Anshey Bhatia is the founder of Verbal+Visual. He is an e-commerce nerd, people connector, travel junkie and tech lover. Follow him @ansheybhatia.

Connect Whenever and Wherever You Can

Connect with as many people your own age in the sectors you see yourself in the long term as you can. As you get older, your network will start to advance in their career. And as they grow, so will you.

I’ve gone to events before and simply started a conversation with the person next to me. I do this often. One time I didn’t collect a business card and only had the first name of the person. I did some research online and found out who they were, connected with them on LinkedIn, and followed up a number of times. About two years later his company signed the biggest deal we had received to date.

Be Yourself

The top quality of a great networker is authenticity. It’s more about creating real connections and helping those connections, sometimes even at the apparent detriment to yourself or your company. Helping people achieve their goals will only come back to help you over the long haul.

People should be excited to meet you and that you’ve giving THEM an opportunity to learn something. Don’t be sales-y or let them see desperation in any way, shape or form. People see right through it.

Have People Come to You

I actually recommend hosting your own events and inviting the circle of people you want to come. Get a great speaker series or dinner series going and you’ll immediately start seeing an impact. People want to learn. So if you give them in-depth opportunities to do so, they’ll be much more attracted to speaking with you.

Use Apps to Reach Out and Follow Up

ToutApp is great for mass, personalized reach-outs and follow-ups. It’s my No. 1 recommendation for sure. I use LinkedIn to find people and Rapportive to confirm their email address. I type it into Gmail to see if it’s connected to their LinkedIn account.