Springpad, the ultimate research tool?

I have been using it for over three years and I reckon it is the ultimate research tool. If you know how to use Pinterest, then you won't have any issues using Springpad, you will find many similarities between the two. Just like Pinterest, Springpad also has a "Spring" button that can be installed on your browser.

Collaborative research has never been easier and this is definitely one tool that every strategy team should be using on a daily basis. It is extremely easy to use and everything sits in the cloud, so you have access to your research anywhere, anytime and on any device.

All you have to do is go to www.springpad.com and register, you can do this using an email address or you can use your existing Social Media profiles. Once you have done this you can start "springing", start off by creating your first Notebook and give it a name. You can now start saving or "springing" information to this notebook. Where the app becomes really useful is if you have to work on a project with a team or if you have to compile research around a specific topic, Springpad allows you to create multiple notebooks for different projects.

You can invite other users to become contributors so that they can also "spring" to a particular notebook and therefore all the research is consolidated in the cloud. When any of the users "spring" anything they can add a description, include a comment and tag the content with a relevant name for easy reference at a later stage. Users can also follow one another and invite friends just like you can on Pinterest and other social media platforms.

You can set the notebooks that you create to either be private (where only those that you invite can see it and access the information) or it can be public where anybody can access it. You are also able to customise the design, layout and navigation of your notebooks. When you are trying to find that article or case study, all you do is go to your Springpad, filter the results by searching for the relevant keyword or tag and that's it, you're sorted. So hopefully you'll never experience that frustrating feeling again of not being able to find the information that you are looking for.

Here is a link to my personal "Digital Notebook" it has loads of great insights and research that I have collated over the years, enjoy and start "springing".