And we love to give props where props are due. So, yet again, that was a recommendation that came from the forums. In this case, forum user Barbara Ballard asked:

Inspired by the Marketing dashboard widget … I created “Barbara’s list”. It’s all current clients, alumni, leads, projects assigned to me. It’s who I should be thinking about this week, who I should pay attention to. … Now I want it on my dashboard.

We had been talking about doing a saved search widget. But when Barbara recommended putting Lists on the Dashboard, an bell went off in my head. First of all, Lists are already part of BatchBook. This would put something on the Dashboard that just about everybody is already using in their account. Nothing new to learn. Instant gratification. Secondly, a saved search is best handled as a list anyway. That way it will always update, always be accessible, always be exportable, etc.

It was the perfect solution.

Thank you, Barbara, for your excellent recommendation!

Tweet This Post 

The month of June has been a welcome return to the “flurry of updates” release schedule. Over at the BatchBook forums, Keri posts detailed notes about product releases. Today, I wanted to tell you about the “Greatest Hits” from these updates.

Batch Updating of SuperTags

Ever want to update the SuperTag field on dozens of contacts at once? Use the checkboxes on the Browse Contacts page to select a whole bunch of contacts (tip: filter by tag first!) and choose the “edit SuperTag field” batch action. With a couple quick clicks, you can update hundreds of contacts at a time!

Google Contacts 1-way Sync

Sean posted an update on the forums about Google Contacts sync becoming a one-way sync.

More Ways to Filter and Search

We known your contact list can grow quite large. Ours sure has! That’s why we’ve added a whole bunch of new ways to filter and search your contacts. Many of these were very popular requests on the forums.

• New Browse Contacts filter: Not contacted in past month: Will filter your contacts to show only those you have logged a communication with in the past month.
• New Browse Contacts filter: Not contacted: Will filter your contacts to show only those you have never logged a communication with.
• Advanced Search: Contact Type: In addition to “Individuals” and “Companies”, we now have an option for “Individuals & Companies”. Why? Because we also have one just for “Communications”!
• Advanced Search: Record Created: Search for records by date they were created. You can search for an exact date or for records created before or after a certain date. (Tip: Use multiple search criteria to search before a certain date and after another date to get a specific window of time).
• Advanced Search: Record Last Updated: Search for records based on the last time they were updated.
• Advanced Search: Record Last Communicated With: Search for contacts based on the last time you logged a communication with them (including an option for “never”.

Twitter and Google Search Widgets for all!

The live-updating Twitter Search and Google Search Dashboard widgets are now available for free accounts as well. Monitor your personal brand, your company brand, your competitors or your industry at large right on your BatchBook Dashboard!

New Dashboard widget: Lists View

This brand new widget gives you a dropdown menu of all Lists in your BatchBook account. Pick a list and see the contacts. There’s also one-click access to the List Report.

LinkedIn now part of Social Media SuperTag

As reported last week, LinkedIn profiles are now officially part of the Social Media SuperTag.

Default Tags & SuperTags

Last but not least, this is another popular one from the forums. Affectionately code-named “sticky tags” by forumgoers, you can now choose a tag or tags to be automatically applied to all contacts (or all individuals or all companies).

We hope you’ve enjoyed the recent updates. We promise more will come soon!

Want to see the complete list of updates?

• June 18 (1)
• June 18 (2)
• June 26

Tweet This Post 

Last night, BatchBlue Onboarding Specialist Stephanie Sweeney and I made the drive up to Boston to attend the Rock Stars of Social CRM event, hosted by Radian6 and Chris Brogan. They had a lot of fun with the Rock Star theme, complete with colored stage lights, concert tees and even a full-blown Rock Band set-up for audience members to rock out with after the panel.

The panelists included were Frank Eliason (Comcast), Paul Greenberg (Author of CRM at the Speed of Light), Michael Thomas (National President, CRM Association), and our favorite CRM go-to guy, Brent Leary (Co-author of Barack 2.0 and Co-founder of CRM Essentials).

