I've said this before, and I'll say this again:

Networking is about building deep relationships with people you get along with.

Networking is NOT about showing off, about having someone promote your shit, about marketing, about Instagram (ugh), and superficial shit like that.

Networking IS about having smart people in your life that allows you to lean into their collective wisdom/experience.

For example, we internally debate a lot about how many emails we should send. It's a balance between too many and too few.

So I popped an email to John Berardi (who co-founded @insidePN, a company we respect a lot), and he gave me really really good insights into their thought process.

On the flip side, I was talking to a friend who was having some issues with AMEX. I introduced him to my account executive, which should make any future issues a lot smoother for him.

It's your network's ability to help in regards to specific situations that REALLY add up, not them sharing some social media post you threw up.