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I am also a freshman and spent most of my fall semester networking with alumni. If you have not yet used the LinkedIn Premium free trial, I highly recommend it, as it will give you a number of on-site messages which you should send to those whose email address is difficult to structure (e.g. firm is a boutique). Try to email everyone else. Always include your polished resume in your messages/emails.

Although my experience is simply anecdotal, when speaking with people working in IB, I had to answer why I was interested in IB and also had to expand upon certain extracurriculars and interests. Questions regarding the market, in general, may be asked, if not about recent deals that interested you. I do not believe much is to be expected of freshmen, but that is clearly something that you can exploit by overdelivering when asked such questions with both knowledge and how you present yourself (humble and a pleasant person to speak with). Be sure to ask thoughtful and personalized questions, something that the WSO search bar could help you in formulating. Purchase a student subscription to one or various of the major outlets: Bloomberg, WSJ, Barron's, Financial Times, etc. Free trials may be offered.

You should begin reaching out as soon as you feel ready. And consider networking to be about building relationships; it seems as though many forget that.