Excerpted from Harvard Business Review, The Management Tip of the Day on February 4, 2016
Turn Conference Introductions into Ongoing Connections
After your next conference, social media tools can help you follow up with the people you really want to make a part of your professional network. Try these strategies:
- Install a business-card-processing app on your smartphone that can scan cards with a camera and convert them to contact information.
- If you meet someone and hit it off, connect right away. Send your pal a tweet from your smartphone right then and there.
- At the end of each trip, make a “keeper” pile of business cards for people you want to stay in touch with, then use your business card app to capture them.
- Use your business card app’s social networking function to send each person a LinkedIn connection invitation.
- Send your “keepers” a personal e-mail saying how much you enjoyed meeting them and suggesting when or how you’ll follow up.
Adapted from “What to Do with All the Business Cards from Your Last Conference,” by Alexandra Samuel