I know that dripping and pinging sound like something a person should visit the doctor about but they are actually techniques that I use to stay in touch with people in my network.

Dripping

Dripping is the term I use to describe how I drip information on potential business partners. Sometimes things don’t align (life happens, etc.) and a person who is very interested in your product or business doesn’t get involved right away. These are the people I drip on. I send them a weekly email with information about an upcoming meeting or conference call and then I always add some type of value to the email such as a link to an article on small business. Lastly, I invite them to re-engage with me. I offer my phone number and tell them to give me a call if they have any questions.

Pinging

I stole the pinging concept from Keith Ferrazzi. Here is an explanation about pinging from Inc.:

Eighty percent of success, Woody Allen once said, is just showing up. Eighty percent of networking is just staying in touch. (Keith) Ferrazzi calls it “pinging.” It’s a quick, casual greeting. He makes hundreds of phone calls a day. Most of them are simply quick hellos that he leaves on friends’ voice mail. He sends E-mail constantly. He remembers birthdays and makes a special point of reaching people when they have one. When it comes to relationship maintenance, he is, in the words of more than one friend, “the most relentless, energetic person I know.”

If you haven’t noticed, I am an advocate for Blogging. In fact, I believe that every small business owner should have a blog.

Here are 5 ways that blogging can help your business:

1. Expose a new or little-known product or idea.
2. Improve your search engine rankings.
3. Position yourself as an expert in an industry or field.
4. Influence public opinion.
5. Engage in a forum openly with your customers.

Source: Microsoft Small Business Center