Most people agree that networking is necessary for career advancement. To further understand this important social activity, it may be useful to distinguish between three types of networking:  

• Operational, where you network with people in the same organization for work purposes
   
• Personal, where you network for personal and professional development
   
• Strategic, where you network inside and outside the firm, in order to better understand and appreciate strategic issues, trends, environmental opportunities and threats, etc.

Compared to the other two, strategic networking seems to be the most valuable but also the most difficult. Indeed, it is reserved for leaders and executives. The professionals and managers who do engage in strategic networking are, of course, lavishly rewarded for their efforts given the strategic value of such networking.

However, one should proceed with caution when it comes to strategic networking because it involves dealing with high-level people.

For instance, in strategic networking, there is always a subtle element of power during social intercourse (or even in non-personal communications such as emails). Politics (or the perceived evolving power of players) plays an important role in such interactions.

I've noticed, for example, that relatively powerful people (CEOs, millionaires, editors, etc.) are highly sensitive to signals and gestures acknowledging their elevated status or confirming their eminence (for lack of a better word).

In short, powerful people are quite sensitive. White-glove treatment is always de rigueur.

A book I highly recommend to learn the art of the courtier so as to be more effective at strategic networking with high-powered people, is The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian.

If you wish to practice your networking skills, Linkedin is a good place to start. In particular, I recommend the Linkedin Answers section, where you can ask up to 10 questions per month and answer as many questions as you wish.

When asking a question, be sure to contribute a valuable idea or an interesting fact or a thought-provoking insight.

When answering a question, try to be as detailed, comprehensive and practical as possible.

In all communications and in one's Linkedin profile, it is important to look at oneself and ask: "What is it that is so special about me that other people, especially the people I want to network with, will WANT to meet me and get to know me?"

Unfortunately, most of the Linkedin profiles seem to lack career focus. Few users take the time to craft a compelling professional identity, one that is memorable. Few people write down their career goal or mission, or anything that would show that the person seriously thought about the critical career question: "What do I want to contribute professionally?"

This question is the one Peter Drucker asked of people who came to him for career advice. It is a simple, yet poignant, frank and direct question.

A person can have 500 connections on Linkedin, yet it won't help much if he doesn't know what he's trying to achieve in his career.

Clarifying one's career goal is not that difficult. At first, you start with a basic sentence like: "I would like to become a marketing professional."

Then, you refine it further: "To become a marketing communications professional working in the IT industry, and use my creativity, leadership and project management skills to ensure the long-term success of my clients."

Once it is clear to you and to everyone you know what your career is all about, it then becomes easier to network since you are operating from a solid foundation of self-honesty and professional clarity.

Having a clear professional identity will make strategic networking that much easier, and will help to advance one's career while building relationships that are beneficial to one's employer.