Except for a few committed extroverts, networking is not most people’s favorite activity. Indeed, they avoid it religiously. It was easy to let your contacts cool off between 1995 and 2000 when networking seemed unnecessary.If you wanted a job you applied.You got an offer. You accepted or negotiated. The end. Not now. In every business downturn, people who haven’t contacted anyone since the last recession decide to rev up their networking. Because they dislike it, most do it badly and often alienate more people than they motivate to help them.

Lesson number one is this: If you take the time to build and maintain a network you will never need to expend extraordinary effort again. Ideally, you should have 300 contacts in your field who will return your telephone calls and emails. They should know you well enough to want to assist you and to expect help from you in return. You can’t amass 300 names in a week or a month. You can do it in a year, however, and you can maintain it with three or four contacts per person per year. With broadcast email this isn’t difficult. (When you use broadcast email, protect the privacy of your network by not showing everybody’s name.)

Second, networking only works if you use it to dispense and receive information. If your only goal is job hunting, people will lose interest in you quickly because you are one dimensional and self-serving. A message from Todd? >He must be on the street again.

Dedicated, diligent net-workers tell us that industry gossip, tracking changes, and identifying trends are more important to them than job hunting. Some have never changed companies but they still network regularly for this information.

It’s time-consuming to build a network. You have to attend association meetings. If you want to speed the process,join two associations and serve on a committee in each. The membership committee is the best because you not only meet members but prospects.

You need to know people who work for your competitors. You can meet them at association meetings, too. Don’t lose track of former co-workers who may have moved to competitors.

Peers are the best contacts because they see the world from the same perch you do. A CEO’s vision may be too global when you’re looking for information unless you’re a CEO yourself. Recruit contacts among vendors.They are the honeybees of every industry. You need contacts who consult and recruit in your industry. Recruiters are great to have in your network and not only for job leads. They know how your job is described, paid, and viewed in other places. You may get salary information from recruiters, too. Try to include some retirees from your industry in your network, too. They will give you a sense of company history as well as how its competitors grew and changed.

Time spent in maintaining your network pays off a hundredfold.You don’t have to leave your office or home to do this. Make five contacts a week via phone or email.(Remember, greeting 50 people at a meeting counts, too.) Think of your message as a short Christmas letter. Despite claims that Christmas letters are a bore, unless the writer is a hopeless braggart or impossibly long-winded people appreciate knowing what others are doing. Don’t you?(If not, skip the rest of this article.) We asked clients what kinds information they appreciate from their networks. No surprises here. They like hearing about work-, product-, or company-related issues. They like getting media articles they may not have seen. They like getting names of Web sites they don’t know about. They love getting industry gossip such as the comings and goings of stars and former co-workers.

Keep track of who you’ve contacted and when. Computers and PDAs all have calendar programs that will help you do this.

Carry business cards at all times. Of course you can use your company cards but if you’re a job hunter that’s not always smart. A card with a few words describing what you do plus email and telephone may be all you need if that’s how you prefer to be contacted. (Many people exclude snail mail addresses in an attempt to discourage direct mail. Don’t bother. Direct mail advertisers are deterred by nothing. Ditto spammers on the Web.)We were recently at a Kodak event and every business card had a color picture on it.How wonderful to be able to put a face to a name!Much better than someone producing a double card with his resume in six point type on the back.

Once you get into the habit, you will find networking as automatic and painless as brushing your teeth. And like brushing your teeth, it’s preventive maintenance against having to start from scratch when you need help in a hurry.