Building a strong, personal connection with your contacts can be much easier than you think! Social Media can be your best friend for getting to know your contacts. Stalk them, carefully, I know that sounds crazy but it works.
Look at their Facebook, peruse their LinkedIn, and check out their Twitter. It’s so important to get to know the people you could potentially be doing business with!
Maybe you notice a potential client is skiing in Vermont. THEY posted about it. Reach out and tell them “You’re right near my favorite coffee shop on earth! You’ve got to try the chai latte. Tell Mario that Karen says hello!” Building that connection with your contacts is pure gold, and providing them with advice outside of the business world let’s them know you’re interested in them personally. Find something you have in common and start the conversation.
- Maybe they’ve checked in to a hot yoga class and you have a funny hot yoga story.
- Maybe they wrote a blog post that you can share with YOUR tribe.
- Maybe they’re speaking at a conference you’ve been dying to attend.
Doing your homework will impress your new contact, they’ll know that you’ve been paying attention, reading their blogs, and staying connected to them. It makes you stand out from the crowd of people who tell a presenter “Nice talk.” Get the courage to walk up to that presenter and say “HEY! I loved our talk, and it really reminded me of a blog post you wrote a few months back and…” you get the picture. That conversation is much more memorable.
There are so many incredibly easy ways to stand out from the crowd. Instead of writing on a contact’s Facebook wall for their birthday, take five minutes to handwrite them a birthday card! It’s so rare to receive snail mail these days and it can make someone’s day. Get their newsletters? I bet their mailing address is on it. Don’t be afraid to slide your business card in there too with your contact information.
Then check out their LinkedIn profile. Did you go to the same University? Did you both work at McDonald’s in high schoo? Find that personal connection and take advantage of it. Use it as a conversation starter to talk to a contact you may never have crossed paths with. If your contact sees how much time you’ve put into getting to know them, they will be inclined to want to get to know you.
Set aside just a half hour a few times a week and get to know your contacts. You can thank me later! Let me know if you’ve found a fun way of using social media to get to know your audience better, share in the comments below, I’d love to hear about it.
Also, CLICK HERE to check out my FREE video series and get YOUR LinkedIn ready to be seen by contacts trying to stalk YOU! 😉
Good, sensible, doable actions. Karen – you are so right that the personal touch makes such a difference. Just because we communicate through electronics doesn’t mean we aren’t still people who want to be noticed and appreciated.