Because we consider BatchBook to be a social CRM (slide via Brent Leary), I was curious to hear what the folks at the cutting edge had to say. I was especially impressed with Frank Eliason’s inclusion on the panel, since he represents a company that is actually out there doing all this stuff. While I always appreciate the bird’s eye view from consultants and experts, I have to agree with Doug Haslam of Shift Communications‘ assertion that he’s getting a bit impatient with social media.

After the panel, Doug and I had a brief conversation where I wondered if, when email entered the picture ten years or so ago, there were endless conferences and seminars and articles written about how email (a communication tool in the same way that social media is a communication tool) was going to fundamentally change the business world.

Admittedly, email did change the way companies interacted with their customers – I was in the customer service department at Amazon.com in 1997 and I witnessed it happening first-hand. Customers found it insane that we didn’t take phone orders; that Amazon was an Internet only company. At the time, we were too busy answering customer emails to talk about email as a tool.

That experience definitely influenced BatchBlue’s commitment to providing excellent service. One thing BatchBlue does using social media is host a weekly Twitter chat called SBBUZZ, where small business owners can talk about the issues (largely focused on social media and other technologies) that are most important to them. What’s nice about this event is that a real community of folks has developed there. Each week, there’s an opportunity for folks to share what’s working, what’s not, what kind of issues people are having, even just to swap funny stories about what happened over the course of the past week as they deal with running and growing their businesses.

If Social CRM is all about the customer, I guess what I’m missing at these big, “rock star” events is more of a presence from other small business owners who are in the trenches, actually using these tools to build their customer relationships every day. There are plenty of Rock Stars out there, talking to each other on SBBUZZ and similar social media places. And my favorite Rock Star, Stephanie, was sitting right next to me. She in every way embodies customer service and building customer relationships done right. I’d wear her concert tee any day.

Image: Chris Penn a.k.a. Financial Aid Podcast via flickr

Tweet This Post 

Out of the box, the Social Media SuperTag allows you to enter a contacts usernames on Twitter, Flickr, or Delicious and we’ll show the last three tweets, photos, or bookmarks. You can also enter a Blog feed and see excerpts of the last three posts. This will actually work for any RSS feed. In the screencast below, I add a Slideshare presentations, Last.fm recent tracks, and BatchBook forum feeds to a contact record.

We think this is a great way to see what’s on the mind of your most valuable contacts right before you pick up the phone or start that email. Watch below to see the Social Media SuperTag in action!

The Flash Video runs 5:18 and is 34.9MB. (Download iPod compatible version, 17.5MB)

Tweet This Post 

I also had a birthday right around that time, so the oh-so-thoughtful Sean figured that made it a perfect time to upgrade my laptop. So, I went from the older white MacBook to the shiny new aluminum one. While I love the new computer, it is with some hesitance I let the white one go. The thing has been essentially an extension of my body for the last couple of years. And let’s just say, it’s been well loved:

This was the first laptop I ever stickered up. Each sticker has a story and now is as good a time as any to share them.

