What Is your Workflow for Business Card Follow-Ups?

Not everyone actually follows up with their new connections; having the desire to take on a process for following through after a business card exchange already puts you ahead of others! The first step is to have a plan in place, and you’re now on your way with that one. Then you should:

Record contact info—enter their contact details into your phone or a database.

Write down notes—as said by Harvey Mackay: “Remembering doesn’t work. Anyone who counts on his memory has a fool for a filing system.” Keep track of details such as:

• What do they do for a living?
• What did you discuss?
• How can you provide value to them?
• Who in your network is a good contact for them?
• What is their favorite hobby?
• When is their birthday?
• What is something to note i.e. were they friendly, funny, or easy to speak with?
• Did you hit on any hot points or triggers of anything in particular that might draw emotion from them?

Send an invite—create a PERSONALIZED invitation on LinkedIn and include what you discussed and how you look forward to keeping the relationship up. Keep it short and sweet, you only have 140 characters.

Send an email—within 24-48 hours send a message, it’s all about timing! Echo the same sentiments as your LI invite and talk about what was discussed and include details around any tasks to follow up on and any next steps if needed. Confirm they have your contact details and reiterate your availability for them.

Follow through—deliver on promises you made and carry out actions you are accountable for.

Follow up again—if it’s been a month or so since the initial meeting and there’s been no communication, check in with them, then take it from there to decide how often to correspond in the future.

Set a reminder—for one year from the date you met; no matter how often you’ve corresponded since then, it’s a good excuse to reach out and remind them about the meeting.

When you’re in a situation where business cards are being exchanged, you should focus on where you’ll find the most value and maximize your time building relationships. Don’t be a “biz card bully”! You can’t just push your card on everyone you meet, otherwise you’ll be known as “that guy”. And you shouldn’t feel obligated to follow up with everyone, it’s all about time, your most important commodity.

It may seem like a lot of work, and it is, but that’s why it’s called netWORKing!

I actually dive further into this in our course Get NetWorkWise Certified which covers the basic and advanced fundamentals of relationship-building, and it also offers our prestigious professional networking certification. You’ll also find helpful insights in our course The Conference/Event Playbook which teaches you how to maximize your time at a networking event, including business card tips and strategies.

Thank you for your question! Make it a great day and remember to always NetWorkWise.

This article originally appeared on Quora.