One axiom I have in networking with people is to try to add value (to the people I network with – not me) 99% of the time. This builds a “goodwill” account and gets the stuff I send read. It also helps to build a following.
One principle in networking is to “gently” stay in touch with people. What I mean by this, is being respectful of their time and mind space.
This is combined with having many people in my network. Of course I would prefer to meet with everyone in my network in person every month but time just does not permit that. Social Media is one way I have solved this limited time to personally interact while at the same time staying in touch and being personal with people.
I have found the easiest thing for me to send is a link to an article that might be of interest. Sometimes I link to an article I wrote but many times, I am just sending people to an article I think might add value to them. I know that email is an “interrupting medium” so I chose to only send them by Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and post them to a Tumblr page and to a section on my blog. That way if people “chose” to look, they would see them.
Of course being a time management guy, I largely automated the process by using Ping.fm to post to all sources at the same time and using Hootsuite to send them at preset times. So right now I have my updates set to go out for the next 90 days and even without me logging in, they go out.
Once I started to send out updates, people said “Jim likes interesting articles” so would send me links to articles so that all I needed to do was to cut and paste.
There are still many people (perhaps 90+%) who do not send updates – especially on Linkedin, so updates do get read. I know because people respond to them.
Updates and Social Media, combined with using time saving tools like Ping.fm and Hootsuite (both free) are the way I “personally” keep in touch.
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Jim Estill can be reached at [email protected] or visit his web site at www.jimestill.com.
