Here is another simple networking tip, which helped me a lot. An often replicated picture: Shake hands and a swift exchange of business cards.
And there your are at the end of a conference week. You managed to trade your stack of business cards with a similar stack of very different cards. Now what? After all, the purpose of exchanging cards is to give your new acquaintances the chance to connect with you and vice versa.
When you write one or two reasons for a follow up on the back of the business card as soon as you get a chance, then you’ll make your life much easier afterwards.
Reasons for a follow up are ideally needs your new contact mentioned or you observed that you could satisfy. Maybe you could use your follow up email to introduce your new contact to someone else, send a link to a website, book or other resource you praised, information about another conference or workshop, but even more information about a vacation spot or restaurant that came up in your conversation. Pretty much anything that may be of use for your new contact is a great way to follow up. By jotting down these details as quickly as possible after you talked, you’ll make sure they won’t slip your busy mind.
But even if you don’t get a chance to write anything down, then at least make a mark on the back of the card when you think the person is worth staying in touch with. This way you can also quickly eliminate which connections did not immediately offer value for you and sort their cards on a separate stack.
Following up with something of benefit for your new contact is a great way to be remembered even if nothing comes out of this immediately.
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