These days, most professionals work with clients or colleagues across the globe – which means it's increasingly essential to master virtual networking. Here are three ways to better connect with fellow professionals online, whether or not they are currently part of your network.

1. Master proactive outreach: Don’t post aimlessly; instead, pick five to 10 people you don’t know well or at all but who seem like attainable contacts. Follow them on social media, and take note of which channels they seem to use most regularly.

Look for opportunities to engage with that person, retweeting their posts with your own audience, answering a question they may ask or sharing a thoughtful response to one of their updates.

2. Attract contacts to you: Even better than targeting the people you want to meet is finding a way to draw them to you. You can do this by writing thoughtful articles (or creating content in other forms) that share useful information and your point of view on a given topic.

If those topics are of interest to the person you are hoping to connect with, they are likely to discover them and become interested in your work.

3. Develop a “bookend” strategy to complement in-person networking: If you know you will have the opportunity to meet someone at a conference, message them in advance via LinkedIn or Twitter, introducing yourself and suggesting a time to connect at the event. And after you meet someone in person, you can use social media as a way to keep the connection alive.

– Copyright Harvard Business Review 2016