10 Apps to Improve Your Professional Relationships

If you're like everyone else that's alive and not living under a rock right now, you love apps. And who can blame you? Apps are pretty great. What do you want to do? There's an app for that. No really, there is. In fact, there's probably more than one. As is evidenced by my disappointment every time I check the app store after having an app epiphany.

This handy list breaks down 10 of our favorite apps for improving your professional relationships. From team chat to conference networking, this list (in no particular order) touches on quite a few different pain points and we're pretty sure you'll find at least one to help your business.

1. Google Drive

The document-sharing cloud everybody knows and loves.

You don't have to spend your life searching for that one spreadsheet from your presentation three weeks ago ever again. Google Drive makes it easy for teams to upload, create, collaborate on, and share standard documents. With features like word processing and spreadsheet options your team can work remotely and always have access to the key tools they need. Need to send files to a client? Share using Google Drive and you'll both always be able to access them easily. Google Drive makes the file-sharing process simpler which makes it easier to focus on your actual interactions.

Features: word processor, spreadsheets, team accounts, forms, slides, download email attachments to Drive

2. HipChat

Real time conversations no matter where your team lives.

We have team members around the world and this robust chat feature gives us the opportunity for conversations across teams and locations. Just like your favorite ICQ of yesteryear, HipChat gives you the opportunity to set up multiple chat rooms. You can set them up by team, function, project – whatever tickles your fancy – and start chatting immediately. Members of the chat can share documents, use customized emojis, and tag each other. HipChat has a web app and runs on most platforms, including Linux. With it's customization and integrations it's a great choice for any large and/or spread out team.

Features: personalized emojis, attachment sharing, tag coworkers in conversations

3. 15Five

Grow your company without losing sight of your great company culture.

For us and for many other startups, company culture is integral to our success. We hire top talent, put them in the right positions, and provide them the tools they need to innovate and grow. It's important to us to maintain our crazy and collaborative culture as our company gets bigger. Tools like 15Five exist for companies just like us. This app can help you keep your finger on the pulse of your team. You have the opportunity to deal with issues more proactively, understand your team's pain points, and get honest feedback. This helps to keep team leaders involved and make the entire team feel heard.

Features: tag coworkers in conversations, cross-team coordination, flag for follow up, instant feedback

4. Speek

Making online meetings as easy as possible.

There are approximately forty billion online meeting tools. We all know the big ones and there's plenty of little ones to back them up. Speek is the online meeting app you might not know about and definitely should. This app works on desktop and on any mobile device and takes all of the extra administrative work out of getting everyone together online. There's no dial-ins, no PINs, and no software to download. If you have a team with flexible work options like ours you want to demo Speek. This makes keeping in touch with your team almost as easy as sitting down at a conference table together.

Features: screen share, file sharing, call recording, in-conference chat, branded conference rooms

5. Inc

Share with your team without overwhelming their inboxes.

Nobody wants an email every time someone on your team wants to share a link or a quick note. And keeping track of them in a spreadsheet can get pretty clunky. Inc gives your company the opportunity to share important links and quick notes in one simple place. The entire team can access the information at any time which makes it just as easy to find a reference as it is to share one. And if you're like us, it can be hard to keep track of all the places people are talking about you (#humblebrag) and this provides an efficient way to keep track of brand mentions for your sales and marketing teams to use with future customer-focused collateral.

Features: Chrome extension, universal search, organize by groups and tags

6. Roger

The alternative to sharing business cards in the technology age.

Gone are the days of Rolodexes and dropping business cards every time you open your wallet. Roger is here to help you network and save some trees in the process. Meet someone great at networking event? After automatically logging the location (thanks, GPS), Roger gets the contact information you need and even allows you to capture selfies and voice notes. Now you don't have to try to remember all of the details of an interaction based on someone's ugly business card. You have the details you need to make genuine connections and follow up better. Your network will thank you for it.

Features: audio recording, location tagging, contact photos

7. Slideshare

Share information important to you with your industry and your team.

Since popping on the scene, Slideshare has quickly become a place for expert and industry insight. Leaders in fields from agriculture to Zionist literature are creating presentations and sharing them with the world. This is a great way for you to not only learn more but to share more. Use your expertise to reach out to and connect with more people. If they like what you have to say they'll be sharing it and tagging you on social media in no time giving you a great window of opportunity to network. This is also a great way to make sure that everyone on your team has access to any presentation at any time for reference. And if you're into transparency you can even go ahead and throw your company's presentations up for the world to view. You never know what multi-billion dollar investment firm might be watching.

Features: LinkedIn integration, embedding options, lead generation, analytics

8. Trello

Keep your entire team up-to-date on a project.

If you're used to incredibly complex project management tools that require training to understand, you're going to love Trello. This app streamlines the project management process and presents the project using an easy-to-read design. It's as simple as project management can get with the ability to create, delete, move, and assign tasks on cards. You can upload attachments, add checklists, and create due dates. Keep your project organized on a high level and get your whole team on the same page.

Features: shared project management, workflows, upload attachments, checklists, labels, due dates, notifications

9. MailChimp

Create professional newsletters to share insights with your network easily.

This email tool is more than your mom's AOL account. MailChimp makes bulk messaging a breeze. You can design and send email newsletters, share them on social, and track the results. MailChimp makes the process painless for even the least creative by providing templates and a simple user-interface. We use it in our office to create a week-end newsletter for the team. It's a great way to communicate important information with our company and to share personal and team wins.

Features: subscriber profiles, multi-user accounts, customizable templates, workflows, analytics

10. Contactually

Stay in touch with and prioritize your network to make the most out of your important relationships.

Oh come on now. You didn't think we would share a whole list about the importance of relationships without talking about Contactually did you? We believe great relationships power great business and we make it easy for you to do that whether you're flying solo or with a team. The lightweight client relationship management tool you've been waiting for is only getting better everyday. As our team grows so does the functionality of our product.

Features: follow up reminders, contact organization, personalized bulk messaging, email template library, team sharing options

Start improving your professional relationships today and let us know what apps you count on to make the best impression on your network.

To view the original article, visit the Contactually blog.