Outlook and Social Networks

Outlook Social Connector

Microsoft Outlook has a handy feature that integrates with several social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. It’s called the Outlook Social Connector and it works with Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010. Currently Outlook can connect with the following social networks: Facebook; LinkedIn; MySpace; Windows Live Messenger; Xing; & Viadeo.

I’ve been using this feature with LinkedIn and Facebook for about four months now and love it. Seeing as we are visual creatures and email is a text based medium, I find Outlook’s ability to bridge this divide, quite helpful. Here’s why.

1) Outlook show’s a picture of the person that emailed me. This even works when it is someone that I’m not connected to on any of the social networks.This, of course, only happens if the sender has a public picture on their profile.

2) When I am drafting a new message, Outlook displays the picture of the person I have entered in the To: field. This is helpful as it makes it easier for me to focus on who I am writing.

3) In either of the two cases above, Outlook shows the last few correspondences I’ve had with this person in one easy to view window to the right of the person’s picture

4) Outlook shows any activity this person has had on the different social networks. This can sometimes come in handy when catching up with someone.

5) Outlook provides an easy way of connecting to people on the different social networks by clicking the “+” below their picture. All of the social networks I’ve activated appear as choices. Simply by clicking it here, I don’t have to log onto the different websites and invite the person through the various website’s interfaces.

6) When more than one person is in on the email, Outlook shows me the picture of everyone in one view. It’s the next best thing to video conferencing.

If you’re using Outlook, I highly recommend this feature. Here’s a link to a blog and video tutorial on how to install the Outlook Social Connector: http://blogs.office.com/b/office_casual/archive/2010/08/24/how-to-install-the-outlook-social-connector.aspx

Please let me know what you think of this feature and if you use it?

Cheers.

Jim De Vico
GM, Everon Technology Services-Los Angeles

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