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Think that the shift to remote working, coupled with ever more sophisticated technology, has rendered active personal networking useless? Think again. Recent trends may have changed how professional networks are built, but building a network remains as crucial as everespecially for business leaders.

If hearing the word networking fills you with dread, panic, or fear, this probably isnt welcome news. But it does not have to be as difficult or time-consuming as many people believe, especially if you dutifully follow the three pieces of advice below.

LinkedIn is not a little-known secretwith more than 750 million members, its an essential tool in the business world. Touting itself as the worlds largest professional network on the internet, the platform offers networkers the opportunity to get in touch with former colleagues, conduct research on potential employers, take a deep dive into profiles of potential future coworkers, and so much more. By allowing you to connect with people, from interns to CEOs, and search for people with specific job roles, it might just be the most powerful professional networking tool to ever grace the world (yes, really).

Of course, to take advantage of the site, you will have to do more than just create an account and hope for the best. Adding people at random is not recommended, either.

Publish posts: To get your name out there and increase your chances of connecting with the right people, the best strategy is to create and publish interesting posts. And make sure to post regularly, too experts suggest that posting up to five times per week is ideal for engagement on LinkedIn (as long as hitting that milestone doesnt come at the expense of quality).

Also, put some thought into your timing. Generally, the best times to post are during the morning and evening commute or during lunch break (although there is some variation between sectors).

And what about the content itself? Carve out some to consider who you are trying to reach and what their areas of interest may be. Some ideas include:

Giving your opinion on breaking industry news.

Sharing an interesting thought piece.

Writing your thoughts on a recent experience (personal or professional).

When all else fails and you are at a loss, consider that according to one recent study, how-to posts tend to grab readers attention the best. Furthermore, comments boost engagement, so asking your followers for their thoughts is a great way to get more eyeballs on your work.

While it is not reasonable to expect your very first post to attract the attention of the CEO of a multinational, you might be surprised at how much you can achieve through consistency.

If you belong to the 90% of the population that does not enjoy networking events full of strangers (I just made that statistic up, but its probably accurate), the idea of sticking to the internet to meet new people will probably sound appealing.

But just because meeting people in person can be daunting doesnt mean that it should not be done.

You might have heard the following Jim Rohn quote: Youre the average of the five people you spend the most time with. But most of us are not spending the most time with the people who can push us to grow and develop ourselvesso go out there and meet them.

There is no secret hack to this one. Just look for networking events near you, push yourself to attend them, and practice approaching people. Some good places to find local opportunities include:

Meetup.

Eventbrite.

Your college or graduate school.

LinkedIn.

Twitter.

Instead of expecting yourself to magically become an expert networker in your first interaction, change your mindset. Why not give yourself the challenge of contacting five to 15 people daily with the sole intention of polishing your skills?

One day, you might just wake up and realize you are better than you were when you began.

Whether you are networking online or in person, the initial encounter is not the only thing that matters.

You might believe that first impressions are key, but a follow-up can be a unique opportunity to show that you remembered someone and were genuinely interested in what they had to say. Return to them and offer value.

For instance, if you were having a conversation with a marketing executive who told you they were struggling to find the right e-learning platform for their team and you later came across a suitable solution, you could drop them a message to let them know.

Or maybe you met two people on separate occasions with similar visions who could benefit from connecting. Why not introduce them and become a super-connector?

If you are contacting five to 15 people daily, it might seem overwhelming to have to follow up with each one of them, but the least you can do is note down their details on a spreadsheet so you can remember who they are.

Also, dont go overboard with your messages. Youre 50% more likely to get a response to your email if your message is just 125 words long.

After more than a year of constant lockdown and limited social contact, many of us are feeling rusty in the social sphere, but dont let that hold you back. Its time to dust off your people skills, put yourself out there again, and get networking.

Your future self will thank you.

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How leaders build networks to enhance their careers Fast Company - Fast Company

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he was "very concerned" about case trends among school children. He noted that most of the children getting sick are living in states with low vaccination rates. "So, my plea is that for those who are not vaccinated, think about it."

As on August 10, 51 per cent of the US population is fully vaccinated. More than 71 per cent of US adults have got at least one shot. The White House is calling the latest wave a "pandemic of the unvaccinated" and pleading with holdouts to get their shots.

The first case of Covid-19 in the US was reported on January 21, 2020. On August 10, the country reported 184,346 new confirmed cases. The virus is blamed for more than 618,000 deaths in the US alone, which accounts for the world's highest caseload and deaths since the start of the pandemic.

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94,000 US kids got Covid-19 last week, the panic is real as schools reopen - National Herald

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday confirmed its intention to bid for cricket's inclusion in the Olympic Games beginning with Los Angeles 2028 (LA28) edition.

