Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Last week I got to participate in the Creative Mix Ideation Conference and over the course of the day I exchanged business cards with a pretty decent number of different individuals. It was great to be surrounded by a room full of people who, in some way or another, make their living via their creativity and their creative output. I realize now, after the fact, what a great networking opportunity this was and could have likely taken greater advantage of the opportunity had I really set out to schmooze. As it was I had a fantastic time and did come home with a fist full of cards from a number of people I had enjoyed conversations with.
Though I had a pretty busy weekend I made the effort to drop everyone who’s card I had picked up a quick email just as a follow-up. A quick thank you for having given me great feedback on my talk at the conference and an invitation to continue the conversations that we started via email, connecting via Facebook, Twitter or any one of a number of other social networking sites or perhaps even over a coffee and (dare I say it) face to face personal interaction…
What will come from this remain to be seen, but the follow-up post initial meeting is something that’s incredibly important and one of the greatest marketing tools you have at your disposal. The simple act of inviting people to continue the conversation suggests an open-ness that will lead to more chances for collaboration than ignoring that window of opportunity.
The same sort of thing can be said with any sort of promotional mail out be it some sort of electronic mailing or good old fashioned snail-mail correspondence. The initial act of sending something out is like a knock on the door of opportunity, but the follow-up is where the dialogue really begins. Once the door to opportunity is opened that’s when the chances of developing a mutually beneficial business environment really starts to take shape.
You might just be the individual to provide the solution to their entertainment dilemma and simply sending out your promotional reel or a newsletter or what have you is only half of the process. The other half really does come from the act of following-up. Making the extra effort to remember people’s names, remembering something about them that you can connect with, something that either shows that you were paying attention when you first met or, have done enough research to be able to carry out a reasonably intelligent conversation about something that’s relevant to the world of the person on the other end of the line.
There will be moments when the planets align and you click with the person on the other end of the connection, there will be other times when the gears just don’t mess, but a very real part of the business of show is the ability to develop relationships with potential employers and to craft feel good scenarios for all concerned. Do this and your success in this business, heck in just about any business is a given.
