Two tips for better networking

Maintain your network in an easy, enjoyable way. In the video from 2012, I share two things I had used: personal Christmas greetings and short messages with a relevant article.

Maintain your network with a personal Christmas greeting

In the run-up to Christmas, I sat down with Christmas music, mulled wine and brunkager biscuits and wrote to people I knew. I thanked them for their business, friendship or a good meeting during the year.

It should not be a text simply copied to everyone. The point was to show I had thought about each person and remembered something from our relationship.

A simple email could mean more than a generic Christmas card. I found people appreciated my taking the time to write something personal.

Send an article when you think of someone

The other trick could be used all year. When I read something interesting, I asked myself: Who else in my network would enjoy this?

Then I sent a short message saying the article had made me think of that person. There did not have to be a sale or favour I wanted from it. It was a way of keeping in touch.

Your time is what makes the message personal

I had previously spent a whole day before Christmas writing lots of greetings. I got warmth, good spirits and business in return. That was my experience, not a particular effect everyone can count on.

In the video, I also said problems with my hands meant I could no longer write so much. But the idea was still the same: spend a little time showing you remember the person behind the contact.

I once had to fight to be remembered

When sharing the advice in November 2012, I also said, a little provocatively, that by then I had built a brand, so people wanted to know me. It had not always been that way.

For many years, I had had to fight to be taken seriously. I had to leave an impression in people’s memories so they remembered me when they wanted to buy my products, do business or use their network.

The personal greetings were a little tip from those years. It was nothing particularly advanced, but I had got a lot out of it myself.

Make Christmas greetings an enjoyable day

I suggested doing it around the nineteenth, twentieth or twenty-first of December. Buy mulled wine and brunkager biscuits and put on Christmas music. I mentioned Radio Soft, which played Christmas music throughout December.

Then you could sit and get into the Christmas spirit while going through your contacts. There should be no copying and pasting. Each message should be for the person receiving it.

I made up an example with "Dear Arne" and thanks for the year’s business. You could mention something the person had said or something about their family you actually remembered from the conversation.

It could just as easily be thanks for their friendship or a message saying it had been nice to meet at a particular event. Christmas was coming, and I had thought of them. It did not need to say more.

No fancy Christmas card graphics, no generic text and no random Facebook stuff. Just a nice, personal email where the recipient could feel I had thought of them specifically.

In my opinion, time was the most valuable currency

I was very unimpressed by the pre-printed Christmas cards people received before Christmas. I said bluntly that they did not mean a damn thing.

A personal message was different. People knew it took time to write. I felt that effort was more valuable than seven kroner for a card with an elf and a cosy beard.

Sending an email did not cost a penny, but you had to give some of your time. That was precisely the point. I found hardly anyone took time for that kind of thing, so a sincere message could make an impression.

An article could be a reason to stay in touch

I still used the other tip occasionally: when I read something interesting, I could think about who else it would be relevant to and pass the article on.

My example was an email to Peter: I was reading this article and thought of you. Perhaps you might find it interesting. It was great seeing you last time; I really enjoyed it.

You could do that all year. You did not need to wait for a holiday to show you remembered a relationship.

I got both business and warmth in return

I had previously set aside a whole day before Christmas, from around ten to five, to enjoy writing the greetings. In the video, I described it as around three hundred personal messages and also mentioned four to five minutes per email as a rough indication of the time spent.

Those were my approximate memories of the effort, not a precise schedule. I found it brought a lot of business, but also warmth and good spirits.

I would have liked to do it again. But my hands had become so troublesome that I could only write for around half an hour. That was why I had stopped the big Christmas email days.

That did not change my enthusiasm for the idea. I hoped others might benefit: take a little time, remember the person and write something that actually concerns the two of you. You can find more of my experiences with relationships and life as an entrepreneur in Iværksætter til jeg dør.

Read also about my experiences of saying thank you and giving others a pat on the back.

Best wishes, Martin