Sometimes, it seems to me, we focus so much on building readership, growing “friends” or gaining more followers that we lose sight of the simple, easy steps we can take on our path to those goals.
What follows are just seven ideas (feel free to add more in the comments) of places to find “the low-hanging fruit.” To me, that means, in part, that this will be folks where it makes sense to connect: there’s shared interest. And, as always, only do what YOU are comfortable doing!
- After a conference/meeting/event, find a way to keep in touch with the folks you met – make use of those business cards you gathered – and connect on the network you thing makes the most sense.
- If you participate in chats on Twitter (or anywhere), follow the folks you chat with.
- Check the folks who are following you to see if you’ve missed folks you’d like to be following back.
- If you’re on a listserv, connect with the folks on the list in other media, too.
- Check your address book (online and off, if you still fancy) and see if you’re connected with friends. (I find that I have often missed folks I know offline. Very odd!)
- Look at your friends’ friends lists (on Twitter, Facebook, blog sidebars, etc.). If you’re looking for like-minded folks to connect with, this almost always works.
- Put your blog address and/or Twitter link and/or whatever you want in your signature on your emails.
One piece of advice I was given that really helped me get into the swing of making easy connections: don’t procrastinate. If you think of connecting with someone, just do it: right after an event, not a month later when you might feel the moment has passed.
There are many other ways to find good connections, some as easy as the above. And I said earlier, of course, we all do this differently and all have different levels of comfort. If you’ve found a method that’s perfect for you, I hope you’ll share!
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
great post Greg, you make it sound so organised. I feel like people are flying all over the place and need to step back once in a while and see if all the people on Facebook are also on Twitter and blogs and vice versa. It’s so much fun connecting, as long as the leaves don’t cover up all the fruit!
Catherine Johnson´s last [type] ..Inspired by You
I’m marking this post as a reminder. For now, my networking efforts are baby steps, but your list reminds me to stay in familiar territory and among friends when you’re still a but wobbly.
Thanks for consistently wise and helpful advice.
Sandy Brehl´s last [type] ..Happy Birthday, MLK, Jr., My Hero.
Nothing to add other than a thanks! This is good advice…esp. the “just do it” when it comes to contacting people you’ve met at conferences, etc.
Deb Marshall´s last [type] ..Marvelous Middle Grade Monday-Eliot and the Goblin War by Jennifer A. Neilsen
Great tips. I tend to fall behind on the connections front. Some of friends have chided me for it.
Laurisa White Reyes´s last [type] ..YAMAZING RACE – READY, SET, GO!
“After a conference/meeting/event, find a way to keep in touch with the folks you met.”
Whenever I attend a conference, I ask the lovely attendee, “So what’s your room number?” For some reason, the lovely attendee doesn’t want to keep in touch.
Lupe Fernandez´s last [type] ..Excuses
Oh Greg maybe you shouldn’t have written about low lying fruit lol
Catherine Johnson´s last [type] ..Inspired by You
Great tips! I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve missed some of these easy connections–soon to be corrected, of course!
Vicky Alvear Shecter´s last [type] ..The German Cover and the Perils of Being Obsessive
Love this post, Greg. It’s so true.
I’m trying to follow your advice and attend to these things straight away, otherwise they do get forgotten.
Dee White´s last [type] ..THE NATIONAL YEAR OF READING
I have a hard time dealing with the many connection options: there are too many, and I can’t keep up–nor do I particularly want to. I have multiple websites; they are all connected to FB and Twitter; I’m on LinkedIn; I’m in various Yahoo Groups; I belong to a number of trade organizations; I write a newsletter.
It doesn’t help that I have one foot in two fields.
What I want is to have all these connections in one place, preferably a blog–or two, since the fields are, well, two separate fields. The reason I’m all over the place is because my connections have different preferences: some like FB and never read blogs; some are on Twitter and that’s it. When I want to share something with everyone, I wind up putting the same info in multiple places which feels like littering and takes more time than I would like.
Also, I often follow others in their multiple locations and wind up with lengthy lists of repeat news. This takes time to sift through even if I try to skip the repeats.
It all seems so inefficient.
Okay, that’s now a new topic. In my head, it was connected: trying to keep track of all connections in multiple places.
JenFW´s last [type] ..Puzzle-Based Learning
Super advice. My writing life gets a richer after every conference with the new friends I meet, especially the support network aspect.