Bear in mind the following advice, and you can't go far wrong.

First of all, make eye contact before just swooping and grabbing someone's hand. Do this before you approach them if possible. If it's not possible then they're either already in conversation or you need a stronger pair of glasses. If you're sitting down and someone you want to meet is approaching, stand up to greet them.

When you've got eye contact established, walk over to them, ensuring you hand is dry and clean. If it's a little sweaty, subtly wipe it on your trousers or something similar. Subtle is the keyword here -- rubbing your hands furiously against your legs will create entirely the wrong kind of first impression.

It's usually customary to greet someone before grabbing their hand. A "hi, how are you?" or something similar is enough. After that, introduce yourself and move onto the handshake proper.

A handshake is meant to be a two-way process. Don't just let your hand be shaken around like a wet fish. Give the other person's hand some grip and shake it back. Be careful with how strongly you grip -- too light and you look weak (or, to some people, a bit gay.) Too strong and you look too hostile. This goes for women just as much as men.

Grab their whole hand. Ensure that the fleshy bit between your thumb and index finger touches their fleshy bit between thumb and index finger. Don't just let your fingers be grabbed. Again, ladies take note.

Finally, Don't let the whole process go on for too long. Three shakes is usually enough. Also, it's not a race -- don't shake too fast or you'll seem like you're having an epileptic fit or a bad case of malaria.

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