Whether you are an experienced blogger or just beginning your viral marketing journey it is important to understand the necessity of building an online social network. Growing that network should always have some degree of focus. You may get to the point where you don't have to do much outreach to grow your network but as long as you haven't gotten to that point you must be making sure that you are spending time every day trying to grow your network and making new connections.
One way to find contacts to start networking with is to used twitter advanced search. You can use this tool to help you find others in your niche who are worth following. In many instances these connections will end up following you as well although you shouldn't consider it a failed connection if they do not follow you back. Following these other industry mavens will help you to stay on top of industry news and will also help you find other tweeters worth following. Remember to retweet valuable information already provided by your network and give them content worth retweeting as well.
Have you found a thought leader who is worth following on Twitter? You may also want to add this person as a friend or become a fan of their business page of Facebook. It is important for this person to know that you are interested in more than just causally following their tweets. The more connections you make with the same person, the stronger that network relationship becomes.
Which blogs do you read? Make sure that you are not only subscribing to these blogs but also reading and commenting on the blogs often. You can also add their blog to your blogroll on your own blogging site. The more involved you are with this other individual the more likely that will want to learn more about you and start following your tweets, news feeds and blog posts.
You may not be using Digg yet, but you should be. There are many Digg subscribers who are worth following. They spend their time finding great things to Digg about so that you don't have to. You can Digg what they have already Dugg and also suggest new things for them to Digg as well. If they have already have a lot of clout on Digg and they end up Digging your submission as well your submission will likely get more Diggs.
I can't mention all of these sources without acknowledging what a great resource search engines can be. You can easily find blogs and individuals worth following with a simple Google or Bing search. I have found many of the people I am connected with now by using a Google search. If I want to find the though leaders in a particular industry I use a search engine because I know I can usually find the most reputable sources on the first couple pages of results.
In all of the social media platforms you are using keep in mind that each is a great resource to expand your network. Most of these sites have search option that will allow you to search for others in your niche. Once you are connected with someone you can also search that individual's network to find others worth connecting with as well. Don't feel as though you must go track down each and every contact whom you network with. Take advantage of the information provided for you.