The Library of Congress
You want to break the ice, gain information, and meet someone for a one-on-one discussion. Social media provides an opportunity to produce a ‘warm call’ and collect basic information on a connection before your first conversation. Thanks to social media you will never again waste time nattering about the weather or looking for visual clues to a build a conversation.
A Google search provides a quick summary of LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, Twitter and YouTube channels, blogs posts and comment threads. You’re golden, unless you skip this step.
Five things to avoid doing in a first meeting
- Call someone by the wrong first name, repeatedly, even after they have handed you a business card (with their name on it).
- Accept a business card (and pocket it) without looking at the card.
- Claim that you’re familiar with their blog and that you’ve read their blog . . . and then ask them what they write about.
- Be mystified by a term that was discussed in an introductory email and found in multiple blog posts and tags.
- Talk a lot. Listen a little.
Cold calls are out, ‘warm calls’ are in – if you actually use them to your advantage.
Kevin, I could not agree more! These are terrific for the Faux Pas category, and can certainly kill the conversation, or at least guarantee there won’t be s second!
Thanks Bill. There is something important to learn from each and every experience.
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