Man by nature is a social entity. It cannot live without the company of another human being. If we are living in the society that means we are taking advantage of another human beings labor and vice versa. After all that is what society is about it means where every man co-exists peacefully and benefits from the expertise that each one has.In the older days people used to get acquainted with his neighbour at social events like hunting and harvesting. Slowly as life become refined, meeting people became sophisticated. We now meet with people in the virtual world. Social networking has replaced the pub and the coffee shop. We have become citizens of a digital city where the social political boundaries no longer exists and we can freely mingle with a student from Seoul as easily as an accountant from Nairobi or a professional photographer from Bangalore.
Social networking is a great place to meet people online and is certainly one of the definitive ways of how to make friends in the Internet age. It is a convenient too. When starting off as the manager of an outbound tourism company in London about a decade ago, I had no idea how the Internet was going to change the whole perspective of ding business altogether.
As students in our tourism management class, we were told to keep our eyes and ears open for business opportunities when we meet guys in tourism fairs or even in any others business / professional meetings. But that is hardly a few times each year. Using the power of social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter we can go online to meet people actively and create a channel of friends and associates who are in the complimentary services of the same industry thereby creating business opportunities daily.
But how to make friends with people online that we do not even know? The best thing to do is to start joining groups in social networking sites. These groups have to be ones that you relate to professionally. Say, you are a professional wedding photographer looking for assignments in New York you go to LinkedIn and join a few groups that are meant for wedding photographers in New York. People looking to meet people who and take up professional assignments in New York will contact you directly through the group. All groups have moderators who actively promote business opportunities and they happily pass on assignments and or recommend people in his group he thinks can handle such assignments professionally.
However there is a small caveat while you venture out trying to meet people online. Not everyone you meet online and says that he is an avid professional in the same profession as you are is actually looking for a simple professional contact. Avoid people who try to get your phone number of contact information in the first few exchanges. While email is fine never give away your number to them. Specially for young people who are not matured enough, their parents should monitor their Internet behaviour. Also stay away from phishing, spamming and identity theft sites.