"We would love for cricket to be a part of future Games. Our sport is united behind this bid, and we see the Olympics as a part of cricket's long-term future. We have more than a billion fans globally and almost 90 percent of them want to see cricket at the Olympics," said Greg Barclay, the ICC chairman in a statement issued by the ICC.

The ICC has convened a working group meeting which will be focused on cricket becoming part of the Olympic family for Los Angeles Games 2028, Brisbane Games 2032 and beyond.

"Clearly cricket has a strong and passionate fan-base, particularly in South Asia where 92% of our fans come from, whilst there are also 30 million cricket fans in the USA. The opportunity for those fans to see their heroes competing for an Olympic medal is tantalising," said Barclay.

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ICC reaffirms commitment to bid for cricket's inclusion in Olympics - National Herald

British Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has been blocked from joining employment networking site LinkedIn, the latest decision among major social media platforms to ban him.

A LinkedIn spokesperson said the account belonging to Choudary, who was convicted on terrorism charges in 2016 and once praised the Sept. 11 hijackers as Muslims "carrying out their Islamic responsibility and duty" with the attack, was taken down because the platform doesn't "allow any terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups on our platform."

"And we dont allow any individuals who affiliate with such organizations or groups to promote their activities," the company said in a statement. "We enforce those rules to help keep LinkedIn safe, trusted and professional. These rules apply to everyone on LinkedIn and if they are violated, we take action."

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TRANSFERS FIRST DETAINEE OUT OF GUANTANAMO BAY

Choudary had already been blocked from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, with a spokesperson for the latter two saying his accounts violated its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policies.

"Under these rules, we ban organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or engage in organized hate or violence," the spokesperson said in a statement.

"That was quick, a record, just five days after I set up my account," Choudary told Sky News on July 29 of his ban from Twitter.

Choudary asserted he was "quite moderate" in his Twitter posts and that the company did not provide a reason for blocking him. The companies did not immediately disclose whether a particular post led to their actions. He had been posting about his interpretation of the Quran and Sharia before his accounts were deactivated.

The Washington Examiner contacted Twitter for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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In July 2016, Choudary was found guilty of providing support to ISIS and was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. He was released in October 2018 and served the rest of his sentence under supervision.

Choudary had been subject to public speaking restrictions as part of his sentence, most of which expired in the last two weeks.

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British Islamist preacher banned from multiple social media platforms - Washington Examiner

In a Facebook earnings call last week, Mark Zuckerberg outlined the future of his company. The vision he put forth wasnt based on advertising, which provides the bulk of Facebooks current profits, or on an increase in the over-all size of the social network, which already has nearly three billion monthly active users. Instead, Zuckerberg said that his goal is for Facebook to help build the metaverse, a Silicon Valley buzzword that has become an obsession for anyone trying to predict, and thus profit from, the next decade of technology. I expect people will transition from seeing us primarily as a social-media company to seeing us as a metaverse company, Zuckerberg said. It was a remarkable pivot in messaging for the social-media giant, especially given the fact that the exact meaning of the metaverse, and what it portends for digital life, is far from clear. In the earnings call, Zuckerberg offered his own definition. The metaverse is a virtual environment where you can be present with people in digital spaces, he said. Its an embodied Internet that youre inside of rather than just looking at. We believe that this is going to be the successor to the mobile Internet.

Like the term cyberspace, a coinage of the fiction writer William Gibson, the term metaverse has literary origins. In Neal Stephensons novel Snow Crash, from 1992, the protagonist, Hiro, a sometime programmer and pizza-delivery driver in a dystopian Los Angeles, immerses himself in the metaverse, a computer-generated universe that his computer is drawing onto his goggles and pumping into his earphones. Its an established part of the books fictional world, a familiar aspect of the characters lives, which move fluidly between physical and virtual realms. On a black ground, below a black sky, like eternal night in Las Vegas, Stephensons metaverse is made up of the Street, a sprawling avenue where the buildings and signs represent different pieces of software that have been engineered by major corporations. The corporations all pay an entity called the Global Multimedia Protocol Group for their slice of digital real estate. Users also pay for access; those who can only afford cheaper public terminals appear in the metaverse in grainy black-and-white.

