The system you implement should have certain characteristics. I’ll list a number of alternatives, but in choosing the right system for you, you’ll want to be sure to consider some of the following:

Will it last? You want the relationships to last and mature for many years – shouldn’t your system last that long also?

Is it easy to use? Even though there are some pretty sophisticated tools available to you, do you want to have to read through a manual, take a 3-day course, or have to try and remember how the thing works each time you try and use it.

Is it comprehensive? There’s nothing like using a system that doesn’t do what you want it to do. The system I want will give me birthday reminders, allow me to log important things, put in pictures, create reminders, and more.

Does it play well with others? As a software guy I’ve always been concerned when picking software solutions for my company about the ability to interface with other systems, and what would happen if the company went under. Would I be able to export my data in common formats? Or is it too proprietary? Is it easy to start, and if I want to switch, will it be easy to export my data?

There are more considerations – actually there are a ton of articles devoted to picking the right software. But these are some of the most important for you to consider while figuring out a system to manage your relationships over time. Here are some of the options available to you, right now:

Pencil and Paper: that’s right, this old technology still has a place. The benefits are that they don’t crash, and are super-portable. The weaknesses – well, there are many. This isn’t my style for a lot of reasons. One is that I’d never carry all of my important contact information around. Two is that I would want to “search” my information (and notebooks don’t have a search function yet!). Three is that I usually lose things when I move, or am decluttering. Fourth…. And the list goes on and on ;)

Traditional CRM tools: There are hundreds of CRM tools, also known as customer relationship management systems. These are the software packages that are common to a salesperson which allows them to manage all aspects of a relationship. If you are going into sales, strongly consider buying a package to begin using now – it will be a great training experience and you’ll be that much further ahead of your competition when looking for a job. Cons include price (some web-based systems carry a hefty monthly fee, especially for someone with better places to put their money), maintenance (if you buy the boxed software make sure you back it up regularly!) and ease of use (it is common to go to days of training to be able to use the functions – its geared towards sales more than relationships).

Excel: Many people list their friends and relevant information in Excel or Word or some other document like that. This is a good start but I don’t consider it to be a lasting solution. I have none of the documents that I’ve created just two years ago – because every time I switch computers I kind of lose things! But the biggest problem I see is that this will give you a false sense of relationship management. Having a list of names and contact information is NOT relationship management. There is much more to it than that, and I haven’t seen a spreadsheet with sufficient features to get the job done.

Contact Management 2.0: Ok, this isn’t my term, I got this in an e-mail from one of my buddies. My website is geared towards job search organization and long-term relationship management (surprised?). Take traditional CRM, twist it around so its optimized for a non-salesperson, make it web-based and easy to use, allow the user to put all kinds of important information, create action items, get birthday reminders, etc. Roll it all up and you get JibberJobber – which is a tool to manage things related to your career. The free version (about 90% of the system is free, and you can switch from the optional upgrade back to the free version without losing any data) allows you to actually manage 350 relationships – and that’s a lot!

Lots of options for you. The most important thing is that you have contact information, know who each person is and where you are at in the relationship with them, and can go back to the system to update the information (and see past changes). If it seems like overkill to you then you aren’t thinking of enough people in your network. Go back to Tuesday’s post about who you should have in your network, and begin to make a list of all of these people!

Bonus: Last week Shawn put up a post titled 10 Job Hunting Mistakes and How Not to Make Them. These are great points – but check out #8 (not following up) and #10 (being unorganized). A tool like JibberJobber would easily solve those two mistakes! What are you waiting for?