2 Great Networking Apps For Your Smartphone
Today I want to talk about two apps that I think every business owner, solo entrepreneur, or anyone who attends networking events to build referrals
for business should have on their smartphone. These apps will help you find more networking events that suit your needs and will keep you more organized. The more efficient we can be the more things we can get done, the more people we can serve, the more people we can help!
1. Meetup:
The first app I think everyone should have on their phone when it comes to networking is the Meetup app. You can go to meetup.com and setup a profile, and then install the app on your phone. What’s neat about this app is that it helps you find networking groups in your area. You can look at these groups and see what their focus is, see who attends, and figure out if it’s a good group for your needs in terms of location and networking, etc.
Sometimes there are one-off events you can find on there that will be useful to you. I sometimes go to a Dallas networking event called “Lunch n Learn” that Lynn Barrett with New Connections 4 Business puts on. This is a really cool event because she always has great speakers come in. I find out about these one-off events through the Meetup app. When you fill out your profile you can say exactly what you do, you can put your headshot on there, and you can add links to your website and social media profiles. This is one more way to get your business and your name out there on the web. That makes this app a great way to find networking groups and gain more exposure.
2. CamCard:
The second one is an app for business cards called CamCard. People deal with their business cards in a couple of different ways: One type of person just takes the cards and throws them away. Another will have a stack of business cards from their latest networking meeting sitting on their desk, maybe wrapped up in a rubber band. Then there’s the third person who is efficient, keeps up with their contacts so that they can follow up, set up times to have coffee, etc.
CamCard is a free app that makes it easy to deal with all those business cards so that you can be that third person! Let’s say you get back from a networking event and you’ve collected four or five business cards. You can take a picture of each card with the CamCard app and it will upload their contact information and store it in your contacts. Then you can get rid of the physical card! What I like to do is to take a picture of a card right when someone gives it to me, so I can upload it right away. Then I give their card back to them. If you’re in business you know that every dollar matters! So instead of me taking their card home, uploading it to the app there and then tossing it in the recycling bin, I like to give it back to them right there so they can reuse it.
Whether you snap a photo right there or take the card home, this is a far more efficient way to keep up with the contact information than trying to find a card in a rubber-banded stack! This way the phone number is already in your contacts, ready to go. So, download the Meetup app, find some networking groups and lunch and learns in your area, download that CamCard app, and stop using rubber bands to organize your business cards!
What other apps have you found to be useful?