1. Belle: Before we had our lovely Providence office, we were a completely virtual company. Living rooms became conference rooms. One day, I got up from sitting on the floor at Pam’s house. I had a Belle sticker stuck to my butt. Pam has three kids, so this isn’t very surprising. The laptop was already well-stickered at this point, so on it went.
2. BatchBook: Well, that’s us silly!
3. Twitter: When Saul Colt sent me an autographed FreshBooks sticker (see #8), he also tossed in an extra Twitter sticker. While there may not be many things I like more than Twitter, Saul Colt is one of them.
4. WordPress: I’m a big WordPress fan, and Matt Mullenweg gave this sticker to me at SXSW 2007 after I said something nice to him. I saved the sticker until I finally had something worthy to stick it to.
5. HubSpot: As the developer of a marketing website, I love HubSpot. So many things that were previously trial and error have become well oiled machines (SEO keyword selection, inbound link monitoring, etc.). HubSpot even interviewed Michelle and I for a case study (and released a portion of the interview for their inbound marketing blog). The fact that I just linked to them with their favorite SEO keyword shows you what I learned from HubSpot!)
6. SimpleBits: Similar to the WordPress sticker, I had this one for a while (since 2006) before applying it to something. SimpleBits is the design shop run by Dan Cederholm in Salem, MA. I got the sticker (and my trademark SimpleBits shirt that I always seem to be photographed in) at a Carson Systems workshop with Dan. Dan’s books and his blog heavily inspired the approach I take to design. And he’s a swell guy to boot.
7. Creative Commons: Michelle gave this one to me, and Creative Commons is a wonderful thing. Personally, I often pretend it’s a CC Chapman sticker.
8. FreshBooks: As mentioned in #3, this was given to me Saul Colt (that’s his autograph!). At the time, he was the Head of Magic for FreshBooks. Now he holds the same title for Zoocasa.com.
9. iStockPhoto: Like HubSpot, iStockPhoto just makes my life so much easier. Specifically, I’ve written before about how Kemie (an iStockPhoto contributor) is essentially an honorary member of the BatchBook design team. I got this sticker from the nice iStock team at SXSW in 2008.
10. bata: When Stephanie went to Japan, she had a little sticker set to help her learn the language. One of her favorite words in Japanese was bata (butter). It kind of became an inside joke and the sticker found it’s way on my laptop.
11. Firefox: Along with the WordPress sticker, I got this one at SXSW in 2007 and saved it. While I use Safari for browsing, Firefox simply can’t be beat as a development browser.
12. Kidoinfo: Kidoinfo is a Rhode Island-based site for parents run by our friend Anisa. Anisa has built an amazing resource for local parents. It’s so handy to quickly find something to do on a rainy day!
13. Barcamp Austin III: Michelle and I made it for the very end of Barcamp during SXSW in 2008. Barcamp is an “unconference” (meaning it is essentially a “user-generated” conference put on by the attendees themsevles). We missed out on the sessions, but we did get to hang out for the incredible live karaoke band Karaoke Apocalypse. That was the night my respect for Chris Brogan and Laura Fitton shot throught he roof.
14. DEMOfall07: The very last one is the very first sticker to grace the MacBook. When we launched our public beta at DEMOfall07 in San Diego, this laptop was the demo unit. It’s just a simple inkjet label with the company name, station number, and date & time we presented (which actually changed, so it’s not totally accurate). But it might be my favorite of all the stickers.

I’ve been using Macs exclusively since my dad got us an Apple IIGS in 1986. I’ve had quite a few Macs over the years. This white MacBook was definitely my favorite since my beloved PowerBook G3 Pismo. It was powerful. It was dependable.

And it had stickers.

Tweet This Post 

In slides 3–31, we cover the types of social media sites, who the big players are, and some usage and demographic statistics. In slides 32–35, Michelle talked about some examples of how we’re using social media.

In slides 36–41, Michelle shared some stories of people we originally met on Twitter who have become and important part of our business. In the presentation, those slides merely show photos of these wonderful people, so I wanted to take a moment to call them out here.

• Slide 37: Saul Colt (@saulcolt on Twitter), now with Zoocasa.com, was with FreshBooks when we met him down at SXSW in 2008. We happened to walk up to a pancake breakfast held by the FreshBooks folks and mentioned we’re customers. FreshBooks then took BatchBook out to dinner and surprise, surprise—FreshBooks and BatchBook hooked up.
• Slide 38: TJ Sondermann (@sondernagle) is the closest thing BatchBlue has to a mascot. Not only is he a great friend and full of great ideas, he actually came up with the concept of our wildly popular Twitter tee shirt (shown on Slide 39).
• Slide 40: Michelle Wolverton (@chelpixie) is another great friend that was met quite a long time ago on Twitter. She’s now our virtual project manager for a whole bunch of things.
• Slide 41: Adam Tucker (@adamjt) is our brand new Systems Administrator here at BatchBlue. And we first met him on Twitter. In fact, I vividly remember “meeting” him—Michelle and I were meeting at The Coffee Depot in Warren, RI. Suddenly, I got a new follower notification from someone in Warren, RI (it was Adam—he lived in Warren at the time). I remember standing up and looking around the place, thinking someone was looking over our shoulders.

