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Jaap Linssen
Innovating communication and collaboration
Jaap Linssen is the founder, owner, and Chief Executive Officer of OrangeTrail, a company based in Amsterdam.12 With extensive experience in business consulting, Jaap specializes in employee engagement, collaboration, IT communications, and community building.4
Professional Background
Jaap is recognized as a thought leader in digital collaboration and social media strategies for businesses. He is the co-author of the Social Collaboration Maturity Benchmark, which helps organizations assess and improve their collaborative practices.26
OrangeTrail
OrangeTrail, the company Jaap leads, focuses on:
- Bringing radical digital collaboration to workplaces
- Creating environments where employees can work smarter together
- Assisting businesses in improving their impact and results on social media platforms3
Online Presence
Jaap maintains an active online presence:
- LinkedIn: His profile shows he has over 500 connections1
- Twitter: He joined the platform in December 2008 and uses the handle @JaapLinssen4
Personal Approach
Jaap appears to value team building and company culture. In February 2023, he shared that OrangeTrail had a company day where employees participated in barista training together, showcasing a commitment to fostering a collaborative and engaging work environment.5
Highlights
A FOOL WITH A TOOL IS STILL A FOOL
We are talking to quite a lot of organisations about the question: What comes after Workplace by Meta? And I see quite some online discussion on the topic.
Some organisations understand what needs evaluation and needs to be added to the strategy. We had an inspiring workshop Yesterday at Nestlé that addressed the right ways to use networked communication. What activities worked and what activities need to be rethought? However, a lot of organisations are stuck comparing features.
"If we don't have this feature we will not have first-line workers engaged!"
I will not argue that features are irrelevant, but they are not the drivers of success!
99% of organisations are not reaching their first-line workers because their content is irrelevant to them. That is the number one reason. Many first-line workers are not allowed phones on the floor. So, they need to consume content at another time. Can you expect them to read your content during their breaks? Well, it needs to be better than playing cards, talking about the European championship football, or other cafeteria topics. Yes, that is hard, but that hard work needs to be done and will not be replaced by a feature.
The same goes for leadership engagement. If leadership communication is mostly formal announcements, do not expect engagement. If you want engagement, have the leaders talk about the things that matter to them and ask their employees a question once in a while. Yes, stitching together a good plan for a leader is hard work and often needs a lot of convincing. But, even the best live event feature will not make a formal broadcast engaging. You need to put in the work.
We need to stop kidding ourselves. Features and tools will not make good content for us. At best they will lift crap to mediocrity.
So, when you think about the post Workplace era think about the stories you'd like to tell, about the voices that can be heard, about how your leaders can inspire and connect, about the ideas that can surface, the knowledge that can flow, and the pride and passion it will generate when you put in the effort.
#Jobopportunity
We have a long-standing relationship with Nestlé and work with them on networked communication, productivity, and collaboration. They are looking for a new Product owner for Viva Engage. Managing a networked communication tool for an organisation of this size (300k employees) is an opportunity of a lifetime. The role resides in the IT organisation. As a product owner you look after the tool from a technical standpoint, but also connect with many people in the organisation to ensure they are successful in using it. And if we are lucky, we might get to work closely with you as well.
Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eGEbEkq8
cc. Davide Tarantola
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
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- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
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