This week I attended Inbound 2012 conference. It was packed with marketers and people aspiring to be better ones. One of my idols Gary Vaynerchuk had a keynote and the point that he hammered in people’s head is that *Context is God*. Context creates an opportunity to be able to talk to someone. Its not anything new. When your grandparents used to go to the Butcher’s shop, he knew their whole family and asked them how they were doing as soon as they walked in. That, my friends is context. I bet the only reason they went to his shop was because he knew about them i.e context. Fast forward to our times; We have endless opportunities to create context! Let me show you how to do so.

Let’s say you’re going to be meeting me (I wanted to use someone not famous ha).

GOOGLE! Get this hardwired in your brain. Always google the name of the person first.

Oh wow look so much context!

Website: The next step is to look at the person’s website(if they have any). In my case the about.me page shows up. This will give you an overview of who the person is.

Blog: This is a gold mine of context. If the person blogs, it will give you so much context to talk about. You can ask them questions regarding a particular blog post or give them your views about it. This will really make the person feel good that you took the time to read what they wrote. Also you will get a feel of their personality through their writing.

Twitter: Hands down my favorite tool as you may know. This will help you understand what they do day to day. Maybe they hate comcast and you do too. There’s context! Make sure to follow them after your meeting as they will see your face again and instantly remember who you are.

Linkedin: There is a high chance that the person you are meeting is related somewhat to your future aka your career. Make sure you look at their linkedin profile and their experience. Maybe they went to the same college as you and that creates a strong alumni context to talk about.

It is insanely stupid in the age of iPads and Androids to talk to someone without googling them once. Whether you are a business developer, entrepreneur, recruiter, college student or anyone, this is highly important. And don’t worry this is not stalking. I don’t want to brand it as hustle either. This is just Business 101. When you go to a meeting or take that phone call with a person knowing so much about them, it will leave a lasting impression.

Also here are two tools to help you do the above even faster: Rapportive & Summer.

Read the article? Now you’ve got context to talk to me! Tweet at me to talk =)