Stephensons fictional metaverse may not be that far off from what todays tech companies are now developing. Imagine, like Hiro, donning goggles (perhaps those produced by Oculus, which Facebook owns), controlling a three-dimensional virtual avatar, and browsing a series of virtual storefronts, the metaverse equivalents of different platforms like Instagram (which Facebook also owns), Netflix, or the video game Minecraft. You might gather with friends in the virtual landscape and all watch a movie in the same virtual theatre. Youre basically going to be able to do everything that you can on the Internet today as well as some things that dont make sense on the Internet today, like dancing, Zuckerberg said. In the future we might walk through Facebook, wear clothes on Facebook, host virtual parties on Facebook, or own property in the digital territory of Facebook. Each activity in what we once thought of as the real world will develop a metaverse equivalent, with attendant opportunities to spend money doing that activity online. Digital goods and creators are just going to be huge, Zuckerberg said.

This shift is already beginning to take place, though not yet under Facebooks domain. The video game Second Life, which was released in 2003 by Linden Lab, created a virtual world where users could wander, building their own structures; land can be bought there for either U.S. dollars or the in-game currency, Linden Dollars. Roblox, a childrens video game launched in 2006, has lately evolved into an immersive world in which players can design and sell their own creations, from avatar costumes to their own interactive experiences. Rather than a single game, Roblox became a platform for games. Fortnite, released in 2017, evolved from an online multiplayer free-for-all shoot-em-up into a more diffuse space in which players can collaboratively build structures or attend concerts and other live in-game events. (Ariana Grande just announced an upcoming virtual show there.) Players of Fortnite buy customized avatar skins and motions or gestures that the avatars can performperhaps thats where Zuckerberg got his reference to dancing. If any company is primed to profit from the metaverse its the maker of Fortnite, Epic Games, which owns a game marketplace and also sells Unreal Engine, the three-dimensional design software that is used in every corner of the gaming industry and in streaming blockbusters such as the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian. In April, the company announced a billion-dollar funding round to support its vision for the metaverse.

No single company is meant to own or run the metaverse, however; it requires coperation to create consistency. Assets that one acquires in the metaverse will hypothetically be portable, moving even between platforms owned by different corporations. This synchronization might be enabled by blockchain technology like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, which are defined by their immutable record keeping. If you bought an N.F.T. avatar from the online society Bored Ape Yacht Club, Fortnite could theoretically verify your ownership on the blockchain and then allow you to use the avatar within its game world. The same avatar might show up on Roblox, too. The various realms are supposed to maintain interoperability, as Zuckerberg said in the earnings call, linking together to form the wider hypothetical metaverse, the way every Web site exists non-hierarchically on the open protocol of the Internet.

The metaverse represents a techno-optimist vision for a future in which culture can exist in all forms at once. Intellectual propertya phrase increasingly applied to creative output of any kindcan move seamlessly among movies, video games, and virtual-reality environments. Its a tantalizing possibility for the corporate producers of culture, who will profit from their I.P. wherever it goes. Disneys Marvel pantheon of superhero narratives already amounts to a cinematic universe; why not unleash it into every possible platform simultaneously? In Fortnite, as the pro-metaverse investor Matthew Ball wrote in an influential essay last year, You can literally wear a Marvel characters costume inside Gotham City, while interacting with those wearing legally licensed N.F.L. uniforms. (How appealing you find this may depend on how addicted you are to logos.) In the future, users own creations may attain the same kind of portability and profitability, letting fan concepts compete with Marvel just as self-published blogs once disrupted newspapers.

Judging from Facebooks growth strategy over the past decade, though, Zuckerberg wont be satisfied with making his company one component of a multiplatform metaverse. Just as the company bought, absorbed, and outcompeted smaller social-media platforms until it resembled a monopoly, it may try to control the entire space in which users dwell so that it will be able to charge us rents. Facebook may, indeed, create virtual real estate that online small businesses will have to rent in order to sell their wares, or build an in-game meeting space where an impressive, expensive avatar will be key to networking, like the equivalent of a fancy Zoom background. Our physical lives are already so saturated with Facebook and its other properties that the company must build new structures for the virtual iterations of our lives, and then dominate those as well in order to keep expanding.

Zuckerbergs comments brought to my mind an earlier iteration of online life, a game and social space called Neopets. Neopets launched in 1999; I remember playing it in middle school, trading strategies with friends. In the game, the player takes care of small digital creatures, feeding and grooming them as well as buying accessories with Neopoints earned from in-game activities. It was a point of pride and a form of self-expression, albeit a nerdy one, to have a highly developed profile in the game. In the metaverse Facebook envisions, however, you are the Neopet, and your in-game activities may affect every sphere of life that Facebook already touches: careers, relationships, politics. In Zuckerbergs vision, Neopoints become Facebook dollars, only usable on the platform; your self-presentation online becomes a choice limited to options that Facebook provides. A blue-and-gray virtual universe looms. The more immersive it is, the more inescapable it becomes, like an all-encompassing social-media feed, with all the problems thereof.

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Facebook Wants Us to Live in the Metaverse - The New Yorker