A colleague of mine invested in a unique company called Circle.Me. He asked me to help gather feedback in order to improve the product. I've be using Circle.Me for about a month and think it's really cool. I'd bet you'll think it's cool too.
Please try it free (registration below) and read this entire post to learn how to use Circle.Me. I greatly appreciate your support in helping test this. As a reward, you will be able to continue to use the product for free - and I owe you a drink the next time I see you!
A whole new way to communicate electronically. Totally Secure, Totally Confidential, Totally Certifiable.
Try Circle.Me for free – in exchange for telling Circle.me's developers how you’d improve it. Sign up as a beta user to send Express messages. Get your free password and try it now.
Some awesome benefits:
- You can say what you really think in a message without fear of it being forwarded to someone else or printed. Your personal discussions remain private.
- You know for sure that someone did (or did not) get a message and know exactly when the message was first accessed.
- Individuals can use it without fear of their e-mail address becoming public.
- Securely transmits regulated information such as HIPPA Compliant Private Health Information.
The ability to provide total confidentiality, in my opinion, is Circle.me’s best benefit.
- The recipient cannot forward, reply to all, print the message or view the other recipients email addresses.
- No more emails ending up in the wrong persons hands.
- Your name does not appear anywhere on the message. Even if the recipient took a picture of the message it would be impossible to prove the message came from.
- With the Express feature, the message can only be viewed once.
- The message within the link disappears after it is first viewed.
- Finally, the confidentiality/deniability of a personal conversation in electronic format.
6 EASY STEPS TO SIGN UP
- Go to our web site
- Click on “About Circle.Me” on the right side of the page. TIP: Do not try to put in a use name or password yet!
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Register”. You can also read more about the product in this section.
- Read the Terms and Conditions and be sure to click both boxes at the bottom before clicking “Submit”
- In the promo code box, enter these words: First (case sensitive) and fill out your information.
- Then click “Register”. You will receive an email verifying your registration.
Here’s an excerpt from the mail Circle.me sent to me:
“We have been in development of a secure, confidential cross-platform messaging system that we are getting ready to take to market and need Beta users to help us work out any kinks and provide feedback. I would greatly appreciate it if you would sign up to use the product and fill out a survey that will be coming to you in the next few weeks with your thoughts. We want to know what you like about the product and how you’ve used it. While there are several advanced features to the product, we are currently focusing on and hope that you will use the Express feature, a quick and easy to use component of the application.”
The developer’s initial description of the product was “electronic return receipt”. For those of you about to say "Outlook does that", Outlook requires the recipient to be using Outlook and also requires the recipient to click "Yes, Notify the Sender".
Circle.me puts the power is in the sender's hands, regardless of what email platform it’s sent to and without compliance from the recipient. The sender gets an email notification the minute the recipient views the message. You can send a Circle.Me message and know with certainty it was delivered.
Some awesome features:
- Messages received cannot be printed or forwarded, and cease to exist on recipients side when they are closed. Your note is ONLY between you and the recipient.
- Neither the sender’s nor the recipient’s names are attached to the message, leaving no link to the sender. Screen scraping and pasting do not reveal either sender or recipient
- An EXPRESS message can only be read one time. Sort of like the classic TV show Mission Impossible; the message self-destructs.
- You can send directly to someone's e-mail address. They do not have to have a circle.me account.
- You are notified when the recipient first accesses your note so you know when they got it.
- You can un-send a message if it has not been read yet.
- The user interface is designed for mobile devices without having to download a separate app.
- There is no spam with circle.me.
- You can print an audit log of what happened with the message and when it happened.
- Files can be transferred securely without the difficulties of setting up a secure site or having your message kicked back by the recipients’ server.
The challenge – What would you do to make it better?
- Circle.me has so many possible uses and broad application. How would you use it?
- What did you like about the product?
- What do you feel would make the product even better?
- Please leave your comments on the blog www.marketingjam.com
HOW TO SEND AN EXPRESS MESSAGE:
- Make sure you have a user name and password first.
- Got to www.Circle.Me
- Sign on to Express by entering you username and password and hitting “Express”
- Enter a subject line then enter your message.
- Click on “Add Recipients” at the bottom of the screen.
- Type in the email addresses of the individuals you wish to send your secure message to and click “Send” at the bottom of the screen.
- Your secure, confidential message has been sent.
Messages can be sent two ways:
- Use the EXPRESS feature. Write your message, attach your files, and enter the recipients e-mail address. The recipient will get an e-mail with a link to access your important message. You will be notified as soon as the recipient accesses the message and circle.me will post an audit log for your reference. The recipient can only read the message one time and the message cannot be forwarded or printed. The recipient does not have to be a circle.me user.
- Build a circle. Circle.me allows you to create circles of interest and invite people to join. These circles give you the ability to send messages to all of the members of your circle at one time or to be selective about who you send the message to.
If you want to build a list of regular recipients based on some sort of affiliation (project, team, church group, any list of people involved in some common activity), you can create a circle. You can create a separate circle for each type of affiliation. To create a circle, simply give the circle a name and type in the recipient's e-mail addresses you wish to join. An invitation will then be sent to each of those people. You will be notified when they join and you're ready to start sending confidential messages to your circle members and know exactly when they received the message.
Disclosure: My opinions are my own and I am not being paid by Circle.Me for this blog post. I just think it's cool and want to help it succeeed.