If you recently attended Social Media Week in NYC, chances are, you left with a bunch of business cards. From seminars on “Connectional Intelligence” to tech breakfasts and networking parties, you probably even met a future client.
A professional convention is a great way to meet valuable contacts. The question is, how much time are you willing to spend working the room?
If Social Media Week didn’t remind you, technology makes it easy to connect with people, even if you’re lazy. Some social media apps make prospecting so effortless, that you could literally have a beeline mapped out for you everywhere.
From GPS technology to LinkedIn integration, three applications (amongst others) make networking obscenely efficient. Besides saving boatloads of time and energy, these apps make each flu-contaminated handshake much more worth it!
Here On Biz
While setting up your profile is slow and semi-painful, it’s entirely worth it! Even Virgin American and Gogo In-flight Wifi are on board with them. Imagine sending prospects a drink at 38,000 feet, or chatting them up during an oil change. By syncing with your LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook contacts, Here On Biz geo-locates those around you, and recommends connections based your industry, job title, alma mater, and contact network. Obviously connections must use Here On Biz, and right now it’s only available for iPhones. Nevertheless, when you pepper FourSquare with a little LinkedIn, it makes an “app”-etizing recipe of opportunity.
Bizzabo
Bizzabo maximizes your professional conference investment, whether you’re attendee or an exhibitor. It geo-locates other app users, and shows relevant data from their LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook profiles. From real time invites, to promotions and updates, it eliminates aimless meandering throughout exhibit halls. Aside from integration with all Eventbrite functions, it covers thousands of conventions and worldwide networking events.
EventBrowsr
Eventbrowsr is a website (with an app coming soon) that helps you select events based on who’s going. Formerly known as FindNMeet, this is the homework you should do before attending anything. It cross-references Meetup and EventBrite functions, with attendees’ synced LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Meetup profiles. This means you can get information about each attendee, even if they don’t use EventBrowsr! While it has only been rolled out in NYC, it already proves tremendous value. Filtering out event gems from waste-of-time meetings makes this app the ideal networking preparation.
Between all three tools, you can have a red carpet of business opportunities laid out before you. While nothing beats the serendipitous chance encounter, why not increase your chances of it?