People used to do this in person. They'd stand at a conference gathering, slapping backs, handing out beers, giving people their card (it was this paper thing with name and phone number on it). "Call me. Let's do lunch."
That was networking in 1985. Today, it's just called LinkedIN. You log on. You type in a few keywords of jobs you might want. Your resume is already uploaded. Then you spam potential hirers, and blam. You've networked.