Business networking expert Penny Power, who has recently published Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me: What Online Social Networking Means for You and Your Business, explains what our kids can teach us about building our social networks.

"I think that we can learn a lot from the younger generation. I’m very empowered by the younger generation, because they know that being liked and being trusted is more important than just being great at what they do. And they’re not broadcasting stuff. They’re sharing their vulnerabilities and their weaknesses with one another.

They’re just building real friends.

They’re just being open with one another, randomly embracing people and supporting each other.

So when they go into the business world, they might have 2,000 contacts by the time they go into business who know their values, know what they stand for, know what they like, know their history. And those 2,000 people are going to get 2,000 jobs. And there is no way that they’re going to be looking in the yellow pages or even googling for a skill set.

They’ll be getting into their network and asking who can I trust to do something for me, anywhere in the world.

We can learn a lot from that about how to build our networks."

Check out the video below to hear more from Penny about building social networks.