Dave Gise

Some great suggestions from @ConversationAge

1) Take notes in the back of the business card about where you met that person and what you talked about, then enter them in your electronic database with their contact information

2) Follow up with people right after an event, while the energy from the experience is still high, and it’s likely they’d remember it if not you

3) Share resources like articles, posts, links, and connections to other people as part of your follow up. Generosity gets you started on a good and memorable footing.

4) Develop a system to keep track of when you touch base with people after the initial contact. Things tend to drop off as time goes by, so documenting the time frame is helpful.

5) Track what you share, or enter notes of the kind of things that person is interested in or is working on, just like you did when you were looking for your first job or the next gig.

6) Revisit your database or address book periodically to follow up with people you may not have heard from or talked to in a while.

7) Make it a habit to share with that person special content, leads, helpful things as you come across them. Habits are habit-forming and will allow you to keep the momentum going.

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…becoming active on Twitter involves the very same principles you might apply to attending a networking event. Dan Zarrella at Hubspot recently created a great infographic with some basics about getting followers that drives this point home. Following are my tips:

1. Be yourself

Zarrella cites the importance of a photo (of yourself, not a flower, city scape, dog, or favorite food) on your profile page, but it goes beyond that. If you aren’t tweeting about things you care about and about which you have an opinion, it will be obvious.

2. Respond when people talk to you

If someone says hello via an @ message, a retweet (RT) or a direct message (with the exception of automated DMs), respond. It’s appropriate to say thank you, enter a conversation, or express enthusiasm for the connection. Like networking, Twitter is a place for conversations and connections. Foster both whenever and however you can.

Humanity and technology continue to co-evolve at an ever increasing pace, leaving traditional institutions (and mindsets) calcified and out of date. A new paradigm is emerging, where everything is increasingly connected and the nature of collaboration, business and work are all being reshaped. In turn, our ideas about society, culture, geographic boundaries and governance are being forced to adapt to a new reality.

While some fear the loss of control associated with these shifts, others are exhilarated by the new forms of connectivity and commerce that they imply. Transactions and interactions are growing faster and more frictionless, giving birth to what I call a “superfluid” economy.

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While I might be communicating with tens of thousands of people every day, outside of encounters with my immediate family and business team, I am not really connecting or fostering very many real relationships at all. I’m what’s called a mile wide and an inch deep, and that’s not how you strike oil! I’ve been mistaking communication for connection.

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