Rich Aberman is the co-founder of WePay, a payment service that helps people collect money online. You can read more of Rich’s posts on the WePay blog, “Like” WePay on Facebook, or follow WePay on Twitter.When I moved to Silicon Valley from the East Coast, my real life social network became significantly more distributed. My friends were no longer limited to my small group of college buddies. Now, my network consists of many different groups, each of which has its own personality and social mores.
I’m certainly not the only one. We all share the challenge of managing and communicating with many different groups of friends, teammates, and coworkers. Luckily, there are plenty of online tools that help with that. Here are my favorites for a variety of different situations.
Bring Your Friends Together
For formal groups like clubs or organizations, GroupSpaces is a great solution. It manages members, organizes gatherings, and shares calendars and documents. GroupSpaces even allows you to collect money from members for dues and group events.
I just joined a soccer team for the first time in years. It’s great exercise, but it’s also an additional 12 friends with whom I need to coordinate. TeamSnap helps manage our game and event schedules, tracks who can attend each game, organizes fees and payments, and even tracks player stats.
Disclosure: GroupSpaces uses WePay to collect money.
Communicate With Your Crew(s)
I’ve also used it for short-term groups. I went to Vegas with a bunch of friends, and our GroupMe phone number is the only thing that kept us all together when we were on the go.
And going back to the basics, I use Facebook whenever I want to start a long message thread with multiple people. It’s quicker and easier than e-mail, and it feels more casual.
Plan the Party
Since nobody pays attention to RSVP requests on Facebook Events, it’s not a good option for smaller or more formal gatherings. I use Pingg for formal or intimate engagements because the invitations are elegant, and recipients take the RSVP part seriously. For the really high brow, big-deal affairs, sometimes classic printed invites are necessary. Companies like Paperlinks bridge the gap between the digital and real worlds by letting you add QR codes to your printed invitations to give them another dimension. The codes can link online photos, videos and other visual elements to any paper invites you’re sending out to friends and family.
All that said, I’m a creature of habit, and I still use Evite. It’s a little clunky, and it has a bit of a bad rap, but it does the trick. For casual events with limited guest lists, Evite is (still) my go-to tool.
Show Up
There are a million online calendars and calendar tools, but I simply couldn’t survive without Google Calendar. It’s a classic, and it does everything I need. My Google calendar syncs with iCal, which I run locally on my laptop. They both sync with my iPhone, so I always know where I’m supposed to be (I make sure to set my alerts at least 20 minutes before every calendar event).
But how does it help me manage my social life? Simple: Sharing. I share my calendar with those in my immediate circles so they can always see what I’m up to and know when I’m free.
Working hours: It’s a new feature, but I’ve already started using it. Google now lets you set up working hours so other people know when they should invite you to events and when to leave you alone.
Invites: This might be the simplest and most amazing tool in Google Calendar. If you are planning an event with more than one person, simply invite them to the event when you add it to your calendar, and Google will send them an e-mail invite. If they accept, it will automatically get added to their calendar as well.
Find a time: This feature solves a real problem. When you’re trying to coordinate a meeting time for multiple people, you can easily compare schedules and pick a time that works for everyone.
Keep in Touch
Etacts is a Gmail plugin that helps me manage my individual relationships. It’s almost like a personal CRM. My favorite feature of Etacts is that it automatically helps me stay in touch with my friends. For example, Etacts reminds me to connect with my college roommate at least once every two weeks. Making friends is easy, but keeping the relationship alive and strong is tough. For this, Etacts has been my tool of choice.
Once you manage to get the ol’ group together though, don’t forget to set up that “out of office” automated e-mail reply and step away from your smart phone. Those in-person interactions are what it’s all about.
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