When you first start networking - attending events, joining organizations, scheduling one on one coffees - you find that the more you do, the more you get. You begin to feel comfortable, you learn how to engage people better and you start getting business and referrals from your activities. So you do a little more and you get a little more.

Over time, it starts to compound and you're eagerly looking forward to your next activity or meeting. Then you find your results leveling off. And you need to keep growing your company, or you need to rebuild after the last few years economic situation. But you've hit the maximum on the amount of time you can spend on networking. How are you going to increase your results? You might need less, not more networking.

Networking is a process of building long-term (preferably), mutually beneficial relationships through the exchange of ideas, information, resources and experiences. When you go to networking events you are usually working on only the going places and meeting people (or socializing) part of the process.

The true value in networking comes out in the exchange portion where you give value to other people by sharing with them information and resources. This isn't always done at a networking event. Giving value usually happens in the follow-up after you meet someone or talk to them at an event and find out about a need they have. Unfortunately, follow-up is by far, the most neglected aspect of networking.

If all of your budgeted networking time (you do plan how much time you're going to spend on networking, right?) is spent going to events, there is little time for follow-up. You'll bring your notes to the office, set them aside for later in the week. But later this week, you've got another event. Another little pile of notes and cards are added to the stack. Three events and two weeks later, you don't remember the good idea you had for the person on the bottom of the pile.

Pick one of your least interesting, furthest drive, least relationship-building networking events and put it aside for now. Spend that one or two hours that you've freed up into following up and staying in contact with the people you've met at the other events. Focus on going deeper with fewer people. The saying is that "the fortune is in the follow-up." So is a stronger, more efficient networking strategy.