<p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Professional networking sites function as online meeting places for business and industry professionals, and serves as a business-to-business marketplace. The traditional way to interact is face-to-face. Social networking Websites make it possible for people to network with their peers from anywhere, at anytime in an online environment.</p> <p>With hundreds of professional networking sites on the Web, which Websites and which features are going to be beneficial to promoting a small business (or a large one)? I asked Rick Itzkowich, co-founder of Productive Learning &amp; Leisure, and blogger on social networking for newbies, what sites he thought are best for business relationship development, and what features are particularly valuable.</p> <p><strong>LinkedIn</strong> claims to have more than 20 million registered users from 150 different industries. This is a good way to connect to professionals in a specific field. Rick recommends the LinkedIn Q&amp;A section as a great way to get exposure, and you can get a lot of credibility by having people recommend you. But Rick says LinkedIn is not a particularly good marketing site for the small business owner or independent professional.</p> <p><strong>Facebook</strong>, perhaps the best known social networking site in North America, seems like a good way to stay in contact with family and friends throughout the day, and does allow me to feed my blog to my "wall." Rick says he finds their interface too complicated. There are many features to Facebook which are not readily accessible through the navigation. &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Biznik.com</strong> bills itself as "business networking that doesn't suck." Biznik offers free accounts, with many features turned off or limited without upgrading to a $10-$24 per month subscription. Biznik promotes articles written by members to be posted and rated by readers. This system gives members excellent feedback on whether people are reading your articles, and what they think about them with "comments." My profile page shows photos of people in my network, my recent activity in the network, and three articles I posted with a readers' rating of each. For monthly subscription you can feed your latest blog stories, have a video profile, find out who visited your profile page, and make contact with them. According to Rick, who is subscribed at the $10 a month level, Biznik is "a great way to gain visibility through articles. I also find the folks there to be cooperative. It is a great site, especially in Seattle where they have about 8,000 members, and they get a lot of live events."</p> <p><span><strong>Plaxo.com</strong> calls itself </span><span>a "different kind of address book, one that leverages the power of the network effect to </span><span><strong>stay up-to-date</strong></span><span>."&nbsp;</span> According to Rick, "I only use Plaxo as a way to keep track of people's birthdays. Their system makes it incredibly easy (and economical) to send people an e-card for their birthday. There are other uses for it, but I only use it for this." Call me paranoid, but I don't put my correct birthdate on any of these sites.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Ecademy.com</strong> is really big in Europe, and will instantly get your email inbox filled with people wanting to add you to their network unless this feature is turned off. Advertise your business, find businesses, post and respond to blogs, run your own business networking events, automatic search engine submission on Google. According to Rick, "If you're interested in networking internationally, it's the best site."</p> <p>And Rick says <strong>Naymz.com</strong> is "a great site to build your credibility and reputation. It is great for SEO. They also have a feature that if you reach a certain reputation level, they pay for a sponsored link in Google. You can type my name, Rick Itzkowich, into Google and you will see the sponsored link on the right. This is free for me."</p> <p>Those are six business networking sites, and I have a profile on each of them. Here are some entertaining and informative resources for getting into business networking on the Web:</p> <p>Laura Bergells&nbsp;<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbP3B05kB1s">Birds and the Bees: 4 Truths about Social Media Networking</a></p> <p>Common Craft<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE">Social Media in Plain English</a></p> <p>Rick Itzkowich<br /><a href="http://www.snfornewbies.com">Social Networking for Newbies</a> (Blog)</p> <p>Debra Simpson (North San Diego Business)<br /><a href="http://www.magicinwords.com">Magic in Words / Magic in Blogging</a> (Blogtalkradio, Tutorials and Consulting)</p> <p>Paul Chaney (Realtor)<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DDbRnzMg-g">Social Media: What You Need to Know for Today's Market</a></p> <p>Josh Bernoff<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB9Npo3qtH0">How To Be a Social Media Change Agent</a></p> <p>Poetic Prophet Chuck of Mo Serious TV<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwAjur3_08Y">Social Media Addition Rap</a></p> 2008-12-03T19:14:29Z 2008-12-03T21:48:53Z -14.5025 540 2411 true 4 21119 social-networking-for-small-businesses 6 2008-12-03T21:43:45Z 2008-12-03T21:43:45Z

With so many sites and so little time, where do you go and what do you look for in a business network to market your small business.

0 2009-02-24T09:47:34Z