If I meet you at a conference, we have a nice chat about the school you run, and I get home to find I’m now receiving your school’s email newsletter, what is the outcome you’re hoping for? I just can’t imagine that spamming people is an effective way to build professional relationships that ever lead to anything good. It doesn't matter that we've met and exchanged business cards. If I didn't ask to receive it, and the only way for me to stop receiving it is to ask to be taken off a list, it's spam. There are no exceptions to this rule.
Networkers like those should take a page from my business partner, Arun’s, book. Going to a conference with Arun is humbling because he's seemingly known and loved by everybody. But it doesn’t happen by accident.
Arun makes a point of sitting next to people he doesn’t know. He strikes up real conversations—no angle, no agenda for what he can get from them—just a chance to get to know someone else in the profession. He never asks if he can give a speech at their high schools. He never gives them business cards “so they can refer students to him.” He never signs them up for our newsletter without asking or otherwise abuses their time and attention.
Not surprisingly, he’s constantly invited to speak at high schools. I’ve never met a private counselor who gets more referrals from high school counselors. And he’s got more than a stack of business cards or a list of people he met once and has been spamming ever since. He’s got real professional connections that he’s earned not by networking, but by taking the time and caring enough to make them.
It's clear (to me) which approach is more effective.