Here are two free tools that everyone should use:

Plaxo
Plaxo is a great web-based program that enables users to sync their Outlook contact, calendar, tasks and notes with an online system. It’s free to join and easy to setup. It’s great for people like me who have a desktop computer at the office, a Palm Treo, and a laptop for traveling. I am able to sync everything with Plaxo and it keeps me up-to-date no matter where I update my contact list or calendar entries. 

There are two great added features that make this program even better.

1.) If you are a Plaxo member, you can create Plaxo cards for your home and work information. You can then allow other Plaxo users who add you to their address book to access this information. For instance, in my contact list, I have 17 people who are also members of Plaxo and I am kept up-to-date with their correct contact information.

2.) Once a year, I allow Plaxo to send out an “update” email to everyone in my contact list. This shoots out a quick email to the recipients asking them to review their contact information and click on a link or reply to the email to update it. I did this about 2 weeks ago and received about 50 updates that I would have otherwise not have known about.

Check it out at: http://www.plaxo.com/ 

LinkedIn
Although I’ve been a member for a while, I first started using LinkedIn more recently. Much like Facebook, LinkedIn is a social network. Instead of focusing on college buddies, LinkedIn focuses on business professionals. What does this mean?  It’s appropriate to use it in the office. Just tell your boss that you’re seeking out new business prospects.One great feature with LinkedIn is the ability to ask your network a question. It could be social in nature, but more likely people will ask for business advice. Also, LinkedIn provides a great little tool to post job openings. I haven’t used that feature, so I’m not sure how effective it is….

Check it out at: http://www.linkedin.com/