How to Re-connect With Your Business Network Through Your Business Writing
From time to time, service professionals emerge from the whirlwind that’s work and life to find that they’ve fallen out of touch with people in their business network. Especially at this time of year, when closing out the old and ringing in the new, there’s a pull to fix these broken connections.
Many professionals send out holiday cards and gifts as means to this end. While these offerings certainly can connect you with clients and business associates you’ve lost touch with, they’re largely one-way lines of communication.
The better route to re-connection runs two ways. It’s an organic dialogue that lends a human dimension to business relationships. Face-to-face and phone conversations enable this kind of interaction. But, you can also encourage and evolve it through your business writing.
There are a number of ways to channel your written words of re-connection, including:
- E-mails
- Websites
- Blogs
- E-Newsletters
Whatever channel you choose, it’s important to convey why you’re reaching out to your network and to invite recipients to reciprocate by sharing something about themselves and their work.
Curt Rosengren nicely illustrated this point when he e-mailed me an invitation to his Reconnection Revolution. Curt explained: “[I want to have] “30 conversations in 30 days with people I've never actually spoken with (as in voice) before. No particular agenda to the conversations – just seeing what I learn, how I’m inspired, and what new ideas pop up.”
I know Curt from the blogosphere. Still, ours was an arms-length association at best. We reduced that distance during our hour-long phone conversation. We discussed our personal and professional backgrounds, goals and challenges and offered each other advice and support.
Reflecting on his 30-day mission. Curt said: “People start talking, building relationships, exchanging ideas, even finding ways to collaborate. Next thing you know – hey presto! – the positive potential has just grown exponentially.”
Although Curt’s experiment took place in real-time, his model can be adapted to written communications. If his 30-in-30 formula seems a bit daunting, you can easily customize it so it works for you: think 5-in-5 or even 5-in-10 and see what happens in time.
