Social Media Management in ACT!

So far we have explored 4 free online tools that you can implement to ACT! using the Web Info tab. In our fourth and final post for this series we will explore different ways for implementing and managing social media in ACT!

Social Media Management with Hootsuite

Hootsuite is an online dashboard tool that collaborates all of your social networks in one place. Within Hootsuite you can monitor your social feeds, schedule posts to your social media accounts and report on social media performance.

Learn more about Hootsuite and sign up for a free account on their website www.hootsuite.com

How to implement it to ACT!

1. Simply create a new Web Info link that looks like this: “http://www.hootsuite.com” 
2. The first time you click on the Web Info link you will be asked to log in to Hootsuite – once you’ve done this you can use Hootsuite as you normally would from within ACT! The result will look something like this: 

Viewing Social Media Profiles in ACT!

In the latest hotfix release for ACT! 2013 the Social Updates tab was introduced. This tab is a great way for businesses to view and interact with their contacts’ social media profiles from within ACT!

The key feature of this new tool is the “Remember this page” button. Users simply search for the right profile within each platform and click this button to save the profile.

At the moment the Social Updates tab only supports Facebook and LinkedIn – so if you want to view your ACT! contacts social media profiles from other platforms (such as Twitter) or if you’re not ready to update to ACT! 2013 there is a workaround available.

How to implement it to ACT!

1. Create new fields in ACT! called “LinkedIn Profile”, “Twitter Profile” etc. 
2. Create new links in the Web Info tab using the URL Snippet plus Merge Tag method*. For example: “http://www.linkedin.com/{LinkedIn Profile}”, “ http://www.twitter.com/{Twitter Profile}” etc. 
3. Find your contacts’ social media profiles and copy/paste the relevant URL snippet into the corresponding fields in ACT! The result would look like this:

*Alternatively you could just use the merge tags for the Web Info links and copy/paste the entire URL to these fields rather than the snippets. Just be careful that the URL’s don’t exceed the character limits on your ACT! fields.


That’s it for this blog series – we’d love to know if you have implemented any of our ideas and how successful they have been. Post your comments below.

Cloud Storage and E-Marketing in ACT!

In our last blog post we introduced the idea of using free online tools from within ACT! via the Web Info tab, and showed you how to set up your database to implement these ideas.

 In this post we will cover how you can access documents and files stored on the web, and view your contacts e-marketing profiles all from within ACT!

Part 4: Cloud Storage with Google Docs

Cloud storage is becoming a new way for businesses to host all of their data and many people view this as a great way to promote collaboration, support remote workers and keep their documents and files safely backed up.

There are numerous cloud storage providers our there (such as Dropbox, Box.com, Mega.co.nz and Google Docs) – all of these providers offer a free plan and have quite competitive pricing.

In this example we’re going to show you how you can display folders and files from Google Drive in ACT! This strategy should also work with the other cloud storage providers.

How to implement it to ACT!

1. Create a field in ACT! called “Online Folder”
2. Create a new link in the Web Info tab so that it looks like this: “http://docs.google.com/ {Online Folder}”
3. Go to the folder/file that you want to link to the ACT! Record, click on the checkbox to the left (rather than opening it) and go to “More > Share > Share”. You will then be presented with a screen that displays all your sharing and privacy options for that folder/file including a URL link.
4. Copy and paste the appropriate URL segment into the “Online Folder” field.
5. Next time you navigate to this contact and click on the relevant Web Info link you will be able to see the folder/file from within ACT! Depending on the level of access that has been applied to the folder/file you may also be able to edit it. The result will look something like this:

Part 5: E-Marketing

Most e-marketing services store profiles of your contacts that include basic contact details and activity history including which emails they have been sent and how they have interacted with them (e.g. opens and clicks). If your e-marketing system isn’t integrated to ACT! and you would like to see your contacts e-marketing activity from within ACT! you can do this using the Web Info tab.

In our example we are using MailChimp.

How to implement it to ACT!

1. Create a field in ACT! called “MailChimp Profile”
2. Create a new link in the Web Info tab so that it looks like this: “https://us4.admin.mailchimp.com/lists/members/view?id={MailChimp Profile}”
3. For each contact in ACT! that is also in MailChimp copy/paste the URL snippet to the “MailChimp Profile” field.
4. Now each time you’re on a contacts profile who is also on your send list, you can see what MailChimp campaigns they have been sent and whether they have opened/clicked those emails. The result will look something like this:

Stay tuned for our next blog where we show you how you can manage your social media strategy from within ACT! In the meantime if you have implemented any of the tools above or any other free online tool to the Web Info tab let us know – we’d love to hear how having these tools available in ACT! have helped your business.

