Welcome to The Affiliate Manager Weekly Strategist from Affiliate Classroom.

Each week, we discuss an affiliate management strategy and ask you for your input.

This week, our VP of Marketing and 10 year affiliate marketing veteran, Rachel Honoway talks about placing a value on live industry interaction.

VALUING FACE TO FACE TIME
– Rachel Honoway

In this fast-moving online world, it’s often hard to peel ourselves away from the computer to interact with people face to face.

We IM the guy at the desk next to ours, we tweet our thoughts on Twitter instead of sharing them around the water cooler and we send emails to our clients, affiliates and colleagues instead of picking up the phone, or meeting with them in person.

When you’re moving so fast, it’s hard to convince yourself that stepping away from your constant electronic connections will be valuable enough to make up for the key-tapping time you’ve missed.

This struggle is no more prevalent than when determining whether or not a given conference is worth your un-connected time.

Sure, you can check email between sessions and have your IMs and tweets sent directly to your phone, but you’ll lose a lot of progressive computer time when you’re traveling to and from the event, when you’re chatting with exhibitors, when you’re listening to sessions and, of course, when you’re partying like a rock star at the endless chain of sponsored club events.

Finding the true worth of event attendance requires a valuation the face-to-face interaction that you have with others in the industry.

What that means is that the value of any event, whether big or small, is determined by how YOU approach it.

Do you just blend in with the crowd, collect brochures, take notes and go home? Do you gravitate to the same crowd of people you were with the last time and comfortably chat about the same things you chatted about last time? Do you find yourself talking to people that really have nothing to offer you and your business?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, I wouldn’t be surprised if you said that you found little value in attending events.

When I attend events, I make it my goal to meet, shake hands and exchange cards with as many of the RIGHT people as I can.

I go into each event with a “hit list”. This is the list of potential clients, partners or industry influencers that I want to build or strengthen a relationship with. I’ve recruited a few good affiliates over the years by contacting my hit list prior to the event and inviting them to dinner.

At the next event you attend, try creating a hit list before you get on the plane, you may be surprised at how successful event attendance becomes when you have a plan.

For more tips on making the most from your event attendance, join us for our LIVE Affiliate Manager Workshop on August 9th at the Boston Seaport Hotel (the day before Affiliate Summit) where Lee “The Lead Man” Gientke will be hosting a roundtable discussion to offer tips and advice on “working the room”.

http://www.affiliateclassroomlive.com

QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK

How do you make the decision on which events to attend?

What is the most valuable part of one-on-one interaction for you?
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Join our discussions and post your answers and comments below.

(Remember - participating in industry blogs can help with brand/program recognition and with recruiting affiliates!)