We all should be using business and social networks to be prospecting for investors and clients but once you find someone or they find you, it can be difficult to exchange contact information and tedious to use webmail within the social/business networking system.
Do you find the WEBMAIL interface on Linkedin or other networking sites to be inefficient, the inbox search function to be terrible, find it tedious to constantly ask people for their contact info or give them yours, and just don’t have time to add people to your contact database? Here are some tips!
- First and foremost, always include your signature in every single email you send out to anyone you ever want to hear from again. A default signature can be created in any email program you use whether it is Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc. It is 2010 and I receive business emails every single day from people who do not have their contact information at the bottom of their message. Not only do I find it frustrating but I immediately question their level of competency as a business person. Be professional and use a signature!
- Every word processing program such as MS word has a multiple item clipboard today. Always have a customized signature available on your clipboard with not only your contact info, but a message stating: “To insure we can continue to build a valuable business relationship, please include your contact information when you respond to me.” Keep your clipboard minimized all day as you work and have the signature available to paste into every social and business networking outbound message you send. (We are all in a hurry and don’t want to type it all in replying for instance to a message on Linkedin) Since these sites don’t want you to leave, you have to make an effort to communicate offline and they know that. Beat them at their own game!
- If you don’t have a signature and text grabbing tool, its time to get started. I use a great time saving free software program called copy2contact which lets you grab, review, and save new contacts and appointments in just seconds. It works withSalesforce, Blackberry, Outlook, NetSuite, and Palm Desktop. Linkedin also has free productivity tools where you can get a text grabber, and create a beautiful signature with professional graphics. I think these free tools are an EXCELLENT free find! Click on the “tools” link at the bottom of any Linkedin page to find them another time.
- I have all my webmail on Linkedin filtered and forwarded to a folder called Linkedin within Outlook so I can grab peoples signatures and send my signature whenever I reply.
IT IS TIME FOR THE MADNESS TO STOP! PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR CONTACT INFO/SIGNATURE IN EVERY MESSAGE YOU SEND OUT ON BUSINESS NETWORKING SITES AND ON ANY EMAIL YOU SEND!
If you have other tips to add, please be my guest. Please consider becoming a follower of my blog as well.
To your wealth!
Russell Roesner *President*Equity Coalition*415 680 3454*San Francisco, CA
Russell Roesner *President*Equity Coalition*415 680 3454*San Francisco, CA
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