Oh you guys… I have to apologize. We get questions about apps all the time, and here’s what happens:
- I see the question.
- I ponder the question.
- I start looking up the answer to the question (click here to see how crazy that process is).
- Life happens…
- The presentation starts
- The cat jumps on my lap
- The plane starts boarding
- The security guard asks for my ID
- The new episode of “Big Bang Theory” comes on
- The clock strikes midnight
- The hubby brings home something chocolate
- [You get it, right?]
- A couple of days go by.
- 200 more emails come in.
- I find the question a week or two later.
- I’m embarrassed to write back so late and/or life happens (see above).
So sometimes it takes me FOREVER to get to your questions, and I know for sure I miss some. I’m so very sorry.
Today I’m going to go through all the questions I can find to answer them here.
Quick Links
In-Office Messaging
Brit K. wrote: “Wondering your thoughts on glip.com?
Glip is a new one for me, but it looks to be an alternative to Slack, which lets teams communicate quickly without email and integrates a bunch of services to keep work going. Slack pretty much took over the world of start-up companies a few years ago, and both Outlook and Facebook created competing products to ride the Slack wave.
Glip is free for the basic version or $5 per user for upgrades. I found this comparison from Chanty helpful. Curiously enough, it looks like Chanty itself is a messaging alternative — for free.
Limiting In-Office Messaging
Barbara R. wrote: A large group in my community is trying to get a chat platform going so we can discuss the issue of illegal (and legal) fireworks in Tracy. The problem went on till after 2 AM on Thursday so people are seriously hot about the issue.
Slideshow Videos
Sharing Contact Info
John T. wrote: I am hosting an annual “Kick Off” Mixer for the local Junior College Athletics Department, where local business owners/Sponsors will be mingling with each other as well as Coaches, Administrators, Community Individuals etc. There is value in sharing each other’s contact information. Would that be best done with an Excel Spreadsheet or is there a “Nerd” version of an app or widget that can scan a single business card or inputed contact information , then SHARED with everyone?
Hmmm. There are several tools that can scan business cards then add people to your personal contacts. CamCard, Scannable and even Google Lens come to mind. But then you’d have to create a group of those new contacts and share them with everyone. Perhaps you can create a quick form that everyone interested can fill out to share info if they like. I use Google Forms and Typeform.
Contact and Relationship Management
John T. also asked: Have your heard of Harvey Mackay? Envelope guru and author? He has an extensive “Mackay 66” form that helps a Salesperson (ANYONE doing contact management) store pertinent information about an individual. I would love to save a tree or two and store this information electronically. Rather than just turn this into a fillable Pdf, have your heard of a ‘newer’ way of storing and keeping access of this information on my phone?
This is definitely a job for a CRM. A Customer Relationship Manager will give you fields for personal information as well as customizable fields for more questions you may want answered. CRMs like Insightly and Nimble and even FullContact will give you those answers at your fingertips. And beyond that, you can use tools like Nudge, CrystalKnows and more that will collect info about the person without you having to do the research.
Image Organization and Management
Rhonda Z. asked: We are looking for a program that can organize pictures, categorize them by event or activity, and tag people and/or business name.
As a Chamber we take thousands of pictures each year. We have been storing by year, by event for the last 5 years; however, prior to that we have many CD’s that have our history on them.
We would like a program that we can upload our history and then categorize and tag businesses or people so that when we need them we can locate them. Example – our Chamber is just 22 years old and we have been recognizing our 10 year and 20 year members. It would be great if we could have a history of pictures to share such as their Ribbon Cutting to their 10 or 20 year plaque. Great for TBT’s etc.
Do you have any recommendations? Checked out ACDSee price is reasonable but it seemed a little complicated to use.
Yes, yes, YES! I have the answer. Google Photos lets you store all of your photos and videos for free forever. You can upgrade storage to save them in the highest, highest resolution, but the basic level is good for most purposes.
Just upload all your photos and videos into Google Photos, and the system will apply artificial intelligence to help you organize. It’ll use facial recognition, location tagging, object recognition and more to help get everything in order. You can also tag files and organize them into folders.
MoviePass
Project and Task Management
Activity and Location Tracker
Donna M. wrote: An app called Moves is going away. Do you know of other programs that might suit? I haven’t checked the book yet, so feel free to point me in that direction. Thank you!
It’s not in the book. Try the Arc app. Sounds like it values privacy more than Moves.
