Sarah Whelband, Account Director
The little black book should be the bible of the PR professional, but I wonder whether the importance of contacts and networking has decreased over the years.
Whilst there are more forms of communication than ever before, I actually think that there is less effort being made nurturing contacts – the focus seems to have switched to quantity rather than quality.
It really shouldn’t be all about the number of connections that you have on LinkedIn, or the number of followers on Twitter. The power of real conversation and relationship building should not be underestimated.
Instead of a few ‘really good’ contacts (I’m talking about those people who you can call, pick their brains, call in a favour, get recommendations, even when you’ve not spoken to them for ages), there seems to be a higher majority of people that you could get in contact with if you needed, but wouldn’t go down the pub with.
Although the recession has put paid to the days of regular lunches, drinks every evening etc, should we not be making more effort to get in touch with people who are important to us? Is it really better that they have now become just another of your 500 connections?
I say no, you never know when you need that bit of advice, favour, or just a catch up to see what’s going on in the industry. And it’s important to keep them, and not lose sight of them as just a connection or a follower.
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