Eight Secrets of Effective Online Networking

7. Befriend people strategically.

Sometimes, friends come to you; but other times, you’ll have to do your own outreach to add new friends to your contact list. This is a critical part of the workflow; to reap the benefits of using social-networking tools, you need to build your network.

That said, you want to avoid random or open-ended outreach, which can distract you and waste time. A strategic way to build your network is to use a friend-of-a-friend approach.