If you read Organize Your Business Cards the Modern Way, I imagine you now have all of your networking contacts’ information stored electronically and easily accessible… right? Great! Now, the question is: are you using that information regularly and to its full potential? To make the most of this valuable archive– and all the time and energy you invested to create it!– you need to put yourself on a regular schedule of following up with your contacts. For those who you communicate with regularly, or are particularly “hot” leads, it’s easy to go the old fashioned route and write “Follow Up with Nancy” on a paper calendar.

But what about those countless people in your email address book or your LinkedIn network that you had forgotten about? People who may have leads that you don’t even know about? It’s important to stay in contact with these people in the outer reaches of your network, but it’s time consuming and difficult to remember to do this regularly.  Well, technology to the rescue once again. Check out Social Minder.  It’s a “social assistant” that taps into your Gmail or Outlook to access your LinkedIn network and keep tabs on who you are and aren’t contacting, and how often. It sends you weekly email reminders to let you know who you are neglecting. Good luck!

Submitting articles to professional article-posting sites can promote and benefit your business, so it’s wise to become an expert at article writing.  The process can also be interesting, educational and fun, and it can take your business to new levels of involvement and success. Continue Reading »

Perhaps you haven’t yet made the leap to start writing a blog to promote your business; blogs require maintenance and careful thought and focus in order to be effective.  But have you considered a microblog?  A microblog is a form of multimedia blogging that allows you to publish very brief (usually no more than 140 characters) text updates, photos and audio clips throughout the day (or week).  You can choose for your messages to be viewed by anyone, or you can have a restrictive list of “followers” who subscribe to your updates.  There are numerous sites you can use, like Twitter, Yammer, and Jaiku– although Twitter appears to be the most popular.  Continue Reading »