You’ve probably heard that old expression “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. Well, it was true then, and it is true now. One of the beautiful things about social media is that it exposes the social graph that connects people together. That means that if I’m looking to meet someone, I can seek out and find who our mutual connections are. LinkedIn makes this especially easy, but Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram do not make it difficult either.
A cold conversation is no match for a warm conversation. If you have the opportunity to reach out to someone through a warm introduction there is no question that you should take that over reaching out to them cold.
When you do this, you are leveraging the social capital of another person. The person making the introduction for you is vouching for you, and putting their name and reputation on the line to make the introduction for you. Obviously, this means that you should respect that gesture to the fullest extent.
For more on effective Networking, David Burkus’ most recent book is excellent.