We closed with (Slide 42) a list of things the attendees could do to get started in social media.

The crowd was very new to social media (just one person had a Twitter account). My favorite question was “Can I legally require all new employees to become friends with our HR person on Facebook?”. I liked that for a few reasons—not only does it show how social media is permeating the workplace, it also shows the sense of fear from employers combined with the knee-jerk reaction to (try to) control usage. Our favorite answer to these types of questions is that you simply need to hire responsible people and everything will take care of itself (and perhaps provide some simple and clear guidelines).

Thanks to Steve Hand and Norman Houle of MTUG for asking us to talk. We had a lot of fun!

Tweet This Post 

We met Ramon a couple of years ago at the Small Business Technology Summit he hosts in NYC each year and he is definitely one of the most enthusiastic, positive people we’ve had the pleasure of meeting! I’m excited to be a part of this conversation with Ramon.

Paul Burani, president of Clicksharp Marketing is my co-panelist (”webinarist”?), so it should be an interesting and hopefully informative discussion.

The webinar will take place on Wednesday, June 10 at 2pm ET. You can find complete details and register for the free event here.

Tweet This Post 

1. BCC e-mails into BatchBook using BatchBox. I’ve set up the BatchBox e-mail address (found in your communications tab, it looks something like batchbox+XXXXXXX@youraccount.batchbook.com) as a contact in all of my e-mail clients (Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, Blackberry) so can easily copy messages into BatchBox whether sending from work, personal or mobile accounts. I’ll periodically comb through those forwarded messages in BatchBook to add more details to the contact record of my recipient, but even if I don’t have time to do that the BatchBook search will find the recipients name in the body of their message, so I know I can always find them if I need to.
2. Subscribe to the RSS feed of your communications. This is how I keep up with what is happening with the other Bluers. Our team is very disciplined about sending their communications into BatchBook (see 1 above), so when I do my daily (well, almost daily) catch-up on Google Reader, I can read through any communications happening with BatchBlue and the outside world.
3. Send yourself to-dos. Easy peasy from your e-mail (or phone), just send the BatchBox account mentioned above an e-mail with “todo:” as the start of the subject line and BatchBook will automatically create a to-do item assigned to you. Don’t worry, we’ll soon work on a way to have BatchBook actually do them, too.
4. Use the Twitter search on the dashboard. We have defaulted the Twitter search to look for your account name, but you can add as many searches as you like. My dashboard searches for “BatchBlue” OR “BatchBook” OR “pmohara” OR “sbbuzz” so I am constantly monitoring anything the Twitterverse is saying to/about me or our products (which is how I saw the message that inspired this blog post!).
5. Add the Social Media SuperTag and use it. We know you are a savvy web user, so even if you are not actively blogging or Tweeting, your network probably is. Your BatchBook account will come alive if you add the Social Media SuperTag (from the SuperTag library) and start filling in some accounts. If you run across someone’s Twitter name, blog URL, Flickr account, etc, add the info to their contact record. BatchBook automatically grabs their friendly profile picture and a few of their recent messages – instantly bringing their contact record to life.
6. Create a new “staff favorites” SuperTag.OK, this is just a fun freebie thrown in to lure you into the powerful world of SuperTagging. When you set up your BatchBook account, add a new SuperTag called “staff favorites” and add fields for things like “favorite cake flavor”, “favorite restaurant”, “favorite bands”, etc. Ask any users in your account to fill in their choices. This is a good way to get a sense of how SuperTags can be used, and will come in pretty handy the next time you are planning a staff party!

Do you have any “quickie” tips for fellow BatchBook users? We’re all pretty busy out there so would love to hear what you are doing to keep on top of your game.

Tweet This Post 

First place: RetroRazor
One man’s noble effort at greening up the facial hair industry? A romantic Italian backstory? And…his wife nominated him (calling him her Safety Razor Super Hero Husband)! Chadd Bennett’s cool vintage-style razor business won by a whisker.

