Whether you like them or not, social networking sites are here to stay. Yes, these sites are nothing new and millions have already realized the many useful ways and unique advantages of staying connected however I am still amazed at the number of 30 and 40 something peers I run into that dismiss them as vanity outlets, popularity contests or yet another message inbox to be burdened with. 

While "Linked in" serves as a phenomenal "professional" networking/prospecting tool for many of us, it is not for everyone and unfortunately many people fail to at least leverage the personal networking sites in their simplest form...a efficient way to bridge back to their past relationships and the potential value that those relationships hold.

I admit that over the years we all have a few people that we would just assume forget however there are so many positive friends and acquaintances in our personal pasts that are easy to forget as naturally we gravitate to our priority networks and lose touch with many valuable people outside of our current social and business spheres.

These days, the nice surprise of that initial Facebook invite message from a long lost friend seems to happen many times a day (one of the few good things  when you reach 40 as I just did) however the biggest "WOW" moment for me was last week when my best friend from grade school (whom I lost touch with 28 years ago!) found me. Not only did we click like we were never separated but he turned out to be a VP of a global aviation company and when sharing our current career paths, we discovered that we could potentially do business together hence the whole reconnection turned out to be a win/win on multiple fronts. 

The other motivations for me that came out of this was that you should never lose focus on following your dreams as my friend John was obsessed with jets when we were young and to his credit he stuck to his affinity and love for aviation and turned it into his career.  Secondly, instead of waiting for people to find me I should step up my outward reach and finding others like John as my long-time friends are now at the life stage where many of them are serious decision makers in the corporate world and that can be very beneficial when you are a business development specialist like me.

Yes, utilizing online "search" has changed the world forever (us gen X'rs do not take for granted these magical search algorithms as we knew life without this luxury)  however if you are not so inclined to joining a social networking website (and learning the ropes), take the initiative to take a slightly different "offline" approach on efficiently organizing and leveraging those friends, associates and one-off business card acquaintances that you do not reconnect with on a regular basis.

Besides a loyal dog and the do-it-all aforementioned "search" function, the good old excel spreadsheet still serves as one of man's best friends as a simple and effective name classification system. Using this old reliable application you can quickly and easily manage (and view) ALL your contacts from all those different sources and silos as many of us do not have the time or motivation to develop an updated and on-demand personal database that meets all of our needs.

Here is a real easy way to ensure that you are leveraging (and connecting) your personal contacts to the fullest extent. I set up a master contact excel not for keeping track of contact information (MS Outlook, CRM and cell phones obviously have that area covered) but rather to quickly reference the people I need to reach by discipline, geography and/or unique expertise. This way I just build out names (and other key details) on multiple excel tabs by the important functions that my friends and contacts can serve. Some of my "go-to" tabs are as follows....High Net Worth/VC/Angel Investors, Business Mentors, Elite Networkers, International Business Experts by Region/Country, Technology Experts and so on.  This gives me quick visual reference of hundreds of scattered but important people that I would otherwise forget if they were buried in a cell phone or not sub-classified in my Outlook or personal Yahoo web mail account.

This may sound a little outdated but it works great and there is no substitute for speed and simplicity when time is off the essence. For example...just this past weekend my brother and I had dinner and he told me about a close business contact of his who had a rapidly growing and successful Panamanian seafood business but was looking to take it to the next level with an infusion of capital and new US distribution partners with seafood experience and ready customers. As much as I like to rely on my memory and it did serve me well for a good contact for the US distribution partner, I went into my handy reference excel and in less than a minute found a contact right here in Atlanta (I met a year ago but rarely see or speak to) who was not only a "high net worth individual" and thus a potential investor but also was classified under "Central/South American Business" as his father is a prominent business man in Panama. Voila!

So if you find yourself wondering who or what you are missing out on by not maximizing your existing networks or you are living too much in your current email and cell phone contacts universe, go ahead and open up to your past in a more efficient way and you will be pleasantly surprised who will find you and how many people are potentially there to make life and work easier and more rewarding.