Sending holiday greeting cards is a way for us to connect with friends and family or extend a thank you to our business clients and contacts for their support.

Last week I received a card from someone I met at a networking event. Normally I would consider this a very thoughtful gesture, but this person and I really didn't "meet" and we definitely didn't share a conversation of any sort. Rather, this individual walked up to me as I was speaking with a colleague, said hello, asked for one of my business cards and then stepped away. That was the sum total of our interaction.

What made this card stand out to me -- and not in a good way -- was that there was a small, crookedly trimmed piece of paper -- a generic, photocopied message -- included inside the card, thanking me for my loyalty to the company, along with a few lines telling me about their holiday referral program. Loyalty to their company? I had never had any type of interaction with it, so there was no loyalty ... and therefore, it was a bit soon to be talking about referrals!