CloudContacts Blog

Two weeks ago we launched the Social Connector for the business cards we process. The basic concept of the Social Connector is simple – we take the email address listed on a business card and search a variety of social and business networks for matches. Where we find a match, we add the username for that person on that network to the business card profile for that person inside of CloudContacts.

We’ve run all new cards through the Social Connector and continue to run the previously processed cards through the Social Connector as well. I expect we will be fully caught up by the end of April.

I am excited to announce that in just two weeks, we’ve already found nearly 10,000 connections!

Think about that for a moment – we take an email address, find connections on MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, Friendfeed, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and we’ve found 10,000 connections and we are just getting started! In the coming weeks, we will be adding more services that will be searched.

Just another reason you should be using CloudContacts for all of your business card scanning and transcription needs.

I’ve received the video below from nearly all of my friends, family and CloudContacts customers. The video was created by Samsung to show off one of their new camcorders and features a guy who can throw business cards like ninja stars. We suggest that before you decide to use the business cards you collect in this fashion, that you allow us to scan and transcribe the cards Get the full value before trying to pop a balloon, injure a nice watermelon or put out a fire.

I wonder what type of paper stock he used for these “demonstrations”. From what we’ve seen, the cards from the UK have the heaviest stock on average while the “free business cards” in the U.S. have the lightest and most bendable paper stock.

Clearly this video is as fake as the video of Kobe Bryant jumping over a car. Do you agree? Is it a fake?

I am excited to share the latest feature addition to the CloudContacts business card scanning and transcription service. It’s a social media and social CRM feature and takes your business cards to the next level!

I call the feature the “social connector” – basically what we will do is take the email address on each business card and scan the social networks for any matches. When we find a match, we will add the username for that person on each social network to their details page.

Initially the social connector service will search the Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, DandyId and Friendfeed networks. Over the next few weeks we will continue to add more services to the social connector service including Facebook and LinkedIn.

We can run already processed business cards through the social connector as well. Initially the service will be free; we may charge a tiny processing charge in the future.

To celebrate this new social connector service, you can use the discount code socialcrm to save 10% on your order – discount valid through April 1.

If there are other services you would like us to search within the social connector, drop us a line.

The absolute coolest part of working on CloudContacts is that our customers love the service. There’s nothing better than receiving an email from a customer after we’ve processed their business cards letting us know how valuable the service is for them.

Here are some of the latest unsolicited feedback emails we’ve received – we would love to add you to this list!

“Terrific concept, super service, and amazing value! That stack of cards in my desk is now right where I need it: at my fingertips. Thanks for letting me focus on communicating with my contacts rather than just managing their details.”

– Keith Lauver, The Healthy Pantry

“…it is an absolutely awesome service for business cards – snap a photo on your iPhone and email it and all the information is transcribed and uploaded to your CloudContacts page – and can also be downloaded to Outlook. I don’t know how the transcription is done, but it always seems to be perfect, which is more that I can say for other card readers I have tried. I’m not getting paid by them to say this (unfortunately!) – just think it is a great service.”

– Jon, Peninsulawyer

“Cloud Contacts might be the coolest thing ever for getting business cards scanned in effortlessly and without typos! Highly recommend.”

– Boisset Family Estates

“I love the service – we are going to send you our cards each month.”

– Ian Hartten, Toledo.com

Just a quick note that on Monday, February 12, 2010, Washington’s Birthday is observed in the U.S. The federal holiday is also referred to as President’s Day. The United States Postal Service won’t be delivering mail on Monday. UPS and FedEx will be delivering packages normally.

CloudContacts will be open and will be processing our customer’s business cards. All business card pickups scheduled for Monday will proceed as normal.

As a side note, this weekend is also Valentine’s day and our special offer runs through Sunday evening.