Tips on how to network

All throughout college, we were told 'network, network, network!' so I listened, and still never got anything out of it.  It's not that I didn't understood the premise of why networking is so important, but nothing ever came of it.

Now I realize I have been doing it all wrong.  Networking is not just shooting the shit.  Networking is not talking about sports, weather, etc....  thats called being friendly.  Networking is a deliberate, focused attempt to discover possible value for others and for yourself.  Here is a template of how to network that I've begun using to great success:

Me:  Hi, how are you doing? What do you think of  event?

Them:  Its great.

Me: Awesome, I think something positive about the event.  What is it that you do?

Them: I do online banking for ING.

Me:  Oh thats great! It seems as if marketing a bank that has no branches would be very difficult, how do you do overcome that?

Them: We blahblahblah

Me:  Wow, thats a great point, have you heard about this thing called twitter? blahblahblah I am a financial services consultant.  I just list a major accomplishment. I would love to talk with you more about what it is that you do, do you have a card?

20something TakeAway: 

1. The Goal of the template above is to establish rapport, get contact information, and be remembered.  Next, go home and research everything thats happening with online banking.  Then contact them and say you want to grab lunch.  At lunch, you can try to accomplish more (finding a new job, selling them a service, etc)
   
2. Get right to the point - "What do you do?"
   
3. Be interesting and demonstrate that you can provide value to them.  For example, you could spin twitter as a way to build INGs client base and deal with customer questions.
   
4. Be passionate when speaking and smile a lot.
   
5. Always say positive things about the event you are at, even if it sucks. Nobody wants to talk with negative people.
   
6. Remember that even if the person can't help you, you might be able to help them.  Karma baby.