How do I network for a job?

In a recent online exchange between career professionals, the comment was made that too many job seekers rely on job boards and consider networking to be passing their resume along to friends, when effective networking is much more than that.

What else should I do to network?  Here are two go-to resources for maximizing your networking efforts as shared by two colleagues:

Meg Guiseppi of executivecareerbrand.com recommends the collection of articles on networking on Susan P. Joyce’s Job-Hunt.org.

Norine Dagliano of ekminspirations.com says her all-time favorite book on the subject is Networking for Job Search and Career Success by L. Michelle Tullier, which is packed with information, worksheets and check lists in a logically presented 15 chapters or “for a crash course in networking, stick with the worksheets and quick summaries at the end of each chapter.”

To the above, I would add the following two articles:

Why referrals are so powerful in job search:

http://careerrocketeer.com/2014/01/the-power-of-a-referral.html

One critical mistake you might be making as you build a network:

http://brycelegal.com/blog/are-you-building-and-nurturing-a-network-or-falling-victim-to-strategic-errors/

Since statistics prove that over 50% of jobs are found through networking, optimize your success by making sure your network is working for you.