Rapportive has been a sourcing best friend for many recruiters and sourcers alike. For those of you who don’t use it, Rapportive is a Gmail plugin that shows a LinkedIn profile (sometimes Twitter) from whoever you’re corresponding with. The extension was acquired by LinkedIn in February of 2012.
Over the last few weeks, many Rapportive users have started to experience issues with the extension. The problems range from a lack of information, the LinkedIn card/sidebar moving off-screen and impossible to view, and some users have had it disabled altogether.
The timing of these issues with Rapportive is interesting, and as we know, Google and Microsoft don’t always get along. LinkedIn announced on October 31st that its integration within Outlook.com is now live. This integration allows Outlooks users to view information from whoever you’re corresponding with, similar to Rapportive for Gmail. A LinkedIn product rep stated, “Google recently deprecated the widget that Rapportive is built on, hence your problem with the sidebar.” You can read more about LinkedIn’s latest product launch below.
If you are not an Outlook user and if your Rapportive has been down, there is a new tool to help you in Gmail called Accompany for Gmail (thank you for the tip Stacy Zapar). Accompany is a great replacement and complement to Rapportive. You don’t need to delete Rapportive; Accompany will work on top of it. However, the best news is that it will reformate Rapportive to fit into your browser in Gmail.
If you exclusively want to use Accompany for Gmail (and I am), it will pull information from all over the web (not just LinkedIn) to give you profiles on everyone in your inbox. It works quite well. For example, I learned that Dean Da Costa has his own Wikipedia page.
The only downside, according to Zapar is that it only works on contacts that are in your inbox. As of now, you can’t use it to validate an email that you’ve sourced.
Here is some information from its website:
- Bios and handy links to their profiles on social media including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Crunchbase.
- Where they work, what they do, and a brief history of their career.
- An overview of their company, including funding/stock information, headcount, revenues, and more.
- Recent news and press coverage about them and their organization.
- Any shared connections you may not know about.
- Links to email history and meetings are right in the sidebar to jog your memory and save you time.
- A notepad for the important facts, like their kid starting college, a pending promotion, or a reminder of something to discuss the next time you meet.
- All of the information you need to impress (and to ensure you’re responding to the right people at the right time) is right at your fingertips. Great for anyone with broad networks or customer bases, from the executive suite to the salesforce.
- Accompany is also available as a web app at www.accompany.com and on the iOS app store at https://appsto.re/us/kPepbb.i
Accompany plays well with other productivity and relationship management tools including Gmelius, Boomerang, Full Contact, Send from Gmail, Right Inbox, Gmail Notifier, Mailtrack, Checker Plus, WiseStamp, Mailto, ActiveInbox, Todoist, KeyRocket, Secure Mail, Virtru, PixelBlock, Rapportive, and Discoverly.
LinkedIn Launches Sales Navigator Lite for Gmail
On November 8th, LinkedIn launched Sales Navigator Lite for Gmail. According to LinkedIn, it is a new version of Rapportive, with all the same features. Sales Navigator Lite for Gmail is available for free and doesn’t require a paid Sales Navigator subscription.
Options include:
- Hover over an email address to see LinkedIn profile details so you have context on the people you’re emailing
- View icebreakers, like mutual connections, to help you make the most of every conversation
- Connect directly with email contacts on LinkedIn and grow your network