There's a real frustration when you meet someone with whom you see the real potential of a future business opportunity, but you just don't know how you're going to realistically continue to cultivate that relationship until it ripens into an opportunity.
Here's a shockingly simple way to stay in touch with people with whom you feel you could end up in a mutually-beneficial situation if you could just stay in touch.
STEP 1: WHEN YOU CONNECT WITH THEM ON LINKEDIN, SET UP A RECURRING REMINDER
LinkedIn has a new feature where you can set recurring reminders on a custom number of days - not just daily, weekly and monthly.
Click the downward facing triangle on the right side of the top section of the person's profile.
Click reminder, then Recurring, select a timeframe and click Save.
STEP 2: REVIEW YOUR REMINDERS IN ONE OF TWO WAYS
The FIRST way is to Click on Connections in the top menu.
Below the connections Updates, you'll see reminders to follow up with people.
The SECOND way is to see your reminders in your daily LinkedIn Updates email.
To make sure you're getting that email, go to the Privacy Settings section.
Click Connections / Email Frequency Settings.
Now make sure Updates & News is set to Daily.
STEP 3: FOLLOW UP!
You've set the reminder, and you have those recurring reminders coming to you automatically on a daily basis.
Now, do any of the following:
- Read what they're sharing on LinkedIn
- Share one of their published articles on LinkedIn
- Look at their LinkedIn activity feed and Like or Comment on something they shared
- Call them
- Email them
- Invite them to coffee or lunch
- Retweet their tweet
- Mention them on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Introduce them to someone valuable
- Message or email them a valuable article
- Invite them to collaborate on an article or webinar, or write a guest blog
- Just take action to advance the relationship.
Then once you've taken action, click Mark as Complete, and you'll feel great.