The Economist, in the light of the recently concluded World Economic Forum at Davos, wrote about how important it is to network - an “investment for the future” the article said. They talked about how networking needs to be carried out shamelessly but with subtlety. Engineer meetings but make it look spontaneous, ask thoughtful questions and compliment often, follow up conversations with detailed emails and add people to your Twitter “follow” list.

For mid-sized businesses to scale up, it is often important to network, offline as well as online. Here are four websites and communities beyond LinkedIn that can help you do exactly that, on an international scale and find like-minded people:

PartnerUp: The Google+ community PartnerUp is for entrepreneurs who are searching for people and resources for business opportunities.  Anyone can join, but business partners, co-founders, executives and board members will get the most out of this one.  In this network, you can ask or offer advice, find commercial real estate and locate service providers like accountants and marketers for your business.  

Perfect Business: If you want to meet thousands of serious entrepreneurs, experts and investors from a variety of industries, then Perfect Business might be the ideal social network for you.  The type of people you’ll find are potential business partners, potential clients and advisers. Additionally, the site has leading business partners like Entrepreneur and Virgin Money.

Cofoundr: Idea makers, entrepreneurs, programmers, web designers, investors, freelancers and executives can be accessed through the Cofoundr network.  The primary purpose of joining this network is to start a new web venture.  Unlike most of the social networks already listed here, Cofoundr is strictly private, which means that you can’t view member profiles before you register for an account. 

The Funded: This online community of entrepreneurs who research, rate and review funding sources. Through The Funded, entrepreneurs can view and share terms sheets to assist each other in finding good investors, as well as discuss the inner workings of operating a business. The general benefits of this site include viewing facts, reviews and commentary on funding resources, and accessing RSS feeds of the most recent public comments by members. By joining the site, you have access to detailed fund profiles with specialty, reference investments, and investment criteria, in addition to accessing partner vCards that have full contact information of all partners at venture funds. In order to get any value out of this social network, you have to become a member.