The act (and art) of staying in touch is the heart of networking. You may do all the reaching out and following up you can, but without staying connected, it’s like you’re building a sandcastle that only gets washed away by the waves. Great Relationship Management entails remaining in touch to help secure the foundations and support columns of your network. 

Can an app help in this regard? Well, there are definitely numerous options out there. In this post, we make a case for the use of a Smart Networking Platform like StayTouch. We’ll outline how it can help ease up the task of keeping in contact with professionals and networkers, and in doing so, underscore what sets it apart from the rest. 

How to Use StayTouch to Easily and Effectively Keep in Touch with Your Network?

StayTouch leverages Contactless Technology that lays the groundwork for true smart digital networking. Remote networking is not just about the ready convenience of being able to network and stay in touch anywhere. It should actively aid in the essential steps involved, too, one of which is staying in touch. 

Here’s how you can use StayTouch for that purpose to the fullest. 

1. Schedule meetings and chat with your contacts in real-time. 

StayTouch serves as a repository of all your contacts and, therefore, functions as a digital extension of your entire network. This app allows you to communicate with any individual contact at the time and date scheduled for it. 

That being said, you may also freely set schedules of the said digital meetings through the app. The app will then send you reminders via notifications when the specified time and date of the meeting arrived.

• Timely sent regular messages are a must when you plan to maintain proper contact. With this app, you’ll be able to know the best time to send them as you’ll be able to study their online routines within the app.
• The real-time aspect of the messaging feature allows you to contact people who happen to be near your current location and ask them for a little tête-à-tête. 
• The built-in calendar provides a good overview of every meeting you have coming. Every meeting can be set and modified with just a few taps. You may even take down notes about each one to help you remember key elements and details pertaining to the person you’ll be meeting with. 

Basically, StayTouch’s chat platform is unique from other messaging tools because it’s dedicated only to your professional network and nothing else. The lack of distraction and better organization of your contact makes all the difference in the world. 

2. Note down important information about every contact for more productive interactions.

We all know that no amount of staying in touch will succeed if you don’t know your contacts. Chances are, they may even get turned off if you don’t remember a reference or callback to a previous chat you had with them. 

We all know that no amount of staying in touch will succeed if you don’t know your contacts. Chances are, they may even get turned off if you don’t remember a reference or callback to a previous chat you had with them. 

This is why it’s important to keep track of key details (e.g. their contact details, qualities, stories, etc.) about every contact you interact with. Of course, it’s easier said than done. Inscribing every important detail will require a fair amount of elbow grease if done the old way. 

StayTouch takes care of this by allowing you to take notes. We’re not just referring to text-based notes when referring to this feature. For your convenience, the app lets you record audio notes that you can do on the go. 

• Think of the immensely positive impression you can make if you mention a story or a joke that they shared a while back. The same rings true for any specific knowledge that the person shares regarding their business, field of work, specific locales, or interests. 
• Almost always, there are positive, highly commendable qualities that every contact has. You can practice better “honest flattery” (which is proven to work!) if you always take into account these qualities by consistently taking these notes. 
• With all your contacts’ details recorded and stored safely within the app, thanks to encryption, you won’t have to worry about losing them. You may even choose to make a backup of the data as an added precaution. 

You can only go so far in trying to personally know every contact in your network. This feature pretty much lightens the load for you.

3. Update your business card so you can keep your contacts list fresh and organized. 

StayTouch users may create Contact-free Digital Business Cards, which require minimal to zero effort to update and share with other people. This indirectly aids in helping professionals keep in touch with their contacts in, more or less, the following ways:

• It’s been proven that disorganized and outdated business cards make it hard for networkers to focus on the contacts they need to “work” with (i.e. build closer relationships with). This is especially true if you already have a relatively sizable network that can be a pain to update and manage.
• Since all your contacts are up-to-date, you won’t have to sift through overwhelmingly long lists of contacts just to focus on the ones that you need to prioritize remaining in touch with. The added bonus is that the app does most of the updating for you because of the integrated scanner. Moreover, you don’t have to throw away an obsolete card just because it contains past contacts you are no longer affiliated with.

You’ll be surprised by the true impact of lack of order when managing contacts and, in turn, performing the essential steps in networking. By doing this, you virtually erase that stubborn, even often-overlooked hurdle. 

Conclusion

As long as you know how to play your cards right, genuinely smart digital networking delivers a plethora of advantages that not a lot of other alternatives can match. It proves that gone are the days when face-to-face meetings are the norm. Considering the unprecedented perks it can provide and the present alternatives, it’s safe to say that it should be a consistent part of any networker’s arsenal. 

Harper Harrison

Harper Harrison is a reporter for The Hear UP. Harper got an internship at the NPR and worked as a reporter and producer. harper has also worked as a reporter for the Medium. Harper covers health and science for The Hear UP.