Social CRM Startup Nimble Launches Contact Widget For Gmail, Outlook & Hootsuite

Social CRM startup Nimble has been working on making connections between users a little more actionable, whether they happen via email or other social networks. Now it's hoping to extend that power everywhere - or at least, into its users' email - where they will be able to find detailed information about the people they're communicating with.

Nimble was designed as a tool to help manage and foster relationships not just in email, but across multiple social networks. By hooking into your email, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, the Nimble platform helps to consolidate communication across networks.

Nimble users are therefore able to reply to messages sent from all of those networks through a single dashboard. That allows users to not only keep better track of who they're communicating with, but it ensures that they reply or followup when needed.

Nimble helps identify people who users maybe should know, based on common connections and title. The platform also enables users to set timelines for when they should be reminded to get back in touch with important contacts. If a certain amount of time passes without communication with a contact - whether it be weekly, monthly, or quarterly - they'll get a nudge to send an email or touch base in some other way.

But the biggest part of the new update is the Nimble Contacts Widget, which extends the information and insights of the platform to the place where people need it most - their email. The widget, which can be added to Gmail and Google Apps, as well as Microsoft Outlook and Hootsuite.

Instead of searching for information about a contact online or through their own CRM system, or by going into the Nimble platform itself, users will now have actionable insights about contacts directly in their emails. That includes a full profile of the other person, as well their entire contact record.

In addition, users will be able to assign activities, add notes, and attach contact info to deals directly in the content widget, eliminating the need to bounce back and forth between email and the CRM system. For busy sales or marketing professionals, that will save a lot of time and ensure that assignments are made and contacts followed up on.

Anyway, it's all just a way to make email a little more actionable, since people spend so much time there anyway. It's estimated that 28 percent of every workday is spent on email, and now Nimble users will be able to make that time a little more productive.