Second place: KitBook
At BatchBlue, we love kids, we love science, and we love kids who love science. Kudos to Ed Basconi and his sidekick David Jones for their efforts in improving science teaching and learning, turning both kids and teachers into Science Super Heroes.

Third place: jitterbug.tv
We confess, some of us BatchBlue parents have been fans of this cool music site for kids for a while. So when we received their contest entry, we were very excited. We could also relate to the problem co-founders Dan Gellert and Randall Green are solving, which is to provide a safe, fun place for kids to find appropriate music online. That’s pretty super to us.

Read their winning complete stories on the winners’ page. And thanks to all of our entrants for your truly amazing efforts on behalf of small businesses everywhere.

Tweet This Post 

We’re making a short list and casting our final votes, then hope to notify the winners later today. We’ll be sharing their winning entries on the blog later this week, so please check back!

Tweet This Post 

The Blount Clam Shack is opening to its third successful season offering delicious fried foodstuffs, coleslaw, hot dogs, lobster rolls and other fabulous summer fare. It’s kid- and family-friend, in fact on crowded nights you may find yourself sharing a table with strangers whom you quickly get to know over shared malt vinegar and spilled lemonade. The Clam Shack is right on the water, which adds an exciting element of danger for the kids as they watch boats sail by and lean over the edges of the dock to look for tiny fish, squid and other sea creatures swimming by (there’s even a sign that says “Don’t let your little snappers fall in the water”.)

Summer is by far the best part about living in New England. For me, the Blount Clam Shack embodies all of its greatest elements: delicious food, close proximity to water, outdoors, family fun and kind of sticky and smelly in a quintessentially summer way. I’m so glad the Blount Clam Shack opened so that my kids can share some of the same memories I have from the clam shack days of my youth.

The Blount Clam Shack opens this weekend! See you there…

Blount Clam Shack
335 Water Street
Warren, RI 02885
p: (774) 888-1300
w: http://www.blountseafood.com/store/shack.php

Know a small business Super Hero, or are one yourself? Nominations accepted all this week for the Small Business Super Hero contest. Win fabulous prizes and Internet fame!

Tweet This Post 

They offer many classes in the study of martial arts, starting with an easy introductory class. While they offer advanced classes like Taijutsu, they also offer self-defense classes to the community, teaching how to recognize when one is most vulnerable and self-protection when a situation calls for defense. They even have classes for small children, teaching them non-violent resolutions to problems and giving positive reinforcement of good behavior. Great lessons for any child to learn!

No stuffy center or competition, just respect for martial arts, learning and each other. The instructors go out of their way to make everyone feel comfortable when they step into the center, putting anyone instantly at ease so they are ready to learn.

Boston Martial Arts Center
161 Harvard Ave #4e
Boston,MA.
(617) 789-5524

Know a small business Super Hero, or are one yourself? Nominations accepted all this week for the Small Business Super Hero contest. Win fabulous prizes and Internet fame!

Tweet This Post 

Upon moving to Rhode Island four years ago, the first order of business was to find a local source of fishing tackle and more importantly a place I could trust to provide honest information (i.e. not just trying to turn a buck.) Enter the The Saltwater Edge Fishing Co., located in Newport, RI. From their huge selection to their extremely knowledgeable staff, they have a great customer experience down pat.

They also have an impressive online presence and carry everything in the store online as well. Product stock is well-managed, so you know whether an item you’re interested in is actually available or when it might be. Given the size of their inventory, this is no small feat and its something that sets them apart from every other online tackle shop out there. They also offer delivery in two days or less to anywhere in New England for in-stock items.

The Saltwater Edge Fishing Co. has customer experience nailed and for that I am happy to use their services almost exclusively.  Customer retention is getting harder and harder to come by these days and treating your customers well and providing a pleasant, predictable experience is key. These guys have me hooked.

The Saltwater Edge
47 Valley Rd.
Middletown, RI 02842
p: 1-866-793-6733
w: www.saltwateredge.com

Know a small business Super Hero, or are one yourself? Nominations accepted all this week for the Small Business Super Hero contest. Win fabulous prizes and Internet fame!

