Tuesday 11 June 2013

How do I follow up and keep in touch after a network meeting?



I have made it to three international conferences throughout my career but a dozen national and local conferences, workshops and meetings (Don’t judge me, I’m still in my early stages of my career! You should know that by now) <Smile>. We network, exchange cards, introduce our work to one another, but on returning home, it all comes down to a bunch of cards locked in a pile. I settle back to my desk and move on to my routine daily dailies, sometimes completely forgetting all about the people I met or too afraid to try. Will they remember me? I ask.

So I ask myself this overwhelming question over and over, but it gets me nowhere.

Why do I attend these networking meetings? It’s part of making progress in my career.
But how do I follow up and keep in touch? That’s the right question.

Just as I chose to deal with this squarely, you might also choose to do the same. I don’t want to waste your time. I don’t even want you to waste any time in the name of networking, just to get back home and be out of touch.

First, the Do’s and Don’ts:
Don’t forget, I am not an expert. I am just telling you what I’ve learnt and what I have found to work for me. A little you need to know about me. I hate phones. I don’t even like to initiate a conversation. You might be different. So, you need to read more for yourself and pick what works best.
Don’t attend a meeting with the perspective of collecting contacts. You are there to make them. If you can’t leave a lasting impression and create the need to be contacted or for contacting your new network, there is no point collecting their complementary cards. I beg to say this statement applies to personal networking. For instance, sales and marketing companies love to grab more contacts; the game is to get as much but highly ineffective when no prior relationship is established.

So conference is over! What do you do with the information?

Send out a personal e-mail, if necessary to reinforce the relationship and to dust out the cobwebs, especially if the other party is likely to forget you. Do this in time, before memory begins to fail you or your new contact.

Ask them prior to departure, if they are on LinkedIn or other professional networks including Twitter, Facebook (if applicable) but more importantly, if they are happy to add you to their contact list. This gives you the opportunity to discuss and engage meaningfully. It also gives you the opportunity to sell yourself, especially, if you are looking for a job, collaborations or some sort of partnership. But don’t forget to update your profile. You cannot afford to have a blank profile with no added value. In short, update your network profiles like you do to your CV.

The whole idea is take time out to develop meaningful relationship at each conference, meeting, or workshop session. You can achieve that by attending group dinners, after meetings and events, eating out with new members and taking part in short breaks.

Afterwards, following them up would not be twice as hard as it would normally be.

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