On my way home from a conference recently, I sat next to a blonde woman in her mid-40's wearing matching Prada shoes and bag. From the looks of her, a successful businesswoman.

I couldn't help peeking over her shoulder and seeing that she was composing email messages in Outlook. I could tell she had just attended a meeting and was diligently doing her follow-up. The problem was that every single message she wrote was the same – and, in my opinion, really boring.
 
"Dear [Blank], it was a pleasure to meet you at the meeting this weekend and I hope we can meet again soon."
 
That was it. No reference to who she was, what they talked about, what ideas she had since they met or what they could do together in the future.

Anyone who knows me (or has heard my networking presentations) knows that I am a follow up freak. But I'd say it's better not to follow up than to write the type of generic follow up messages this woman was about to send out.

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