LinkedIn's billionaire founder Reid Hoffman shares his best networking advice

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reid hoffman bing gordon

Mike Blake/Reuters

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman chats with Kleiner Perkins partner William "Bing" Gordon at the 2015 Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference.

Reid Hoffman's network ranges from his former PayPal boss and fellow billionaire Peter Thiel to actress and entrepreneur Eva Longoria to President Barack Obama.

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As one of the best-connected people in Silicon Valley, it makes sense that he's the founder and chairman of the world's biggest professional networking site, LinkedIn.

In his latest book, "The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age," he and his coauthors Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh explain why networking is essential to the success of employees and the companies they work for and how to do it right.

Hoffman and Casnocha shared with us their presentation on "network intelligence," explaining why managers should create a culture that promotes connections both among their own employees and with a wide variety of external contacts.