Professional networking has been made exponentially easier with social media. Years ago, networking meant asking a friend at another company to submit your resume to his HR department. A particularly assertive person might have been able to cold-call his way into lunch with a head honcho. Now, networking means having the ability to tap into hundreds of relevant connections with just the click of a button.

With this free reign comes many opportunities — namely, the chance to connect with people in your industry, impress them with your professionalism, and gather information that can directly help you. It also comes with the risk of doing it all wrong, alienating potential allies and crushing your chances at career development. Here are some guidelines for networking successfully in the realm of social media.

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There has been plenty of discussion about how governments are using social media to engage with the general public and open up their vast amounts of data to collaborators. The interagency collaboration occurring behind government firewalls using wikis and blogs is also well-publicized. A topic that’s received less attention are the ways that social media and the principles of openness, collaboration, and authenticity are transforming how the government does business. How is social media changing the government contracting process? That’s the $500 billion+ question.

The world of contracting is one of the most important, complex, and least transparent within our Federal Government. From 100-page Request for Proposals (RFPs) to GSA schedules to organizational conflicts of interest to non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), the environment has long discouraged real discourse in favor of strict rules, processes, and policies. Too many companies of all sizes are frustrated and overwhelmed by the intricacies and red tape connected to doing business with the government.

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Let’s face it: You never really leave high school. The Internet realm is no different.

It can be hard to get your freshman blog noticed among the teeming masses of digital domains. Why? Last year the total tally of blogs hit 126 million, according to BlogPulse. That’s a big class to climb to the top of. We’re not saying you have to be head cheerleader, but it would be nice to get noticed.

So if the only IP address StatCounter has to report is your own, and your comments section features a chorus of crickets rivaling that field behind the cabin you visited last weekend (and posted about in painful detail), face it: Your blog is that pathetic, friendless kid who skulks under the jungle gym at recess and reads Lois Lowry books in the bathroom during lunchtime.

Consider this your letter home to the parents — no blog deserves that kind of social exclusion. Read on to pinpoint and correct its reader-repelling ways.

And so begins my Netiquette column on CNN, which I write with my Stuff Hipsters Hate co-founder, Andrea Bartz. Head on over to C to the NN for more.

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Every time you navigate from website to website, or video to video, you’re driven by the experience. And yet, when we share content online — whether it’s scrolling through a Flickr () photostream from your friend’s wedding, or a live-streaming video — we are often left feeling that something is missing; that for all of the attention on social networking, there are few social media experiences that match the fun of hanging out together with friends in person.

The old debate about what is more valuable — content or distribution — doesn’t capture the whole picture because it’s the user experience that counts. It’s pretty clear now that social interaction is a key factor in driving “stickiness.” We want to socialize, interact and engage around content.

So why has this type of interaction been missing from most digital media experiences? One way to look at this is through the lens of the music industry.

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Sometimes the hardest part of having international clients is finding a way to connect with them. Small businesses often have to worry about different time zones, different languages, and even different customs and traditions.

While there’s no catch-all, golden resource that can solve every problem a small internationally-minded business could have, there are some easy ways to keep your business up-to-date and in the overseas loop.

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