Tweet This Post 

The shop is well organized, not overly stuffed and very kid friendly. The owner has often jumped in to help me find just what I’m looking for. And most importantly, they have no problem shutting the front door and letting my little guy go wild trying out all the new toys in the middle of the store while I am busy shopping. It’s about the sanest shopping experience you can have with a toddler in tow.

I also love that this is a very family friendly work environment! It’s definitely a “by moms for moms” type of place. They work around their family schedules and occasionally have their own children in tow – which is a great additional source of entertainment for my little one.

So if you’re looking for an easy shopping experience (with or without a toddler tagging along), I highly suggest Adored By Us.

ADORED BY US
1458 Park Avenue
Cranston, RI 02920
p. 401-942-0570
w. www.adoredbyus.com

Know a small business Super Hero, or are one yourself? Nominations accepted all this week for the Small Business Super Hero contest. Win fabulous prizes and Internet fame!

Tweet This Post 

Our very own Michelle Riggen Ransom (@mriggen on Twitter) was part of a panel on Twitter this week. The panel was hosted by The Perry Group and called “The Twitter phenomenon explodes in Rhode Island: What it means for you, your business and your brand”. The local news was present, and Michelle (among others) was interviewed in this segment:

Great job, Michelle!

Tweet This Post 

Whenever I’m asked for a good place to eat in Rhode Island, my first answer is always La Laiterie. The fact that it’s within walking distance from both my office and my home makes me feel extremely lucky. It seems like I can’t visit the place without finding a new favorite cheese (can you say “BatchBleu”?), beer, or entree. Their taste and attention to detail give me full confidence to try *anything* there and expect great results. Case in point, I’m not a big seafood eater, but the octopus I tried there on a recent visit was amazing!

All this would certainly be enough on its own to earn my nomination as a BatchBlue Staff Favorite, but it gets better. Chef Matt Jennings has been doing a fantastic job bringing this relatively non-technical business into the social media space via his Twitter account. You all know how much we love Twitter at BatchBlue, and every time Matt tweets it seems to make me hungry for some damn fine food. And I know where to get it!

LA LAITERIE
188 Wayland Avenue,
Providence, RI 02906
w: http://www.farmsteadinc.com/lalaiterie.html
p: 401-274-7177

p.s.
For their commitment to excellence, I almost called them the Apple of food, until I realized that Apple Computer was already named after a food.

Know a small business Super Hero, or are one yourself? Nominations accepted all this week for the Small Business Super Hero contest. Win fabulous prizes and Internet fame!

Tweet This Post 

While the bagels are great (and have been the official sustenance of the BatchBlue staff meetings for the almost 3 year history of this company), they won their place in my heart for a different reason: the customer service. The nice folks who run the store have gotten it right with the personal touch. They know by name several of us BatchBluers, they have our standing Monday morning order ready at the waiting and they know how to treat us like a trusted friend, not just a credit card.

A good example of their above-and-beyond customer service is an experience I had there about a year ago. I arrived to pick up the regular order only to realize that my wallet was not in my purse (my then 1 year liked to play that trick on me periodically). When I looked at the bagel server confoundedly, she said, “Don’t worry. You can come back and pay for it later.” She then sheepishly added, “my boss lets me do that.” I was not surprised that a small business that enjoys our regular business would extend this type of courtesy. What struck me was that each of the employees, including the cashier, was empowered with this level of customer satisfaction granting.

Small businesses get it. Customer relationships are being started and nurtured on many different fronts at many different times and by many different people. The trick is not to post a friendly customer service policy and install expensive systems. The trick is to trust the people who are on the front lines and empower them to take good care of the customer.

KRAZY KORNER BAGEL & DELI
23 Circle Drive
Seekonk, MA 02771
p: 508.336.5204

Know a small business Super Hero, or are one yourself? Nominations accepted all this week for the Small Business Super Hero contest. Win fabulous prizes and Internet fame!

