For whatever reason, this ad suggests that the benefit of getting coffee at the gas station is that there’s no line. The problem is this: lines make us think something is worth it. Ever wander into an empty restaurant? Did you get a weird feeling and leave? If you went to the movies and there was a huge queue to see one movie, and no line at all to see the others, might you be curious as to what was so interesting that people were lined up to see it?

A line isn’t always a bad thing.

What unintentional messages are you sending?

Either get a gmail/yahoo/hotmail account, or buy a domain that can be yours forever. Use that email for secondary contact with any business contacts you might want to retain across many relationships. Do your work on your work email, but keep a “stay in touch” channel alive.

And work often on your own databases. Repeat after me: you live or die by your databases. I learned that working with Jeff Pulver. It’s a lesson that sticks with me to this day.

When I say this, I don’t mean anything especially difficult. I might just mean different types of contact lists. And by different types, that’s the power. My company, for instance, has a database of names who might be interested in marketing, PR and business communications. My company has a database for our events. It’s how we know who to reach with appropriate information that they want.

But personally, I’ve got databases of people I’ve reached out to like you, and I’m working on those databases.

For instance, I just took the contacts from my various mail software, the contacts in LinkedIn, and a few other sources, and I pushed them all into BatchBook, my web-based contact management software. In there, I’m slicing up those contacts into “people I want to touch base with more often,” “people I can reach out to with a project,” “personal advisory board,” and “family.”

Now, with those lists in place, I can then either send individual emails and check in, or if it’s a group type of thing, I can use Blue Sky Factory, my email platform, and send out a batch of mail.

Contact is important. Keeping your networks alive is important. Having more than your corporate email address for me to reach you is important.

In 2009, I can tell you this is all very important.

What are you doing about any of this?

Photo credit SC Fiasco