It's easy to forget that online social networking still remains at its core, a relationship building activity, a way to increase or keep tabs on your social circle. That being said, just like networking in the "real" world, there are pitfalls and opportunities aplenty when networking in the "virtual" world.
About.com has a pretty straightforward list of online networking sites for the business entrepreneur in their post Online Business Networking. One link included in this post is particularly important - Networking on the Net -Professionalism , Ethics, and Courtesy on the Net. Some tips may seem like common sense, but unfortunately a lot of people still need to be reminded that just because they are online doesn't mean that courtesy stops in the virtual world.
Michael Jones' Leveraging Social Networking Sites to Generate Business talks about his experience with online social networking and how it would work for the entrepreneur. Here he says:
Often, the key to using a business network successfully involves the creation of your personal friends -- or business connections -- group. The registration process is similar across the various social networking websites but LinkedIn boasts one of the simplest methods of inviting and maintaining your social network. By simply uploading an exported file from your contact manager, LinkedIn can immediately tell which friends of yours are members of the service. This method of contact maintenance and connection group development makes LinkedIn a breeze to start with, immediately enabling you to gain access to your contacts, without having to laboriously enter emails to discover if associates are already there.
Much like in-person networking, virtual networking takes work and practice as well - Susan Roane runs through some of the do's and don'ts in her post Business Networking: How to Work the "Virtual" Room.
Let me end with an important thought - whether virtual or real networking- it's important that your entire organization or team is together with you in this effort. Ivan Misner tackles the opportunity of networking in his article Teach Your Employees To Network!
That conversation reminded me how critically important it is to teach your employees to network! Many business people simply don't do this one simple thing which could dramatically boost their networking efforts. It doesn't matter how much you may know about networking, or how well you network to promote your business, you never know what you could be missing out on if your employees were trained to network for you.
