With so many things to deal with, it’s hard to get everything ticked off the digital to-do list. But digital tools can help you get organised, so it’s worth investing a bit of time to get it right.

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Here is a checklist of five essential tasks to get you started:

1. Your Inbox

If you have a huge backlog in your mailbox, give yourself a clean slate to work with. Archive all your emails in folders by year. Set up some tools to help keep your inbox under control:

Sanebox, Outlook rules and Mailstrom are some favourites.

2. Backups – there’s no excuse anymore!

Give yourself peace of mind by finally setting up a trusted system for backing up and filing. Dropbox, OneDrive and Box are great cloud tools. Okay, this isn’t networking specific but it will definitely help with your time management, freeing up more time for business development. Have you got your important personal and business documents digitised and filed? Once you have the basics in place, consider using digital notebooks such as Evernote and OneNote to keep networking notes in a logical ‘notebook’ style order.

3. Online profiles – maximise your digital assets 

When was the last time you updated your online profiles? Do you have a photo that is at least 18 months – 2 years new? View your profiles as an outsider. Do you like what you see?

Review your profiles and create:

• 1 long bio (1 page) with a photo (ready for send out if you are to be profiled in PR or media), and for use on your personal website/about me page/blog, etc. If you don’t have a personal website, why not set up an About.Me page to direct leads to all your online resources? Or have one professionally created?
• 1 short version for LinkedIn (half-page) with a professional photo. Don’t forget to update your profile with any recent projects, new work information and recommendations.
• A short informal version for Twitter/Pinterest/Instagram etc. Date the document and update all your profiles. Set a reminder for 6 months to make sure it is still up-to-date and relevant. Update the document if you tweak any of the profiles so if you lose them, they are easy to restore.

4. Clear that shoebox – there are probably gems in there!

Grab those business cards – scan and file them. CamCard is an excellent way to digitise your business cards. It also syncs to Outlook contacts. Clean up your contacts file and make notes against people that you need to follow up. Schedule follow-up time in your diary. Don’t forget to make the follow ups relevant and personal!

You can use CRM tools like Contactually to help you manage your network effectively. Contactually is the ultimate relationship management tool – it pulls data from your email mailbox and Social Media accounts of your contacts to supercharge your networking.

And while you are at it… clear those receipts, too! Expensify is a great receipt-tracking app. If you aren’t using digital tools for invoicing, think about getting one in place to manage your accounting more efficiently. Speak to your accountant about migrating to cloud accounting before your financial year is up. Xero, Quick Books Online and Freshbooks are all good cost effective options.

5. Refresh your business plan (vision board, mind map or culture code)

And make sure your networking is solidly built into it! Networking is a powerful tool – what do you want to get out of it?

Here’s a 4-step action plan to make sure you get the results you want:

• Know what you want and be clear about expected outcomes
• Take action towards achieving these leveraging tools and outreach
• Determine what works and what doesn’t: track, measure and review.
• Then start again at #1!

As with anything – you get out what you put in!

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