, there are 15 different replies in this thread.

Some of those might have become Log Entries, if I did the Email2Log feature… so your record has numerous Log Entries with parts of the conversation.

It can be too much, and there will be a lot of duplicated data.  Not fun to sift through.

Here’s the solution:

You can now add a special string (or, series of characters) that tells the server to not record anything after the string.  You should make a unique, weird string that someone won’t type in on their own… here’s what I did:

Set it up under My Account, Email Address tab:

This is a NEW field… I just saw it yesterday

Notice my string is a series of ~! … yours can be whatever you want, but make it UNIQUE (something that others might not create on their own… like xoxoxo).

Next, I went into my email and sent an email to myself to test it:

1. The FROM email has to match a From Email in the setup page (click image to get to setup page).
2. The TO email has to match an email for one of your JibberJobber Contacts.
3. This is the special ultra-secretive email address that you set up on the setup page)
4. This is my special string… I will create one that most people won’t even notice/see.  This isn’t my final “Log End Line.”

Notice I want everything up to “this should go:” in the log entry, but nothing after that… does it work?

Let’s jump over to the Log Entry to test it:

YES!  Victory!

1. this is the email’s subject line, which is the Log Entry subject line,
2. This is the text BEFORE the special string… nothing after the string shows up

It’s really a simple thing, but it will help keep your Log Entries much cleaner!

Remember, this is a premium feature… just happens to be my favorite feature.  If you are considering an upgrade, check the specials/bundles here.

Just for the LinkedIn employees who might read this, a LinkedIn user would export from LinkedIn and import into JibberJobber because JibberJobber allows them to do stuff that LinkedIn doesn’t (think: a richer CRM than what LinkedIn offers, plus no worries about denying access if you think they are spammers, or whatever).

A frequent question we get is how to export contacts out of LinkedIn, and get them into JibberJobber.

Here are two links that are helpful:

Exporting Contacts from LinkedIn

Before you import it, I recommend you CLEAN the file.  Open it in Excel, then go through the data and make sure it is right.  Usually you’ll find junk data in the last name field (people put emails, number of connections, all kinds of junk).  Save it as a CSV (not XLS) and you should be ready to import

Importing Contacts from a CSV File (Note: many systems export to a CSV file, like Gmail, Yahoo, Cardscan, etc.)

Good luck! If you have questions, comments, clarifications, etc.  let us know!

Okay, this is a trick for all internet users

When you are anywhere on the internet, and see a link, you can RIGHT CLICK on the link and open it in a new tab (or window).  Check out the image below… the arrows point at links to click on:

A “regular click” will open that link on the same page… but if I RIGHT CLICK on the link I can choose to open in a new tab:

Why would I do that?

Many times I want to stay on one page, and open the other at the same time.  In the olden days we would open in a new window, but now most everyone uses a browser that has tabs, and you can have multiple tabs open, to do as much research as you want.

When I’m researching a company, and how I’ve networked into a company, I’ll open all of the contact records for that company in new tabs… that way I can see them all easily.

Hope that helps!