How to Follow Up After Networking

Imagine you've come back from your industry's biggest trade show after two days of nonstop networking.

You've got a pocketful of business cards and a phone full of contacts, and your head's buzzing with the conversations you've had. Now what?

Chances are, you're used to making connections online, but you aren't so sure how to cultivate people you've met face-to-face.

Following up on the contacts you've made is an essential part of effective networking. Get it right, and you'll be in a great position to build lasting business relationships and enhance your credibility. Get it wrong, and you could miss opportunities to boost your career, or to develop new clients. Even worse, you could get a reputation for using people.

In this article, you can explore eight simple steps for following up your networking efforts that can lay the foundations for excellent new connections.

The Benefits of Good Follow-Up

It's important to make a good first impression at a networking event, but it's even better to turn that initial contact into a relationship that brings long-lasting mutual benefits.

The contacts you make can help you in your career. For example, if they turn into valuable new clients, that'll reflect well on you as the person who brought them on board. But there's more to it than that.

A strong professional network can help you to learn new skills, to develop best practice in your area, to learn more about your industry, and to open up new job opportunities.

And the more connections you make, the more valuable you become to others as an aid to building their networks.

Making the Most of Your Contacts

The following eight steps will help you to enhance your post-event follow-up skills, and turn new contacts into high-quality connections.

How you do this will depend to some extent on your organization's online policy, and on the kind of profile your contact has. You may have a more relaxd to approaching contacts on social media than these steps assume, but we'll play it safe here.

1. Organize Your Contacts List

Organize the contact information you've collected as soon as you can. Whether you've got a stack of business cards or a phone full of new contact details, you need to put them into order.

Start by assessing them against your networking goals. If you're looking for new sales leads, for example, you could rate them according to a simple scale. "Hot" leads have strong potential as new clients; "warm" leads represent possible new business; and "cool" leads will more likely be trying out a large number of suppliers.

Make a private list in Twitter of your contacts' accounts, or create tagged records in a package such as Asana. Make notes about their potential, their relevance to your organization's business sector, and any personal information they may have shared.

2. Do Your Research

Before you reach out to a new contact, be sure that you know exactly what they do, who they work for, and what their organization does. That way you can decide whether it's worth cultivating a relationship with them.

Check out their LinkedIn profile, and search for them online to discover their special interests and past achievements. This can give you some good starting points for a conversation. A potential client will more likely respond favorably if they can see that you've made some effort to find out about them.

3. Get Your Timing Right

Follow up as soon as you can, preferably within a day or two of making the initial contact. Otherwise your contact may forget your previous conversation, and the enthusiasm and energy of your original meeting will diminish.

Following up quickly also shows your contact that connecting with them is a priority for you. If you leave it much longer, they'll more likely think that you don't value them.

4. Follow Up in Writing

In most cases, your first follow-up will be via email or with an online message. Only make a phone call if your contact has specifically invited you to do so. Written communication gives your contact the chance to respond at their convenience, whereas a call may catch them at a bad moment, or make them feel that they're being "put on the spot."

Also, bear in mind that the prevalence of instant messaging, email, SMS, and so on means that some people may prefer not to use the phone.

Your first follow-up message is just to reopen contact, so keep it short. If you're sending an email, use a clear, personalized subject line that identifies the purpose of the email (for example, "Hi Phil: following up on our chat at NetExpo").

Simply state who you are, who you work for, where you met, and maybe include a couple of details of any conversation you've already had.

You can also show your interest in the organization your contact works for, and briefly indicate ways in which you could help them. You could offer a free demo or product information pack, for example.

But don't go overboard on detail and information. That can come later, and your contact won't want to read more than two or three short paragraphs. See our article, Writing Effective Emails, for more pointers.

You can find plenty of templates for follow-up emails online. Use these for reference if you wish, but try to make your messages as individual as possible (see step 7).

If your contact doesn't respond immediately, don't worry. They'll likely be as busy with post-event follow-up as you are!

If they don't respond after a week or more, consider a brief email to jog their memory. But don't contact them persistently if they don't reply. You don't want to be seen as a nuisance, or to come across as too desperate for their attention.

5. Connect via Social Media

It's easy to invite your contact to connect with you on LinkedIn, but it's best if you only do so once you've had a substantial conversation. If all you did was exchange contact details, your contact may think you're pushing too hard, or that you're just seeking to connect with anyone.

Remember that your contacts will be making connections themselves, all the time. Even if they met you at an event, they may not remember who you are. In that case they may be uncertain about connecting online.

If you do send a LinkedIn invitation, say where you met your contact, or how you found their profile. If you met face-to-face, mention something that you talked about. LinkedIn allows you to share contact lists with others, and to share and discuss ideas or content.

You can also follow a new contact on Twitter, as long as their profile is public. If not, you can ask to follow them, although you may want to wait until you're invited to, or at least until the relationship is a little more established.

6. Make Yourself Valuable

Good networking achieves mutual benefit. Look for ways in which you can offer something to your contact, whether it's expertise, recommendations, or extending their network by introducing them to your other contacts.

Aim to establish your reputation as someone who's both helpful and reliable. Don't be too eager to seek anything in return, and don't make demands for help in your first communications with new contacts.

If you have a product that the contact might be interested in, by all means suggest it, but don't go for the hard sell, particularly in the early stages of the relationship.

7. Personalize Your Communication

When you're networking, it's always worth listening out for small pieces of personal information that you can use to establish rapport in follow-up communications.

Maybe your contact mentions a hobby that you have an interest in, or follows a particular sports team. Mentioning these in your follow-up can help to strengthen the relationship.

You should also consider some self-disclosure. This shouldn't be highly personal information, as that may make your contact uncomfortable. Instead, write about subjects that you think your contact will respond to positively.

8. Develop the Relationship

If your initial follow-up results in a positive connection, work on developing that relationship. Suggest a one-on-one meeting. This is especially valuable if your contact is a potential client, as face-to-face meetings help to build trust.

If your contact is nearby, suggest you meet up for a coffee or a working lunch. If not, set up a Skype or Slack call, or arrange to speak on the telephone.

If you connect through LinkedIn or Twitter, be sure to stay in touch, but only if you have something valuable to say or share. Cultivate your online profile by sharing content and best practice tips, as long as your organization is happy for you to do so.

By following the straightforward steps above, you could turn what may have started out as a simple exchange of business cards into a long-lasting and valuable relationship!