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Get Organized! Use Contact Databases to Your Advantage

Chances are, you’ve been to way too many networking events in the past few months. If you’re like me, you have a stack of business cards that are a few inches thick and are not quite sure where to start in keeping track of great connections. On top of that, maybe you’re looking to expand your network reach to look for new employees in new regions or industries.

Whatever the situation, you’re trying to keep as many new acquaintances straight in your head — and in your contact database. Because I have this common problem, I’ve been researching some of the more popular applications to get the business cards under control. Let’s talk a little bit about what I’ve found.

Before we do, I love to make sure and offer a great piece of advice that a colleague gave me when I entered the workforce. When anyone hands me a business card, I later write a few words that will remind me of the new contact and our conversation. Even though I have a photographic memory, this trick helps when trying to recall the person as I’m entering them into my contacts. It also helps me when I go to personalize an e-mail to them a few days later.

But a simple note on the back of a 1″ x 2″ card will not suffice if I can’t even find the darn thing at the bottom of my purse. So, here are a few great tools I’d recommend using to make sure all your new business friends are accounted for:

Evernote: I’ll admit, I wasn’t always a fan of Evernote. I only had the application on my iPhone and found it difficult to edit notes on such a small screen. I also had connectivity issues. However, now that I’ve synced my Evernote account with my computer and iPad, I enjoy using it much more. The program allows you to have a “notebook” of various pages, will let you include pictures that you can take with your phone. For organization, you can tag each note with specific items, such as “6/26/2010 networking event” or “XYZ client meeting.” This becomes incredibly handy when you need to separate out various to-do items. Also, once you make changes to a note, it will automatically sync it onto the server and among all of your devices – making it easy to know exactly what you’re working on. Above all, the best part about Evernote is that it is free!

Salesforce: I used Salesforce at my former nonprofit, and I really did see a huge benefit to this CRM program. It does have a service fee, but worth the cost when you’re working on multiple projects and keeping track of multiple clients and vendors. Any “Contact” website forms or online surveys will automatically update on the database, saving you hours on entry. The entry forms for the database are thorough as well, allowing you to capture a large amount of information. The downside: it does take a very long time to enter everyone’s info into the system. But once you have it, you have a goldmine.

Twitter lists: We’ve discussed the value of Twitter, but it also is a huge organizing tool when you have a large amount of followers and don’t necessarily want to keep track of everyone’s updates. You can have multiple lists to breakdown your online contacts into more manageable groups. Take a look at my Twitter lists here and here to get a better idea, but I check my lists each day to see what updates I need to have from people. It is also a great way of making sure you keep a tab on Gen Y since they’re easily mobile – more on that later this week.

Regardless of your method, make sure you take an hour a week to keep contacts up to date. Are there any other contact database management solutions that I should highlight? Leave a comment!