How to stay in touch with new friends after a networking event

There have been a ton of times when I’ve gone out to a social event, started a great conversation with a random but really cool person, and we exchanged contact info but I never kept in touch with them. Even worse, I did that over a span of years.

I realize as time goes by and things like networking become a more important part of my life that I’ve probably missed out on a lot of meaningful relationships with people who I met and enjoyed being around. It was because I didn’t put much effort into following up with them.

To deal with this problem, I came up with a way about 6 months ago to keep myself consistent on reaching out to people. It’s easy to do and it’s helped me be an overall more social guy(although I’m still not perfect). Here’s a quick explanation. I hope it helps!

At the beginning of every month, write down on a notes page(either pen & paper or on your phone) 3–5 people who come to mind for you in each category:

• New people, or people I recently met
• Friends I used to work with, hangout with, or be in a group with but I don’t see them as much
• Close or best friends
• Family

Then, every morning, send a text to one of these people.

Here’s an example of what your notes page would look like.

Here are couple of tips from things I found helpful when reaching out to people

• I’m not good at coming up with first messages to send someone. A trick I used to get around this was to just come up with a text and send it for the first few days even if it seemed lame or not well-worded. Then, after every text, I’d copy/paste it onto a notes page. Once I had a few of those stacked up, I started using them as a starting point for my messages(almost like a script). From there it’s been really easy to reach out to someone just editing one of those first messages I sent to make it personal
• If you’re reaching out to someone who lives in the same town or city as you, try to meet up some time. If you’re reaching out to someone who doesn’t live in the same town or city as you, ask what they need help with in life. If you can help, then help. If you can’t, just be a good listener.

Thanks for reading! If you found the info here useful and would like more, but in a customized way to help you reach your next business or personal goal, sign up for a free game plan at my site, goaldoctors.com. We’ll be happy to help! — from Nick