15
Comparison: cold DMs vs in-person networking at a local meetup
I spent 6 weeks sending 50 cold DMs on Instagram (got maybe 2 replies) then went to one casual freelancer meetup in Portland last Tuesday and walked out with 3 solid leads and a free drink. The difference was night and day, like actually talking to people beats typing into the void. Has anyone else had way better luck with face-to-face stuff over digital outreach?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
casey26810d agoMost Upvoted
Gotta disagree with you there. I've sent hundreds of cold DMs over the years and built a pretty solid network out of it. My trick is to find people who just posted something specific, like a project update or a question, then reply with actual value not just "hey let's connect." Last month I got a $500 referral from a guy I messaged cold about his website copy. In-person meetups are great but you're limited by who shows up and your own city's industry size. Cold outreach lets you target EXACTLY the people you need to meet nationwide.
7
smith.lee10d ago
$500 referral is pretty good. I guess cold DMs work better when you actually read what people wrote instead of just copy-pasting "love your content" on 50 profiles. But @casey268, you're still out here doing homework for strangers on the internet, so I'm not sure who's really winning.
3