Like an all-you-can-eat buffet, the abundance of profiles and invitations on LinkedIn can tempt people into piling so much onto their plates that it becomes a giant, tasteless mess. Resist the urge to gorge yourself, however, and you will enjoy greater satisfaction by choosing exactly what you want, knowing that you can go back for more anytime.

If you are prepared to pick and choose whom you connect with on LinkedIn, you will get more out of its smorgasbord, too. The key is to follow the favor test: to be selective in making or accepting connections, so that you build the kind of sustained relationships and network that will support your professional goals.

This emphasis on quality over quantity is one with which reasonable people may passionately disagree. But to me, a focus on the ever-bigger network obscures the fundamental value of human connection, which is qualitative rather than quantitative. The favor test helps us refocus on why we are connecting with people on LinkedIn: not to get a big score, but to actually get and give help.

It is in this exchange of favors that LinkedIn may have its most dramatic impact. Each of us has the mentor whose confidence has expanded our horizons, the client whose referral has extended our reach, the colleague whose endorsement has strengthened our reputation. But where we really discover our professional credibility and impact is in what we can do for others: in seeing how far our introduction can carry someone we vouch for, in recognizing the weight that is attached to our recommendation.

That is a discovery you can make only when you stop evaluating your LinkedIn network as something that will help you realize your own goals and start seeing it as an asset that you can lend or give to the people you believe in. By becoming more efficient at using this network and these tools, you’re not simply becoming a more attractive job candidate or a salesperson with more leads; you’re becoming more closely intertwined in a world of humans who give and take and who can make your work more productive—and more meaningful.