At this morning’s networking meeting, we all went on a little rant about respecting referrals that were being passed between ourselves and others. It seems anymore that although most people love getting referrals, they are not very good at acknowledging them. We all get busy, and want to take care of that referral right away, which is great, however I find myself referring less and less to those that don’t communicate with me when I send them a referral.

So to keep you respecting referrals, and not losing out on any, here are some tips I have:

1. Immediately following the receipt of a referral, (whether they use you or not) send a hand-written thank you to the sender. Maybe include a little $5 coffee gift card
2. Immediately after receiving the referred’s info, contact them and let them know how you received their name.
3. Communicate with your referral partner
   1. Having trouble getting a hold of the client?
   2. Was able to help them
   3. Was not able to help them
   4. They sent you a referral
4. Teach your referral partners what makes a good referral, ‘Trim Out The Fat’
5. If you have been referred to someone, communicate and let them know if it was a success, hand write a thank you if it was a great fit
6. Place referred business at the TOP of your priority list. This is the cheapest, easiest business to get, so treat it with GOLD to keep it coming.
7. Follow the basic rule: Treat Referrals How You Would Like To Be Treated
8. Refer back. This is the best way to repay the referring partner and keep more coming
9. Give before you receive.
10. Share about how awesome your referral partners are. Make it public, post on FB, write them a review on LinkedIn, send a Snap about them etc…

Referral Business is THE BEST way to grow to your business, take care of it and keep it coming!

Happy Networking

For more Networking Tips visit http://www.networkingwizblog.com

Did you know that Facebook and LinkedIN are 2 of the most searched online engines next to Google and Bing? What does that mean for you? It means that in today’s social society, if people cannot find you on LinkedIN or Facebook you do not exist. I could go on for days about optimizing your profiles, but today lets just start and make sure you have the basics down.

1. Make sure your profiles are public. Check your privacy settings. This does not mean all your posts have to be public, but make sure the ones regarding your business are. On each post you make you can use the drop down arrow and change if its public or not. (Note, if you’re posting stuff you don’t want your clients to see…should you really be posting it?)
2. List your contact information as public. Allow people to be able to reach out and contact you if they want. This includes your phone number, websites and email. Go into your About section and hover over each section, make changes to be public.
3. Have a CURRENT profile picture…of YOU! Not the dog, not your new car, not your logo. Clients want to see what you look like and want to verify they are contacting the right person.

I hope these tips help increase your online exposure this year!

For more tips visit http://www.networkingwizblog.com