Jason Howell Company

#JasonHowellCompany All of this social media and we still have trouble keeping in touch with friends, family and business prospects.  Here’s a response I gave to a friend minutes ago that I’ll share with you:
 
QUICK ANSWER: 
 
I put everyone I meet on my newsletter list so everytime I send one out, they get an update.  That’s why it’s a mix of personal and professional updates.  I am starting to maximize the use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to keep in touch for me. 
 
LONGER ANSWER:
 
To keep up with everyone you meet you’ll have to set aside times throughout the year that you will intentionally be in touch.  Unfortunately, most people are not good at this so the responsibility falls on you.  For example, I recommend e-mailing people you meet at a networking event within 24 hrs of meeting them.  Why?  So that (1) You remember who the person behind the business card you collected is and because (2) It’s 90% likely that they won’t e-mail you.  I could add a (3) here and that reason would be that e-mailing them quickly increases the likelyhood of them remembering you in the future by (insert random made up percentage here) percent. 
 
It’s New Year’s Eve and the holiday season is winding down.  Most people who attempt to stay in touch with others, send out holiday cards.  The trouble is, holiday cards can be incredibly impersonal when all most people do is sign them.  Of course if you took the time to write a personal note to say, 300 people, you would need to start writing holiday cards in October.  Even before I was in sales, I knew about 400 people and instead of sending them holiday cards, starting the first week of January, I picked up the phone and called/left messages for each of them.  Yes, this takes a while but if you notice, people wish others a happy new year well into January; so you’ve got 30 days to call people.  That’s plenty of time.
 
Keith Ferrazzi of Never Eat Alone fame recommends “pinging” people all of the time.  With texting and now Twitter, that’s not too difficult to do in a checkout line or any of the hundred times throughout the week you are stuck waiting.  Not everyone you meet is going to fall into the same category so you’ll need to deliniate to whom you ping for what.  Casual friends perhaps you send a text for weekend plans, but future employers or business partners perhaps you’ll “ping” at the end of the fiscal quarter.  I recommend Keith’s book and if you only want to skim it at the bookstore, start with page 181.  I also recommend using some sort of tool for keeping track of who you pinged.
 
If you are truly serious about staying in touch with everyone you meet on a regular basis, much like a sales person, you will need to invest a contact management tool.  Most people use software.  I’ll recommend Jason Alba’s Jibber Jobber because I e-mailed him a few times with questions about his product and he promptly responded (I appreciate that).  He designed the software to keep track of his job search but it can be used for all kinds of relationship management.
 
I hope this helps!  Start tomorrow with organizing a spreadsheet (I’ve done this) with everyone you want to keep in touch with and include phone numbers, e-mail addresses and birthdays if you have them; then tomorrow, start making phone calls.  You’ll be able to upload that spreadsheet into any well designed contact management software when you’re ready.