You’ve just returned from a conference, and you’re excited, motivated and feeling great!

The party’s not over just because you’re no longer wearing a name badge! Resist the urge to get “back to business” the minute you walk through the door – now is the best time to harness that positive energy and put what you’ve learned into action. Here are a few steps to help get you started.

1. Don’t turn the conference into a “shelf help” event, where you leave your materials and notes on the shelf when you return and go back to the old day-to-day. Create an action plan right away to implement what you have learned. If it seems overwhelming to create a whole plan right away, then take the one most important or interesting thing you learned and run with it.

2. Follow up with your new contacts; E-mail all the folks whose business cards you received, along with any of the conference staff, host, or speakers with whom you made a connection at the event. Even sending a short “nice to meet you” note is great. Perhaps you met someone with whom you would like to collaborate? Someone else who can refer your business to others and vice versa? Note one personal recollection from your interaction with that person – how you hope they enjoy their upcoming vacation, or have a successful product launch – let them know you were really listening to them and have an interest in what they had to say. Or, maybe there is someone you would like to thank – the speaker who inspired you, the host who welcomed you – a simple act of appreciation can turn them from acquaintances into allies.

3. Find your new contacts on Facebook and “friend” them. They may also have a presence on Twitter, Linked In, Plaxo, or other business and social networking sites. Perhaps you belong to a Facebook group you think would be of interest to one of them, or have friends to suggest to them?

4. Take action on the home front. Make sure you have marketing materials or products ready to send out to new contacts, customers or potential clients, and that your website/shopping cart are updated and able to handle lots of traffic! Now is also the time to determine how things went with your team or staff while you were away, and make any changes or improvements if necessary so your business can handle more regular time with you on the road.

5. Finally, give yourself a frank performance review. What kind of a first impression did you make? Was your business pitch refined and natural, or do you need to work on your confidence or public speaking skills? Did you hand out as many business cards or meet as many new faces as you had intended at the event? Make an honest assessment of the way you interacted at the event, and make notes of how you can make the next one even better.

Donna Toothaker is CEO and founder of 1st VA the highly sought-after online marketing and consulting company. 1st VA specializes in providing online marketing support and services to entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who wish to effectively build or improve their online presence. Visit http://www.1stva.com to sign up for our valuable weekly ezine and receive a free special report, The Top 5 Essential Tasks for the Ultimate Online Promotion of Your Business.

Here are three things you can do immediately to start building relationships, become known as the expert in your field,  and create the “know, like, trust” factor.

1. Ezine: Most businesses already have an ezine.  BUT – many are not utilizing it to its fullest potential. If you’re not in front of your readers on a weekly basis at MINIMUM – you’re missing the boat.  Monthly ezines don’t work like they used to.  You MUST stay in front of your audience more regularly.

Your weekly ezine should be brief. A personal introduction, an article of relevance on your area of expertise, an “about you” section and a recommendation are all you need.

You need to show your personal side in your ezine.  People want to know YOU and get a sense of your personality and values.  Often I talk about my family in my ezine because family is my number one value.  People will resonate with that, or they won’t, but the point is, I’m sharing what’s important to me and people want to buy from people with similar values.

2.     Blog regularly: Sure, most business owners have a blog, too.  But it’s important to be blogging regularly.  People won’t subscribe to ezines quite as much anymore due to email overload so it’s important to blog.  Posting three times per week is ideal – but at a minimum you should be posting once per week. There are other benefits such as SEO (search engines LOVE updated content) but for the scope of this article the primary benefit is relationship building.  Blogging is another avenue of building “community.”  Having comments open will allow people to ask questions, and share their own opinions.  Blogging is another way to show your personality.

3.     Social media: This is one tool that is not so regularly utilized yet, but should be.  Every business owner MUST be on Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter. If you’re not – you are missing out in a big way.  Social media marketing is so important for building new relationships.  From these new relationships you’re able to generate activity to your website, create interest in your products, and become known as the expert in your field.  Not only might you generate new business, but you may create some joint venture opportunities.  Social media isn’t what “the kids are doing,” it’s what serious business owners are using now to build important relationships.

Don’t wait for people to find your website – get active online, build new relationships and watch the sales and new opportunities come rolling in.

Donna Toothaker is CEO and founder of 1st VA the highly sought-after online marketing and consulting company. 1st VA specializes in providing online marketing support and services to entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who wish to effectively build or improve their online presence. To discover how 1st VA can help your business – visit http://www.1stva.com.

1st VA’s own resident Social Media Specialist, Kathy Colaiacovo, was recently interviewed for the Nova Scotia – Come to Life program website. Kathy provides information about her own business, what she does for some social media clients and what she likes about Nova Scotia.

We have a special interest here at 1st VA, as I was also interviewed for ‘background information’ for the article about Kathy. You can read the article, here.

Also read as Kathy talks about the program, and the interview, here.

We’re so proud of Kathy and delighted she’s part of our 1st VA team!