How Many People Do You Connect with Daily?

If you believe that your business is built on building relationships, then you need to make building relationships your business. Don't you think? 

With that said, I thought I'd throw out a little survey today to see how many people you're personally connecting with on a daily basis (both on-line and off-line). 

• How are you connecting with them? Do you follow up with an email, phone call or personal note card?   

• How do you manage your database? Do you even have one? (If you don't, it's time to get on it. Just sayin'...).    

• What counts as a "New Contact" to you? Somebody you've merely spoken to? Or do they count as a contact if they've subscribed to your newsletter or something to that effect?   

• How often do you follow up? Is this a weekly, monthly or quarterly process for you? 

Cast your vote in the poll below and then drop a comment. Share your process! What works, what doesn't? How do you do it? 

Comments

[mousewords]

Great questions!

* How are you connecting with them? - Mostly via Twitter/social media, email, & in person. Often phone calls, depending on the day/need. Where I need work: Snail mail!

* How do you manage your database? Do you even have one? - I use my Gmail contact list, a Google document, & paper biz card/address file. Where I need work: I reeeally need to organize everything into one place.

* What counts as a "New Contact" to you? - To me, a new contact is anyone with whom I've had communication & exchanged contact information. Where I need work: Not being shy about contacting my contacts. :-)

* How often do you follow up? - Varies; the more I know the person, the more often I'll check in. Where I need work: Following up with new contacts promptly. The shyness hits again. :-)

You got me thinking about this. Thank you!

[Ricardo Bueno]

@Mousewords: Regarding point number one, I guess that's where my question is... What are you doing with those contacts to ensure that you're keeping in touch with them over time? For example, for me, I try and move everyone into my mac address-book but also ensure that I'm connected with them on LinkedIn (I love LinkedIn for this and it's one of my main sources to follow up).

I have a TON of business cards stashed in the empty business card boxes (hehe). I should go out and buy a binder and store 'em that way. But hey, at least I've kept the cards right? Speaking of Gmail though, I could (and should) be doing a better job of managing my connections there.

Follow up! You don't have to be shy about follow up. Personally, I'm a fan of note cards. But a phone call or brief email never hurt either :-)

In the case of following up with new contacts, go straight for the personalized note cards! I think those have the most impact (in my humble opinion).

Great to see you stop by Christine and thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!

[mousewords]

LinkedIn is a good idea--I should use it more. I use Twitter and (increasingly) Facebook that way. Local, non-social-media contacts I connect with by phone most often. (Just got off the phone, as a matter of fact!) :-)

I'm preparing to launch a newsletter, so that will make me get over my shyness...I think! :-)

I am hearing "personalized note cards" so much lately! Wow, I think I'd better get on that one. :-)

[Ricardo Bueno]

@Mousewords: well, for me, I've met most of the folks that I'm connected to on LinkedIn. I try and check in with at least 5-10 of them each week. That's just become a habit at this point.

As for my peeps on Twitter and Facebook, I try and share multi-media content (mostly photos) that I think they may find interesting. Truth is, you never know what's going to serve as a conversation starter with folks. So I treat my social media as if they're there with me at any given moment. I tweet and share content as if I'm turning around to a friend to say: "Hey, look at this..." In many cases, this has worked out well!

I like the newsletter idea! Personally, that's an area where I can definitely improve. But what I like about some newsletter that I'm subscribed to is that they feel very personal and they're often very conversational. And that's key, being: Conversational.

As for the note-cards, just do it! :-)