Social networking

Social networking (or, simply, networking) is a socioeconomic business activity by which businesspeople and entrepreneurs meet to form business relationships and to recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities,[1] share information and seek potential partners for ventures.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the concept of networking was promoted to help businesspeople to build their social capital. In the US, workplace equity advocates encouraged business networking by members of marginalized groups (e.g., women, African-Americans, etc.) to identify and address the challenges barring them from professional success. Mainstream business literature subsequently adopted the terms and concepts, promoted them as pathways to success for all career climbers.