Using Outlook Social Connector in Outlook 2010

With social media playing a big role in today’s business environment, it is essential that you stay in touch with social media networks to collaborate with people effectively. Outlook 2010 recognizes this need and provides options to connect to people on sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and others using the Outlook Social Connector (OSC) and the People pane. In this Outlook 2010 tutorial, I’ll show you how using Outlook Social Connector in Outlook can be accomplished.

People Pane

This is the medium that allows you to view your contacts, professional and social, and connect to social networking sites. You can click a contact to view details about the person from one single location.

By default, the People Pane is minimized. You need to double-click the double-edged line at the bottom of the Reading Pane, or drag the minimized pane up to display the People Pane from where you can view and access your social contacts.

Using Outlook Social Connector (OSC)

The Outlook Social Connector is a Microsoft add-on that enables you to connect Outlook 2010 to your business and social networks. You need to download the add-on for each social network you want to connect to. Understanding how to connect to Facebook and LinkedIn Using Microsoft Outlook Social Connector will help keep you posted on all the latest stories and updates and enable you to manage your contacts effectively.

8 Ways to Stay Connected Using Outlook Social Connector

When you go through the email messages from your Inbox, you can simultaneously examine the People Pane to get the latest information about the sender of the message. This includes the picture, name, and title of the sender.

Additionally, you can do the following:

1. Open the latest email message from the sender.

2. Show news feeds and RSS feeds about the sender.

3. Show attachments received from the sender.

4. Show meeting appointments with the sender.

5. Show status updates submitted by the sender.

6. If you are attending a meeting with a number of people, the OSC gallery lets you view the pictures of the meeting attendees.You can view the gallery by clicking the double-arrow icon in the upper-right corner of the People Pane.

7. Send a request to add the sender on any of the networks you are connected to by clicking the (+) Add button below the picture.

8. The OSC automatically synchronizes people from each of your connected networks and saves them as contacts in Outlook. This saves you the time and effort of maintaining the contacts.

The Microsoft Outlook Social Connector (OSC) add-on for Facebook and LinkedIn allows you to connect to Facebook and LinkedIn contacts while checking your Outlook email messages. This tutorial shows you how to connect to your social network from within Outlook 2010.

When you access your Inbox in Outlook, the Microsoft Outlook Social Connector add-on shows details related to the people in the conversation such as past messages from the person, Facebook or LinkedIn updates such as the social profile updates, recent photos added, activity feeds and such. However, this depends on the privacy options set be each individual. For instance, if the social networking options of your contacts are publicly available or available to you, then you can access them via your Inbox using Outlook Social Connector.

How to Connect to Facebook and LinkedIn in Outlook

1. Download the Microsoft Outlook Social Connector for Facebook  to add Facebook contacts to Outlook OR download LinkedIn for Outlook add-on to connect LinkedIn contacts to Outlook.

2. Run the EXE file.

3. Get connected.

a. Restart Outlook. In the Outlook Social Connector wizard, in the Social Network Accounts list box, select Facebook or LinkedIn.

b. Enter your Facebook/LinkedIn credentials.(Username and password)

c. Click Connect, Finish and then click Close.

OR

a. Select the View tab, and in the People Pane group, select People Pane, and then select Account Settings.

b. In the Microsoft Outlook wizard, click Next.

c. In the Social Network Accounts list box select Facebook or LinkedIn.

d. Enter your Facebook/LinkedIn credentials.(Username and password)

e. Click Connect, click Finish and then click Close.

Downloadable: PDF Copy of

How to Connect to Facebook and LinkedIn in Outlook 2010

Now that you know how to connect to Facebook and LinkedIn in Outlook 2010 go ahead and stay connected with your contacts right from within your email.