How to Meet People Using the People You Know

Virtually, you can reach any person you want using the persons you already know. People are connected. By going from one connection to another, you can literally create new connections for yourself and enlarge your social circle.

Even if you don’t know a lot of people or you don’t have many friends, as long as you just have a couple, you can use them to meet new people. Provided your friends have their own friends and acquaintances, the potential is there. Here’s how to capitalize it:

1. Have exploratory discussions. When you discuss with the people you already know, seek to find out about the social things they’ve done lately and the people they’ve done them with. Thus, you can get an idea about the other people in their network.

When a friend mentions another person they know in a conversation, get curious about that person and try to find out more info about him or her. Also, be curious about your friends’ social activities.

2. Ask to get involved. The next step is to ask the person you already know to either introduce you to another person they know, or more generally to take you with them when they go out with other people that you don’t know.

Some persons are hesitant to ask this as they’re afraid it might be improper and come across as stealing friends. But trust me: this is what highly sociable people do all the time. It’s no big deal. And if your friends say no to your request, it’s their choice.

3. Make friends directly. Once you’re acquainted with a person via another person and you’ve made some conversation, you have established an initial connection. So now you can take the initiative to contact that person yourself and interact with them in the future.

Meeting people and making friends is easy when you know how to use the resources you already have. And the persons in your current social circle are your best resource for expanding it.