If you have never spent an afternoon pondering the return on investment of your last business trip, Oxford Economics USA did the math for us. For every $1 spent on business travel, companies see an ROI of $12.50. As we embark on the year 2020, we have a lot of expectations around where technology will take us. Technology makes it easier than ever to connect across boardrooms and continents, share and translate information, and promote your organization. Weren’t cubicles and sitting in commuter traffic supposed to be distant memories by 2020? While technology has given us flexibility in our schedules and changed work-life integration tremendously, not too many of us—before the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting telecommuting necessity anyway—were living the dream of fuzzy slippers, pj pants, and only having to dress from the waist up to teleconference into meetings.

Reviewing the above ROI stat, it’s easy to see why. Face-to-face interactions still matter tremendously. We have fewer distractions to manage, can better read non-verbal cues, and gauge trust and likeability more readily through in-person interaction.

Whatever your goals might be—finding a new job, gaining new clients, finding referral sources--networking can further your aim. The more people who know about you and your goals, the more you can leverage a posse of people working and connecting on your behalf. Not convinced? Here are some other stats to chew on:

• Only 11 percent of LinkedIn users have more than 100 people in their network. However, the average CEO has 930 LinkedIn connections.
• Forty percent of new customers are converted through face-to-face meetings.
• In-person meetings generate not only more ideas than virtual (13.36 versus 10.43), but also show that ideas generated are both more original and have a greater mean level of flexibility.

Despite all the reasons it is important, 1 in 4 people say they don’t spend time networking. Here are a few tips for increasing both your in-person and online social networking presence.

Put Yourself Out There
I know, the word networking launches you into imagery of being in a windowless room wearing a cheesy “Hi My Name Is” sticker. However, networking can be, dare I say, fun. Find events, conferences or volunteer work that support speakers, ideas, or causes you are generally interested in, and be sure to take time to ease into a few conversations while there. The good news is your shared mutual interest will make a great starting point for launching into meaningful conversations with fellow attendees or volunteers. Remember though that networking is an ongoing process, not a discrete event.

We’re all taking a break from in-person networking at the moment, but you can still work on growing your list of connections. Find someone you would like to connect with and schedule an informational interview. Sending a message like “Hi, X (mutual contact) recommended I connect with you. I’d love to learn more about your organization/specialty. Would you have 20 minutes or so available to chat with me by phone/video conference?” Using alma mater ties or shared organizational memberships may help break the ice, i.e., “I noticed we are both WSCPA members; would you have time to chat with me in the next two weeks about x?” If you nail an informational interview, do not leave that conversation without asking if there is anyone else they would recommend you talk to. Then reach out to that person to keep the conversation going. Fill in your original contact with any progress or success you have with your new connections!

Quality Over Quantity
Reframe your end goal and think of networking as creating lifelong friends you can assist. Show sincere interest in others and treat everyone as if they are the “right person” to talk to. Avoid booking coffee meetings with several people, as you’ll only burn yourself out. Try to find one or two meaningful contacts to connect with and invest in.

Follow-up Within 48 Hours
Get in touch or take action right away following your meeting if you made promises (such as meeting for coffee or setting up a discovery call). Following through on your commitments within forty-eight hours is key, as your memory and recall will still be fresh (you’ll remember them and specifics of your previous discussion more clearly and vice versa).

Many networking events now integrate ways to connect directly to other attendees’ LinkedIn profiles, and you can always connect on LinkedIn while you are at the event. Just let the person know you’re looking them up on LinkedIn to connect immediately, so they know you weren’t distracted by a text from a friend. This eliminates the need to add a message to the LinkedIn request since you’re capitalizing on the in-person moment!

If connecting later, avoid sending a connection request without any message attached. Try something as simple as, “I enjoyed meeting you at yesterday’s conference and learning about your interest in expanding your business' role in financial consulting. I’d love to stay in touch to see how it’s going/offer support/share ideas.”

Stay Connected
Luckily, social media and LinkedIn help facilitate ongoing interaction and make it easy to stay in touch with those you may only see occasionally. A simple way to ease in to building more genuine connections via these platforms is to customize auto invites and go beyond “likes”. Actually taking a minute to customize a response to a career event or post goes a long way toward building an authentic relationship. Better yet, popping a short, handwritten note in the mail when you hear about a contact’s promotion, work anniversary, or job change is a memorable gesture.

WSCPA is also continuing to develop new ways for you to connect with your professional community. Our new Connect platform is a member-only portal that will allow you to easily collaborate with fellow members, share information within a resource group, or quickly ask for advice or recommendations from our community of more than 7,000 members. Visit us at www.connect.wscpa.org to see what’s trending and join the conversation!

Monette Anderson is WSCPA Manager of Membership and liaison to the Washington CPA Foundation. You can contact her at manderson@wscpa.org.

This article appears in the spring 2020 issue of the Washington CPA Magazine. Read more here.