One of the things that really bugs me about social networks is how I need to go hunting down each one of my friends and acquaintances to see if they’re registered. Facebook has definitely gotten this right, but other networks are behind the curve on this one.
Somehow, I don’t think I’m that unusual, at least in terms of my:
- multiple email addresses
- multiple address books
- work friends and contacts
- personal friends
- hobby friends
- immediate family
- extended family
Several address books, several email addresses, several friends. You get the picture. So, the more I research social networks, the less I am inclined to sign up because it’s such a hassle finding anybody to talk to!
Until now.
I was researching reputation management companies, when I came across RapLeaf, a very interesting company that has built a reputation management platform that is independent of a specific company, such as a large auction site or a large online bookseller/retailer. The reputation management concept is fairly new and is bound to take off any minute now. But what really excited me was a link on the RapLeaf site pointing to another tool the folks from RapLeaf created called Upscoop.
Upscoop will pick up your address book entries from GMail, Yahoo! Mail, MSN Hotmail, and AOL. Then, it searches for your address book contacts on a variety of social networking sites to see if they are registered.
Once Upscoop returns a set of connected contacts you can sort alphabetically by contact email or by networking service, which is the method I like best. Not only can I zero in on contacts who are already in the same networks, and add them if we’re not yet connected, I can see if a large number of my contacts are using another network. That tells me I might want to consider joining.
Like the address book search on Facebook, Upscoop is a major time-saver. If you’re just getting set up on one or more social networking sites, it can really make your life much easier.
{ 0 comments… add one now }