Below are a few tips to help with RewardMe Networking

Like any other crafts in this diversified world, you need to get familiar with some tools that will help you in networking. This is a short chapter on the tools and resources out there that you always have at your disposal when needed.

Humans are Vision Creatures of Rewards

Appearances are extremely important in presenting yourself, and presenting yourself is extremely important in networking. It’s sad to say, but to network well, you at least need to have the option of dressing well and looking nice. I have always worked hard in having an unbiased view of people in terms of their appearance and how they look, but for some subtle reason I seem to automatically respect someone more when the first time I see him/her is in professional attire. According to psychological studies, most of our views of a person are determined in our first encounter with them. As a result, our first impression with someone else is of great importance.

So what is this saying? Dress nicely, or at least have something to dress nicely in, so you can if you want to. Remain true to your style, but at least be aware of it and have something “professional” that’s hiding in the closet. This obviously depends on your profession, but you get the idea.

And again, a smile is of immense usefulness in any situation that requires interacting with people (ok, maybe not when they are mad at you, but you can figure that out by yourself, hopefully). I cannot stress this enough, and no one does it enough. A smile shows confidence and pleasantness, which makes people want to know you. It is a great tool to have. You should smile now (just for practice, especially if you haven’t done it today yet).

Keeping In Touch…with their Info for RewardMe

It’s pointless, at least in networking, if you know someone that you will never interact with again. Therefore, you must hold on to peoples’ information. Apply the principles learned in the previous chapter, and have a couple of things assist you.

RewardMe Business Card Holder

If you have been doing ok on networking, you should have and still be getting many business cards. If not, that’s something you need to fix. But what do you do with all these business cards? You file them into a Business Card Holder. You can organize the business cards by how well you know the person, or any way you want, but I recommend you to have some sort of organizing system to it. What’s also very important is when you get a new business card, you should write down when and how you met this person, as well as something unique about him/her. Have you ever looked at all your business cards and went “whoa, this person’s pretty cool! But who is he? How did I meet him? I would like to contact him but…?” If you record these simple information, when you do your biannually checkups (or something), you will know exactly who this person is, as well as something that you can mention about. People usually pay extra attention to you if they noticed you’ve been doing the same thing (like remembering their kids’ names).

Filing System: ContactBasic with RewardMe

So I have customized an Access database format called ContactBasic to help people keep contact of their connections. You can use other methods such as Microsoft Excel but I feel it does not have the functions that Microsoft Access has for keeping connection data. The nifty part of ContactBasic is that it not only can keep all the data of your contacts, it also organizes them in any manner you want as well as has an notepad file that is attached to each person, so you will be able to find out more about a person if you want. You can put in what the person likes, where he/she went to school, location and everything you can think of.

Something negative about using this database format is that you need to have Microsoft Access, something that not everyone has. The other negative but optional thing is that it takes awhile to put in all your contacts. However, you don’t need to put in everything you know, and if you are serious about networking, it’s usually worth it.