While I agree that it matters who you know, that doesn’t mean the goal should be to have thousands of online friends. Quantity alone doesn’t mean that you’re truly connected.

Here’s a thought: make your network smaller. Then take that network and focus on making it tighter. Do this by reaching out to people more frequently (about them, not you) and connecting them to others.

This approach takes time, but it’s the best way I know to build a real network.

It’s not what you think. What terrifies me is how people approach networking these days. In an age where the masses no longer exist and individualism is king, many still network as if it were a contest to see who gets the most business cards by the end of the night.

Part of the problem is nomenclature. Networking isn’t an event, it’s a process.

If you consider it too much trouble to build a network the right way, then it’s probably too much trouble to do business the right way as well. At least that’s how it looks from my perspective.