Five Creative Ways to Keep in Touch With Your Professional Network
Networking can scare people off–and that knowledge can deter you from networking effectively. Despite its many career-improving benefits, because it feels fake, forced, or repetitive. There’s only so many times you can grab a coffee with your professional network or send them an article you thought they might be interested in.
If you want to maintain a close relationship with the people in your professional network that feels more authentic and fun, try these five creative ways to keep in touch.
1. Group Text
Do you have a small group of people within your professional network with whom you share a sense of humor or common interests? If you all know each other, create a group text! This is an organic way to keep the conversation going between everyone without feeling so formal and stale. When the group texts starts to die down you can bring up a new topic but, chances are, someone else will before you ever feel the need to. That’s the best thing about a group text, they tend to continue on and on with very little effort from each individual member.
2. A Walk in the Park
Skip the coffee date or phone call and instead meet up after work with someone from your professional network for a walk in the park. Walk and talks were made famous by The West Wing and they’re a great way to get moving, have a fulfilling professional conversation, and minimize any awkward silences or strange pauses that might occur in a normal a one-on-one conversation.
3. Group Trip to a Conference
Is there a conference you attend every year to improve your skills or stay up to date on the latest industry trends? Maybe some people in your professional network would be interested in attending too! Contact people you think might be interested and coordinate a group trip. This could be as interlinked as sharing an AirBnB and having dinner together every night or it could be more casual, like just sitting together during events and maybe grabbing lunch together one day.
4. Form an Unrelated Club
Although your professional network likely consists of people with whom you have one thing in common—your industry—you may be surprised at how many other interests you share with these people. Start a bowling league, a book club, a coding club, or a whine and cheese club (where you whine about work while eating cheese). Whatever your interests, you probably share more of them than you know with your professional network and if you can connect with these people on a more personal level, reaching out regularly won’t feel as phony or forced.
5. Attend a Fun Event
From a day at the fair to a day at a music festival, unwinding and bonding with one or more people from your professional network will feel a lot less phony if you’re all attending a fun event! Sometimes it’s nice not to have to focus on conversations about work or the technologies you mutually use and instead let loose and have a little fun! For an added networking bonus, invite two people from your professional network and have them each bring a person from their professional network so you can all expand your networking reach without having to attend some cheesy event where fun is scarce and business cards are everywhere.
The Bottom Line
Establishing a close-knit professional network can really improve your career and present opportunities you otherwise wouldn’t have found on your own. But, because everyone knows this, these relationships can sometimes feel less authentic. If you want to stay in touch and create closer bonds with your professional network in a more fun, authentic way try out our ways to keep in touch with your work network.