This post comes to you courtesy of ideas from Lifehacker & Mail Chimp blogs.
The next time you have an event to attend – be it a trade show, a networking event, a usergroup meeting, etc, do a little work ahead of time to make sure you meet with and get the contact info for key attendees.
Make a list of the people you want to be sure to meet at the event, and if you can, track down their email addresses. At the very least, you’ll be able to make a list of names to check off as the event progresses, but with a little effort you can do so much more than that.
Research:
Do a litte digging on the people you want to meet. See if you can find their blog, their website, their facebook page, etc (use a tool like Flowtown to get headed in the right direction). With Flowtown, a simple email address unlocks the door to social profiles, and even compiles them all in once place. You can snag an image, jot down a few notes about the person, and maybe even connect in advance of the event. At the very least with a little additional insite to their personality you’ll be able to keep the conversation going with a few specific talking points.
Compile Your List:
Now take your list of names and email addresses and compile that will all the other little goodies you found about the people you want to connect with. You could put these together and print them on a small card (leave room for phone numbers and email addresses for those you don’t already have).
Get Tech Savvy:
If you’re really good, you’ll take your list of contacts and preload it – with all the additional info you found – into your phone’s address book. This way when you do get a chance to meet someone you can quickly add their contact info the address record you’ve already created. You could also try adding Bump or a similar app to your phone to make exchanging contacts super fast.
This certainly beats an akward business card exchange – and having to enter all the business card info into your CRM or address book later.
Another cool trick would be to use CardLasso from Model Metrics. CardLasso allows you to take a picture of a business card and have it automatically transcribed and entered to a csv file, your Outlook contacts or even to Salesforce as a new lead. I’m guessing the CardLasso trick is the least cost effective, but when I saw it at Dreamforce ’08, it was really very cool.
Don’t forget to bring your business cards – you’ll still run into people who expect them – and create a plan of action for following up with all of your new-found friends in a timely manner.
Have any of your own networking tips? Share them in the comments.
