How to Keep Your Network Warm

“It’s a common refrain,” says Craig Wortmann, a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School and academic director of the Kellogg Sales Institute, “‘I’ve worked really hard to build a network. How the hell am I supposed to stay in touch with them without spending all my time calling people I haven’t seen in three years?’”

Wortmann is such a believer in the power of “keeping your network warm,” as he calls it, that he keeps an actual database of his network, with notes on where he met each person and any other pertinent information. But his method goes far beyond a database. It’s an active process, one that requires tremendous discipline.

“I try to treat it like any other discipline—working out, eating right—because I know that it has such a huge payoff for me, my company, my students, and anyone else I’m trying to help,” Wortmann says.

Here, Wortmann offers three approaches to keeping your network warm: old-school phone calls and notes (yes, through the mail), robust social-media activity, and regular updates to your broader network. Some of his techniques will come more naturally or feel more sustainable, depending on your personality and comfort level, so think of it as a menu of tools for outreach. For example, Wortmann personally enjoys sending handwritten thank you notes to people, so it’s something he’s more inclined to do.

“Beta test all of these for a month or two each, and see which one fits your personality and lifestyle,” Wortmann says. “In an ideal world, you’d use a combination of all three.”

Reach out regularly

Sometimes the easiest way to reconnect with someone is to do simply that: connect. Wortmann used to dedicate time to calling three to five contacts each week. He calls this the “old school” approach, not just because of the old-fashioned medium but because such a personalized tactic—thinking about whom you’re calling and why, and then tailoring an outreach—is difficult to scale in the modern age.

“It’s not tons of work, but it takes 10 minutes to do a quick bit of thinking and decide on your three to five targets a week,” Wortmann says. “And then it takes a while to execute.”

Each week, he says, he would ask himself, “Okay, in my database of people who I want to keep warm, who are the most interesting people I could talk to this week about something I’m trying to make progress against?”

It’s also important to have a specific reason why you’re reaching out. Wortmann cautions against reaching out to someone with a general solicitation to “pick their brain,” a request he calls “worthless and empty.” And always include an offer alongside an ask. For example, you might share a useful contact, or a link to a recent article that’s relevant to your target’s interests. Start with humility—“You may not remember me” or “I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked; here’s where we met”—along with the offer. Then you can make your ask.

“First, I ask myself, ‘What do I need from these people? Why am I calling them?’” says Wortmann. “Then I back up off the selfishness and ask, ‘What is something I could offer them?’” Having an offer alongside the ask gives the person a reason to engage, even if they might not go for the ask.

Commit to social media

One tool networkers of yesteryear didn’t have at their fingertips is social media—what Wortmann calls the “new school” way of keeping your network warm.

In Wortmann’s perspective, a social-media presence is a must-have. For many professionals, that’s most effectively done on LinkedIn, a place where he believes people genuinely go to learn and connect. The keys to using LinkedIn well are consistency and brand. Post regularly, at least a few times a week, and build out your personal brand by showcasing your unique expertise.

“Social media is super powerful because of its scale,” he says. “But you’ve got to do it consistently, and it’s got to be centered on something that you’re known for.”

Wortmann himself posts three to four times a week and has built his brand around generosity—providing insights and content for free, rather than selling anything. Only recently has he done a handful of posts in which he points his followers to his online courses, where they can pay for more in-depth content. The recent switch to direct people toward paid content, he notes, is a very deliberate strategy in which every post that contains a soft sell is balanced by about 20 other posts in which he simply shares lessons or ideas.

Content can and should vary in format, from written posts to article shares to video appearances. He acknowledges this frequency can be intimidating, but maintains the effort is worth it. Social media’s networked nature, in which people can share and repost your content, leading to new connections, makes it uniquely powerful.

“You just have to have a point of view,” he says. “And you’ve got to be able to write well and do videos, and you have to do it a lot.”

Send your network direct updates

With so many ways to connect today, choosing how to reach out to your network can be overwhelming. Not everyone is on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. Telling someone you just met to join your network and check out your content on LinkedIn might feel awkward. But pretty much everyone uses email. Take advantage of that to connect with a large chunk of your network at once.

Wortmann advises sending out regular progress reports via email, which will vary in frequency and content depending on where you are professionally. As a company founder and CEO, he sends out quarterly updates on what his firm, Sales Engine, has been doing. But he notes that if you are a job seeker on the hunt, you might send out blasts more regularly—say, on a weekly or monthly basis—until you have landed a role.

Your progress report should combine the visual aesthetic of a social-media presence with the content and tone of an interesting personal update. It should also be customized to reflect your personality and goals.

“It’s not just an email saying, ‘Here’s what I’ve been up to,’” Wortmann notes. “Anyone can write those emails—and no one reads them. Why not infuse some design energy into it, and put it together in a report?”

This approach, he thinks, can offer the best of both worlds: the directness of landing in someone’s inbox, the personalization that comes from social-media branding, and the ability to reach people at scale without eating up the time it takes to send individual emails or post on LinkedIn every other day.

Plus, he notes, this combination of snazzy design, interesting content, and a clear ask can really land with readers, especially if you’re also offering useful information or ideas inside.

“You’re going to have a better chance of somebody saying, ‘Hey, I saw the ask in here. I can actually help you,’” says Wortmann. “Not only are you keeping your network warm, but something is landing with people.”

If you’re a job seeker, the content might include a recap of your knowledge, qualifications, and skills; it could also feature testimonials from colleagues and specifics about the type of job you are seeking. Even if only a fraction of people open it and read it, by sending it out on a regular basis to, say, 50 top targets each week, you’ll reach at least a handful of people each week—and you’ll be fresh in their mind in case they happen to hear of a relevant role.

That’s what counts to Wortmann when he sends out his company’s quarterly report.

“My logic is, if in that moment, once a quarter, you might be spending a minute looking at my progress report and thinking about us in that minute, we win. Even if you don’t think about us again until the next quarter, I’m still keeping my network warm.”