Failing to follow up and follow through are two of the biggest reputation killers out there. With just a little networking know-how, you can ensure your credibility (along with your social capital) stays intact.
When Kelly is asked “what’s the biggest networking mistake?”, her answer is not the failure to bring business cards to a mixer or having an incomplete LinkedIn profile. As bad as those networking errors are, the biggest mistake in her mind is the failure to follow-up. When we fail to follow-up our networking efforts are incomplete. Failing to follow-up is leaving opportunities off the table. It’s a readily fixable networking faux pas.
In this episode of the Build Your Dream Network podcast, Kelly discusses why failing to follow-up is such a massive networking failure – as well as another networking no-no: failing to follow-through. As always, some practical guidance to get your follow-up back on track (because it is never too late to correct a mistake).
Key takeaways:
- Following up must go further than the initial expression of gratitude.
- Failing to follow through will slowly shrink your network.
What to listen for:
00:39 What are the two major reputation killers?
01:29 The secret to following up
04:09 The consequences of failing to follow through
06:05 Strategies you can do right now to exterminate reputation killers
Quotes:
“People who are mentors or connectors in your network like to know if the introduction or referral they made was useful.” [02:51]
Questions? There are tons of resources here on jkellyhoey.co about building your dream network or contact Kelly on Twitter @jkhoey or email Kelly at admin@jkellyhoey.co.
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