I just listened to a great bit of audio on networking from David Nour, called "10 Reasons Most Networking Doesn't Work." There are some good tips on there to make your outreach more successful - mostly requiring a bit of forethought and strategy, and there are some tips to help you through that.
This audio gem is associated with David's Relationship Economics blog where you can find a bunch of other good relationship-building resources, as well.
If you do any kind of professional networking, go check out the audio track - it's free, and definitely worth your time.