Project Management & Customer Service in ACT!

In our last blog post we introduced the idea of using free online tools from within ACT! via the Web Info tab, and showed you how to set up your database to implement these ideas.

 In this post we will cover how you can use the Web Info tab to manage projects and offer great customer service.

Part 2: Project Management with Trello

If you’re business deals in projects you will have situations where you've needed to track progress and communicate with everyone involved including staff, customers and other service providers.

Trello is a free online collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards; boards contain multiple lists each referring to a specific stage in the workflow purpose, and each list has cards which detail specific tasks/features or other relevant information.

When a board is created you can add members and share it and as the project progresses you can see cards being moved across the lists and view a complete history of all members’ activity on the board.

By implementing it to ACT! you can instantly see the progress of the project that the current ACT! contact is involved with and can interact with the project board from within ACT!.

Learn more about Trello and sign up for a free account on their website www.trello.com

How to implement it to ACT!

1. Create a new URL field in ACT! called “Project Management” and add it to your layout
2. Create a Web Info URL that looks like this: “http://trello.com/board/{Project Board}”
3. Choose the ACT! Contact(s) and corresponding Trello board. Copy the URL snippet of the board and paste it to the “Project Management” field of all the related contacts.
4. When you navigate to these contacts’ records and click on the Web Info link you will see the Project Board. The result will look something like this:

Part 3: Customer Service with Your Own Website

That's right, if your business has FAQ's and help files on your website implementing this to the Web Info tab can help you find the information you need to serve your customers, fast.

How to implement it to ACT!
We implemented our website in two ways to ACT! The first was simply creating a new Web Info URL and entering our website – no custom fields or merge tags required. The second way was to define which specific web page we wanted to see when viewing each contact.

1. Create a new URL field in ACT! called “Web Help”
2. Create a Web Info URL that looks like this: “http://www.mywebsite.com/{Web Help}”
3. For every ACT! Contact copy the appropriate URL snippet from your website and paste it into the “Web Help” field
4. Now if your customers ring up with questions about your products/services you can easily be directed to helpful resources from your website that are relevant to your customer.

Note: this strategy can be applied to your website or any other website that you turn to for information.


Stay tuned for our next blog where we show you how you can access documents and files from the cloud and view e-marketing contact stats (for people who aren't using Swiftpage) all from within ACT!

In the meantime if you have implemented any of the tools above or any other free online tool to the Web Info tab let us know – we’d love to hear how having these tools available in ACT! have helped your business.

5 Free Online Tools You Can Access From Within ACT!... Right Now!

We’re always interested in learning about new apps and tools that can improve the way we do business. In this blog series we take 5 key business tasks and, using free online services, show you how they can be implemented to work with ACT! using the Web Info tab.

• Project Management
• Customer Service
• Cloud Storage
• E-Marketing
• Social Media Management

Part 1: Setting up your ACT! Database

Before getting into too much detail about the online tools listed above we will first cover how to set up your ACT! database to work with the online tools.

For most of the solutions we are going to show you, you will be required to create a new field in ACT!, add it to your layout and copy/paste the url (or parts of it) to that field. This is required in to ensure that the links in the Web Info tab are customized for each contact.

Once the fields are created the URL links in the Web Info tab will need to be customized. To get to the URL editor go to the Web Info tab and click the "Edit Links" button.

There are two different ways that you can set up the URL links with respect to linking them with ACT! fields.

1. Merge Tag Only
   Using this method the entire URL is pasted into the ACT! field and this is referenced in the Web Info URL. For example:
   
   • ACT! Field = http://www. website.com/abcd
   • Web Info URL = {Name of ACT! field here}
2. URL Snippet plus Merge Tag
   Using this method you only paste the end portion of the URL in the ACT! field and the Web Info tab includes the first part of the URL and the merge tag. For example:
   
   • ACT! Field = abcd
   • Web Info URL = http://www.website.com/{Name of ACT! field here}”

There are many considerations to make when deciding which method to use:

• Merge Tag
  • It is usually easier to copy/paste the entire URL than URL snippets
  • If the entire URL is too long it may exceed the character limit for the ACT! field and the link will not work – to overcome this you could shorten each URL using a service like goo.gl or bit.ly before pasting it into ACT!
• URL Snippet plus Merge Tag
  • The first part of the URL must be the same for all contacts
  • You must remember which part of the URL to copy/paste

Now that we have explained how to set up your database, join us in our next blog when we show you how you can use Project Management and Customer Service tools from within ACT!