Tweet This Post 

As a (somewhat) virtual company, the BatchBlue crew is always on the lookout for a nice place to work or meet. There are really only two requirements—strong wifi and stronger caffeinated beverages.

We’re based in Providence, RI and there’s no shortage of nice coffee shops in the city. But my dirty little secret is that I’m actually the one member of the Crew who lives over the line in Massachusetts. I was quite happy when I found out that Cuppers Cafe was opening in Somerset—which just so happens to be where I live.

Cuppers has quickly evolved from a converted-gas-station-with-name-painted-on-windows look into a pretty spiffy establishment. It is well-decorated, the wifi is strong, the beverages are good, and the baked goods are tasty. But, as with many small businesses, what sets it apart is the people. When I start to frequent a coffee shop, I’m always interested to see how long it takes the staff to remember my order. For owner Mark Ulrich, it was very quick. As soon as he sees me open the door, Mark gets a large black Assam ready.

Between the birth of our third baby, paternity leave, and some other matters, I recently went about six weeks without visiting Cuppers. However, the next time I went in, Mark said hello as if I was there the day before and asked “large black Assam?”

CUPPERS CAFE
1857 County Street
Somerset, MA‎
p: 508.916.2455‎

Know a small business Super Hero, or are one yourself? Nominations accepted all this week for the Small Business Super Hero contest. Win fabulous prizes and Internet fame!

Tweet This Post 

The staff is friendly, fast, and knowledgeable, and the east side locale is quaint, close to the jewelry district and downtown.

Thanks, Coffee Exchange, for fueling both yesteryear’s transcendental high school diatribes and this year’s incoherent, new parent, sleep-deprived mumblings.  Roast on!

COFFEE EXCHANGE
207 Wickenden Street
Providence, RI 02903
w: sustainablecoffee.com
p: 877-COFFEE4 or 401.273.1198

Know a small business Super Hero, or are one yourself? Nominations accepted all this week for the Small Business Super Hero contest. Win fabulous prizes and Internet fame!

Tweet This Post 

Here at BatchBlue, we’re huge fans of the donut cake and order one every chance we get. Allie’s has customer service that rivals BatchBlue’s own; they have never turned down a last minute order for a shark, bird, “Rock On” hand or bunny cake. If you follow us on twitter, you may have seen a recent tweet about it!

So the next time you’re in North Kingstown RI, stop in at Allie’s and be sure to think of us as you enjoy that scrumptious donut!

ALLIE’S DONUTS
3661 Quaker Lane
North Kingstown, RI 02852
p: (401)295-8036

Know a small business Super Hero, or are one yourself? Nominations accepted all this week for the Small Business Super Hero contest. Win fabulous prizes and Internet fame!

Tweet This Post 

We’re also going to be featuring “BatchBlue Staff Favorite” small businesses all this week in order to shine a light on some of the small businesses that make our lives a little better every day. We’re very proud of being from Rhode Island, “the biggest little” state in the country, and excited to give some of our favorite small local businesses a big shout-out. You’re bound to meet some cool small businesses that you may not have otherwise known about.

Check back all this week for our staff updates and feel free to nominate your favorite in our Small Business Super Hero contest (as a nominator, you can win prizes, too!) And a big thanks to all the small business owners out there – we’re grateful for all the good work you do all year long.

Tweet This Post 

Shoeboxed and Freshbooks have been working very well and it’s been great to see all the positive feedback. We’re still looking for ways to make them even better, so if you have any feedback or ideas please let us know.

The one that has not gone as planned has been Google Contacts sync. It’s the only one of of current offerings that does provide two-way sync and that has proven to be trickier than we at first thought. The good news we have ironed out most of the issues but one remains, which we (not so) affectionately call “the Blob”.

At BatchBlue, keeping your data organized is obviously very important to us. We strive to keep all your data in such a way that is easily searched and also logically organized for use with lists and reports.

Therein lies the problem. Google Contacts does not force one to be strict about how they enter addresses data. Data is entered free form (a.k.a. the Blob), which is handy in some cases but for data junkies like us is problematic. We like to keep every part of an addresses saved on its own so you can then search contacts by state, country, zip/postal code etc. It really makes address information much more powerful if you can search on its parts.

