Jim Durbin provides this week's CollegeRecruiter.com BlogSwap article on networking.  Thanks, Jim!

Every good networker knows that the principle of having a solid network of friends and contacts is to give more than you get. The idea is a simple one - if you are constantly looking for ways to help other people, you develop a reputation as someone other people should know. The more people you help, or try to help, the more likely that those people remember your name and pass your name on to their friends, acquaintances, business contacts, or romantic single friends.

This is the single biggest failure of most networking groups, online communities, and company-sponsored forums. Focusing only or primarily on what's in it for you leads to members of your community being unwilling to share their information with someone who takes more than they give.

This principle of giving is more important in virtual relationships than in-person relationships. You are more likely to help someone you have met in person than someone you've met online, simply because you feel you've taken a measure of someone you've seen face-to-face (and you have). Thus the only way to really maximize online relationships (blogs, forums, e-mail, chat-rooms) is to greatly boost your outgoing information in hopes it leads to a greater inflow of information.

And there is one example I can cite that is the gold standard for online relationships.

Google. What is Google?  It is a box on a screen that offers to send people away from google.com to other websites. The entire premise of Google is helping other people find information they want. Yes, there are other aspects to Google now, but the simple box in the middle is still the hook that makes 50 percent of online uses type in Google.com instead of yahoo, ask, or any of the other search engines.

That principle of giving to get hasn't hurt Google. Start thinking about what it can do for you.

Jim Durbin is the Director, corporate communications for Durbin Media Group  and can be read at http://stlrecruiting.com  http://brandstorming.com.  This CollegeRecruiter.com Blogswap article is courtesy of Recruiting.com at http://www.Recruiting.com and CollegeRecruiter.com at http://www.CollegeRecruiter.com , a leading site for college students and recent graduates who are searching for internships and entry level jobs.