From: http://www.bizjournals.com/

In my book titled “Networking – Get Connected,” I discuss 140 simple yet thoughtful “ahas” that will push you to employ proven networking strategies to grow your company’s top line sales and bottom line profits.

Here are 4 of the ahas:

1.You can never collect too many business cards — whether at dinner parties, conferences or at other meetings

Don’t you want to kill yourself when you leave that party after having a great conversation with a new friend/prospect when you can’t remember his name/company name and phone number.

Be bold and ask, “Can I get your business card?”

Or, much easier, just enter their contact information into your smartphone. One caveat that I would recommend is setting up a folder in your iPhone called “prospects” and enter into the “notes” folder where you met this person.

Last thing to begin nurturing a relationship is adding their email address into your monthly newsletter campaign (if you do a newsletter — and if you don’t, seriously consider starting one asap).

2. Shockingly, many people don’t call a prospect within two days to introduce themselves. After that, it’s too late!

Be honest — do you have good follow-up skills?

You took the time to attend a networking or industry event and you met some great people. Now is the time to send that follow-up email or make that phone call to develop the relationship. If you wait for weeks, it’s too late and you lose the momentum. Plus, the person probably forgets who you are, which is even worse. Be proactive and follow up.

3. The feeling of being uncomfortable is a good thing at a networking event. Push yourself to meet new people.

I love when I speak to people who say they had a terrible experience at a recent networking event as they met nobody new who could potentially help their business. My initial question — “Did you go with a friend?” is typically answered “yes” and it’s obvious that this person stayed in the corner with their friend drinking a glass of wine.