1. Be Helpful
Distribute what you know. Make people smarter.

2. Share
It’s not all about you. For every time you talk about your own stuff, talk about other people’s great content 8 times.

3. Be Personal
People gravitate toward people, not robots. Show what you’re really like. Just don’t be a freak.

4. Ask
It’s amazing what you can accomplish in social networking, if you just give it a shot. Rejection by email doesn’t sting much.

5. Don’t Try to Game the System
Seriously. Your “fool-proof method for gaining 5,000 Twitter followers in just two weeks” isn’t making others want to connect with you. It’s making us want to throw up in our mouths a little.