Last week I wrote about how to get over your nerves when you?re going to a networking meeting ? click here to read more. So you?ve made through the meeting and made your excuses. What next?

Effective networking does not end when you leave the meeting. The final stage to getting the best from your efforts happens when you get back to the office. Here are some tips on what to do with all those contacts you made and the advice and information you received.

Follow up ? when you leave a networking meeting, if you?ve done it correctly, you should have a reason to contact some, if not all of the people you spoke to. You might have promised to email an article to someone, to help them with an aspect of their business. Someone may have asked you to send more information about what you do. Did someone else ask you to call them? Whatever you said you would do ? make sure that you do it. There?s nothing worse for your reputation than promising to help and then failing to deliver. Keeping in touch is the start to building trust with people you meet. When people trust you, they will buy from you.

Keep it personal ? whatever form your follow up takes, it should be personal and individual. It?s unlikely that you had time for a really good conversation with everyone in the room, so don?t be tempted to email all of them, telling them how nice it was to meet them. If someone did not speak to you, they will remember and will not thank you for not remembering. You should definitely avoid sending a bulk email that tries to sell your services. Keep it personal to show that you really took notice of the people with whom you spoke.

Making measurements ? one of the secrets to good marketing is finding out what works for your business, so that you can do more of it. You will not know what works until you measure your efforts. Keep a record of which meetings you have been to, how many new people ? and clients ? you spoke to, how many of them subscribed to your newsletter or asked you to send more information. Record how many of them asked for a meeting. Count the number of proposals you sent as a result of each particular networking group to which you belong. Add up the cost of attending each network over a twelve month period and compare this to the number of new clients you meet, along with how much money they spend with you.

Every few months, review your networking. Look at what?s working and do more of it. Look at what?s not working, but is still costing you time and money. Be strict with yourself and stop going to these networking meetings.

At Networking Lunch, the monthly meeting we run in Oxford, we help our members and guests get more from their networking. If it?s not working, we help them work out why and look at what they need to change. Click here for more details.