How often is too often?

When is the right timing for business or personal contact? If you meet a possible customer at a function, do you ring them desperately the next day and look pathetic, friendless and pushy, or do you wait a good six months and hope they remember you, like you’re as memorable as Barack or the Dizzy Lama?

It’s a mystery to many of us. Who wouldn’t love the timing talent that knows exactly when to push the button and when to hold off, teasing the audience, putting them more in love with your words of wisdom, because they have received them right when the coffee arrived, or the second glass of wine kicked in.

When, or how often is right? I reckon, that if you meet a person in a business setting you should email them the next day or two to say they are on your radar, and then contact them about once a month – enough to give them breathing space but not to totally forget you. But vary the contact, sometimes a phone call, sometimes an email.

In a social media kind of context, I like contact about once a week. If I haven’t heard from a blogger, linked-in commentator, friend for that matter, weekly, I think they have died. Now that’s not to say that I don’t remember you if you haven’t contacted me via Facebook for a few weeks, but it does mean about once a week is OK for a busy person over 15.

How often is too often? The research says Twitter contact can be a couple of times a day. More than that, and you have too much time and no life. Facebook updates, maybe every few days, again, too much focus on something that doesn’t contribute to humanity or the bottom line just looks bad. LinkedIn? Maybe once every couple of days. Outbound emails? About once a week, at a consistent day/time is good.

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Geoffrey McDonald Bowll is the managing director of Melbourne creative agency Starship and a member of First 5000.