Never drop a networking contact again

What does this setup do?

Turn post-event notes into personal follow-up messages for every contact, and keep a simple tracker so nobody slips through.

Who is it for?

Solo operators and freelancers who collect business cards and then never follow up.

How do you set it up?

Tools

• A chat AI (free tier works)
• Your post-event notes: name, where you met, what you talked about, any promise you made
• A simple tracker: spreadsheet with name, contact, date met, follow-up status

Steps

1. Within 24 hours of the event, write one line per person: name, what you talked about, anything you promised to send.
2. Add each person to your tracker with the date and a status of "to follow up".
3. Paste your notes plus the prompt below into the AI. Get one draft per person.
4. Check each draft. The specific detail from your conversation must be right or the whole thing reads as fake.
5. Send the messages yourself the same day or the next morning.
6. Mark sent in the tracker. Set a reminder for one gentle nudge in 10 to 14 days for the important ones.
7. After the nudge, stop. Respectful silence beats a third chase.

Write personal follow-up messages from my networking notes. Each one short enough to send as an email or LinkedIn message. Warm, specific, zero sales pitch.

Event: [EVENT NAME], [DATE]
My business in one line: [WHAT YOU DO]

My notes (one per person):
1. [NAME]: talked about [TOPIC]. I promised to send [THING, or "nothing specific"].
2. [NAME]: talked about [TOPIC]. Mentioned [THEIR CHALLENGE OR INTEREST].
[ADD MORE]

For each person, write:
- A subject line or opening line (3-5 words).
- The message: remind them where we met, reference the specific topic, and include the promised item or one useful thing related to their interest. End with one light next step (a coffee, a call, staying in touch): no hard ask.
- If I promised nothing, do not invent a promise. Just reference the conversation.

Rules: every message must contain the real detail from my notes. If a note is thin, keep the message shorter rather than padding it.

Which chat tools work with this prompt?

Paste the prompt into any of these assistants (free or paid tiers).

• ChatGPT
• Claude

What tips make it smoother?

• The 24-hour rule is real. A message the next morning lands while they remember your face. A week later you are a stranger.
• One specific detail beats three paragraphs of polish. "Your point about commercial snow contracts" is the whole email.
• If you promised to send something, send it in the first message. A promise kept is worth ten clever lines.
• Connect on LinkedIn too, but the personal message comes first. A bare connection request is easy to ignore.

Where do the claims come from?

Summaries use public sources linked below, not independent verification. How setups are picked.

• Read Scribbl’s write-up (scribbl.co)

  Scribbl: Networking follow-up template: remind them where you met, give something small.

• Read Ex Nihilo Magazine’s write-up (exnihilomagazine.com)

  Ex Nihilo Magazine: Follow-up timing and turning one message into an ongoing relationship.