The goal of networking is to connect with as many people as possible, right? Well not exactly, and when it comes to online social networking it can backfire.

Part of comedian Dane Cook's claim to fame is that he has over 1 million (update, now over 2 million) friends on MySpace. While that is impressive in its own right, there is no way he is actually friends with that many people.

There has been a backlash against people who send out and accept invitations to connect with anyone on social networks. I am a bit suspicious when I see a business networker with 500 connections. I think they are more likely a spammer than a good communicator.

Be choosy about who you accept requests from or what could be a quality network will be a hodgepodge of various levels of mutual spamming.

How many connections do you have? Do you trust all of your connections? How likely are you to refer someone in your network? How likely is your network to refer you?