So I literally just got home from Sunny Miami where I spent the week sharing best practices, eating Croquetas & drinking Mojitos with some of the most influential bloggers, brands and media professionals at Hispanicize 2012.
If you are anything like me, you come back home with full of excitement with lots of ideas and then the unexpected happens… while you were away the rest of the world emailed, called you and is waiting for your response. This may cause you to miss out on major opportunities to really expand on your projects by not following up with all the amazing people you met.
Since I have made this mistake more times than I care to admit, I thought it might help to give you some tips to help you plan exactly how you will reconnect.
(Note: We are currently on hiatus as we prepare for our 15th Aniversary Re-Launch on May 15th… so this will be the last post for this version of Sofrito For Your Soul)
Here are 5 tips on how to reconnect with your Hispanicize friends.
Tip #1 – PLAN TO RECONNECT: Go thru all the business cards you collected from people you met and sort them in a way that makes sense to you. I usually sort by bloggers, brands and agency and I put a keyword on each card to help me remember what I had in mind for each connection. This will help you prioritize with projects and/or ideas that may be time sensitive.
Tip #2 DON’T RUSH: You are not alone… everybody is tired and need a few days to decompress, reengage life and worth thru their business card stack. Take 48 hours to handle your day to day business, spend time with family and then come back to your sorted business card stack. If you try to rush and get your email out before everyone else’s… you run the risk of your email getting buried and lost forever.
Tip #3 GET TO KNOW THEM: Take a moment and see what the person you want to connect with is doing. You need that to fully understand the scope of how you will connect with them. It may help you uncover opportunities you that are not as obvious when you are in regular conversation.
Tip #4 BE YOURSELF: Make your email personal, these people have learned, shared and partied with you and have a pretty good sense of who you are. Connect with them in your natural “voice” and highlight memorable parts of your shared interaction. Make all emails short and sweet and most importantly actionable.
Tip #5 STAY CONNECTED: Alway create opportunities to further engage beyond that first email wherever they tend to hang out socially. By doing that you will build a deeper relationship that will open future opportunities to work together.
I hope these tips help… and I would love to hear in the comment section if you have any tips of your own that you would add. Feel free to share this article with your #hispz12 friends.
I look forward to connecting with many of you in the near future and as always… estoy a la orden.
George “Urban Jibaro” Torres
Community Builder
Sofrito Media Group
Social Media I Branding I Event Management
T. 516-690-7397 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 516-690-7397 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
E. [email protected]
Follow me on Twitter @UrbanJibaro