Since people can enter free form data into Google, we’re having to work on our own address parser to parse these addresses for entry into BatchBook. Seems easy enough, but just think about all the ways one can enter an address. Plus, every country in the world seems to have different address formats. Once you delve into it, it’s actually a very complex issue and one that may not ever be solved 100%. But we’re now at a point where we’re close to having a workable solution that we can keep building on.

Look for Google Contacts sync to really improve over the next couple weeks. We are bummed it is taking us longer than planned because we know people are anxious for it to be up running. However, the time we’re taking in getting it right will mean a more solid offering once we’re out of beta.

More updates as we have ‘em. And thanks to all for your patience and feedback along the way.

Tweet This Post 

Sure, we hope everyone likes our product BatchBook but we recognize it might not be the best solution for everyone out there. So we’re saying “Bring it on!”

Join us tonight 8pm-10PM EST to take part in the Twitter CRM #sbbuzz conversation – Pam and I will be there but participating only as small business owners, not makers of one certain, lovable, kick-ass CRM. We’ll save that for our blog

Tweet This Post 

In honor of the upcoming National Small Business Week (May 18-22), BatchBlue is very pleased to announce our second annual Small Business Super Hero contest. This week and next, you can nominate yourself or someone else who is doing a super-human job of running a small business.

We’ve got some great prizes this year, including free account subscriptions and giveaways from us and some of our Small Business Web partners, a JetBlue gift card, a cool collection of business books in our small business starter library, t-shirts and more! Please see our contest page for complete information and the entry form. You can view last year’s winners here.

Next week, we’ll be featuring some of the BatchBlue staff’s favorite small businesses every day on our blog. The contest winners will be announced on the blog on Tuesday, May 26th.

Don’t be shy — we know you’re doing good work out there! Let your Super Hero cape fly and show the world how cool it is to be a small business owner.

Tweet This Post 

Our good friend TJ Sonderman (@sondernagle) had the inspiration for the t-shirts we gave out at SXSW this year. Since we’d recently launched a “social media” SuperTag that can pull feeds from Twitter, flickr, delicious, blogs etc. into your BatchBook account, he thought it would be cool to design a shirt that allowed people to write their Twitter handles on it. We took the concept to Adam (@adarowski), our Designer Extraordinaire and the rest is SXSW history!

Here’s a bunch of folks wearing their Twitter handles with pride. Pictured left to right are Alex de Carvalho (@alexdc), Davide DiCillo (@davidedicillo), Shashi Bellamkonda (@shashib), Betsy McDonald (@splashet), and Pamela O’Hara (@pmohara). Photo via Shashi’s flickrstream

We brought shirts to the SXSW Blogger’s Lounge, where we were mobbed by the folks wanting to get their hands on a t-shirt! Here I am (wearing a Social CRM t-shirt) and carefully writing out Twitter handles for the Twitterati. Photo by Alexdesigns

There was a reason why we helped with Twitter handles. Writing anything in a Sharpie is quite a commitment! Here, Jennifer Van Grove from Mashable shows her first attempt at her Twitter handle, which is actually @jbruin. Don’t worry, we gave her another one

And OMG it’s @scoutsprout! Everyone’s favorite canine contact manager! You know he uses BatchBook to keep track of who goes to which dog park, what store has the best doggie treats etc. How else does a busy urban dog keep his business straight?

Here’s one of my Top 5 fave Twitterers of all time Colleen Wainwright (@communicatrix) customizing her shirt using Pam O’Hara’s back, while Saul Colt (@saulcolt) Tweets about it. So meta it’s mighty!

UPDATE: The lovely Jane Porricelli has a new t-shirt for running and Tweeting.

UPDATE: We got one more from our good friend Steve Malloy (@sophware). This is the first photo that includes the entire family!

You’re looking good out there, folks. If anyone else has got a picture they’d like to share, send it in to info@batchblue.com and we’ll add you to the gallery of gorgeousness!

Tweet This Post