Warning: this post is going to “talk-up” Nimble.

It includes affiliate links.

It might even feel like a step-down from an Infommercial.

So let me just set myself up with a sweet headset a la Vince of Sham-wow fame 🙂

Ok, we’re good.

Now onto Nimble.

Nimble is a Social CRM platform.

It’s one of those rare tools that can be useful to pretty much everyone in business: solopreneurs, small biz peeps, all the way up to execs and big shot CEOs.

What I like about both the tool and the company is that they emphasize ROI. There’s lots of social media tools out there, but few promise to help you deliver tangible results you can take to the bank.

Here’s five ways I use Nimble to get better ROI from social media:

1. Save a Lotta Time

Any time you can save a bundle of time is, well, good times. What’s cool with Nimble is that you can access your email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other profiles all on the same page. That means you can start your morning with a single login, and don’t have to waste time going from browser tab to browser tab to post content or engage with others.  The best part is that Nimble creates an engagement history log, so you can view your interactions with every contact whether it was via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.  In other words, a single communication stream.

2. Easily Find and Engage Prospects

With Nimble you can search for people talking about topics related to your business both inside and outside of your network, whether it’s a keyword alert, Twitter hashtag, or relevant comment or blog post. With one click you can add their profile into your Nimble contacts, including all their social media profiles, Klout score (if you’re into that), and relevant blogs, websites, and tags.  You can even see if you have someone in any of your social profiles who is connected with your prospect so you can get introduced and start engaging right away.  And Nimble also integrates with CRMs such as Salesforce, Zoho, and SugarCRM.

3. Find and Engage Influencers

Similar to finding prospects, you can also use Nimble to find influencers.  If you come across a blogger or influencer on social media, all you need to do is literally hover over their name with your mouse, and with the Chrome widget you can create a Nimble profile for them with one click.  I find this handy when I come across a blog I like and want to start following the author and their future content.

4.   Track Deals and Activities

Nimble lets you create and track deals with new prospects.  That’s nothing special, but what I do like is that you can view all your team’s activity – email, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. – relating to the prospect and the deal.  I think that helps because you can go back and analyze the communications history and over time start to understand what works (and what doesn’t work) in terms of engaging prospects and closing deals.

5. Create a More Social (and Social Selling) Business

I really do think that Nimble can be used by everyone in your business, not just your sales and marketing team.  It makes it easier to listen to conversations relevant to your business; keep employees in the loop on your latest blog, post, or promo; and can create a more powerful company-wide Nimble network that makes it easier to find, connect, and convert prospects into sales.

Okay, enough with the Nimble-mercial.

Try it out for yourself.  A free-trial is available with no credit card, and you can be using it in five minutes.  The cost is $15 per month if you want to sign up afterwards.

And if you call in the next 15 minutes… (just kidding)