We love to follow start ups at RE Technology. It's exciting to see what fresh ideas young tech companies can offer real estate pros. We've seen how the right solution can save agents time, money--and a lot of hassle. Think of how much more harried you'd feel each day without your favorite mobile device or transaction management solution!

While you can replace your fax machine, tech products can't replace bedrock things like relationships--but they can enhance them. Social media apps and drip marketing tools, for example, can help you stay top-of-mind with your broader sphere of influence, while CRM programs enable you to nurture individual relationships.

No matter how long you've been in the industry, you've heard the mantra--real estate is a relationship business. A robust real estate practice thrives on referrals and repeat clients, two things that are difficult to achieve without maintaining healthy relationships.

That's why we were excited to get a peek at version 2.0 of relationship management solution Contactually. The update, just released today, aims to put the process of reaching out to your contacts "on steroids" in order to drum up more referrals.

Until now, Contactually's focus has been to help users strategically cultivate their network by automatically prompting them to follow up with important contacts. Version 2.0 takes that foundation on builds on it by elevating your interactions into experiences that are more meaningful and valuable to your contacts. Five significant updates to the program help you accomplish this.

1. Easily introduce contacts - Is that client who just moved into their home looking for a decorator? Introduce them to one you know--you're sure to stay top-of-mind for quite a while! Contactually makes this a snap. Just select the two contacts you want to introduce. The program will ask you why the contacts are relevant to each other and then automatically create an introduction email around that information. Just send, and you're done!

2. Share content with your network - Provide value to your contacts and they, in turn, will perceive you as valuable. One way to do this is by sharing content. Use Contactually 2.0's bookmarklet to save and share content with a personal message right from your browser.

3. Save time with email templates - Your time is precious. Contactually's new email templates automatically fill in key personal information like name, job title, and date of last contact to enable you to efficiently make contact with more people.

4. Advanced contact search and segmentation - Contactually's powerful new contact search capabilities let you find people based on whatever criteria you need. Looking for appraisers only? Done. How about people who live within a certain area code? Not a problem. It's easy to find whoever you need.

5. Go mobile - Last but certainly not least, Contactually takes all the aforementioned functionality and lets you take it anywhere with their new iPhone app. Now you can manage your relationships from wherever you are!

That old canned "Happy birthday" message is starting to look a little wan right now, huh? Yeah, we thought so. Contactually's new update caught our eye because it's clear they've put some thought into why people are considered valuable contacts and how this value can be amplified.

In the end, it all comes down to, yes, who you know, but also what you know and how you share that information with your sphere.

Next Steps

• Learn more about Contactually in our Product Directory
• Visit Contactually's website
• Watch a video about Contactually 2.0
• See more options for Customer Relationship Management solutions