Do you sometimes have problems with maintaining your working and personal relationships? Dividing working and personal contacts may be helpful. Also selfless help to others can in fact be useful for you in terms of both career development and a contented private life. A summary of how to manage your contact network was provided by Inc.com.
1) Do not refuse a request for help
If anyone asks you for help, try to oblige. For example, if a former colleague needs a job reference, do not hesitate to provide it. The short time you spend on such a request may prove worthwhile in the future. Nor does it have to be professional help. If people like calling you regardless of which part of your expertise they need, it improves your contact network.
2) Separate Facebook friends from your LinkedIn contacts
Try a strategy whereby only people with whom you associate also outside working hours become your friends on Facebook. These friends may include current and former colleagues. By following this rule, you can share your interests and photographs on Facebook without worrying about how it might affect your career.
3) Work with LinkedIn regularly
If you want to stay in contact with your customers or business partners, use LinkedIn regularly. While Facebook enables you to keep in touch with friends, LinkedIn will help you organise your time with work contacts. It is a good idea to avoid automatically generated e-mails. If you want to congratulate a business partner on some anniversary, it is preferable to consider the context of the specific individual and be more personal. That way you can stay in touch with people in different positions, which may help in your further career development. Remember to update your own LinkedIn profile.
4) When you travel, meet up with an acquaintance
If you visit a place where you have not been for a while, it is good to meet at least one old face every other day. Of course, there is no need to feel stressed if you have no such meeting arranged but if the opportunity does arise, make use of it.
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