Outlook Social Connector: Convenient Social Media
The latest exciting feature from Microsoft Outlook 2010 is the Outlook Social Media Connector. It allows Microsoft Outlook to pull feeds/updates from your LinkedIn account. Soon it will also pull info from MySpace, Facebook and Windows Live. And it gathers all this information in the bottom right-window when you are in preview-pane mode (my favorite).
Why is this awesome? Assuming the people who email you have accounts on these social media sites, you will see their latest updates (status updates) and profile photo. This will seriously help professionals develop business relationships with clients by keeping everyone in-touch and up-to-date with important happenings. It’s just one more way (a really convenient way) to keep up with the hustle and bustle of life.
As if that wasn’t great enough, the feature keeps a history of emails in your Inbox from the related contact and you can filter to see just attachments or just calendar events related to the contact… Pretty sweet, huh? You can also add colleagues to your contacts list with one click. This is a big time saver and a great way to build your network. Below is a snapshot of the Social Connector in Outlook.
Are you feeling bummed because this looks so cool but you are using Outlook 2003 or 2007? Turn that frown upside down because it will work for you too!!! As long as your computer is set up with the 32-bit operating systems (XP, Vista or 7), you can currently download the software to get this running (64-bit is on its way).
Get started by downloading Outlook Social Connector 32-Bit:
Once you have downloaded the software, you have to also download the social media sites with which you would like to connect. Right now, LinkedIn for Outlook ( ) is available.
After you have completed your downloads and installations, restart your computer. When you open Outlook you will be prompted to login to your LinkedIn account. As the other social media accounts become available, download them and always restart your computer afterwards. Doing so not only prompts the login, but it will help give your computer a freshening-up so that everything runs smoother.