Should you accept them all, or try to accept some while ignoring others? Most importantly, how can you nurture these relationships in a beneficial way to advance your career?

For most part, the rules in the real world should work in the virtual world, too. For social networking sites, it is important to follow up on the contacts that you have built.

Easy Networking

Though networking sites make it easy to connect with different people, adding contacts on your online networking site is only the first step in effective networking. It is just like getting a business card at a formal party – you have to follow up and keep in touch with your contacts.

Making valuable contacts and then letting them drop is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make.

Maintaining Identities

If you prefer that your boss doesn’t find out about several aspects of your personal life, then it is possible and preferable that you separate your work life from your virtual personal life. This can be done on almost any of the social networking sites today.

You can let your boss know that you are setting up a dedicated page for professional contacts, and can ask him to be added as a friend there. This should be done in a gracious manner, but you should take care to keep this page separate from your personal page.

Invitations and Recommendations

At times, you might receive an invitation from someone you don’t really relate to. It is not necessary to reject them right away – this could be seen as being rude. You can accept the invitation, but take no further action. You do not need to endorse that particular person.

You should use social networking sites to strengthen ties with your business associates by garnering recommendations from them, and by posting referrals for them.

Confidentiality

Always know your company’s policy. You don’t want to post or mention something on the site that is a company secret without realizing it. Many companies conduct searches on the Internet and monitor blog posts, so always take care with what you post online. Nothing meant for internal correspondence or anything that your company believes can harm their business prospects should be visible on your networking page.

Apart from this, you should also be extremely careful when posting pictures online. No photos that might show you in an embarrassing situation, or relating to nudity or drug use should be posted on your networking page. You should also refrain from posting material that may be politically incorrect.

Your idea is to increase your business prospects, and not make personality statements. Stick to your goal when using social networking sites, and your career will benefit.

One of the quickest, easiest and cheapest ways to generate website traffic today online is through the use of online social networking sites. The traffic you can get is very targeted and can be long term or residual traffic if set up right. Many of these sites can also provide your website with backlinks from these powerful authority networks which pass along there page rank to you, which will help your website gain popularity in the search engines.

Types Of Online Social Networking Sites

There are many different types of sites that you can sign up for and utilize in your marketing arsenal. Some of these websites give you the opportunity to advertise for free on their networks cheaply and also offer affordable paid advertising spots for increased targeted traffic to your business website or blog.

Other online social networking sites are simply share sites where you can share websites you like with other members or upload videos to watch. These social bookmarking sites are like browser bookmarks except you are storing them online and they can be viewed by the public. Sometimes these bookmarks can pass along a nice high PR backlink to either a blog post that you have written or a website you have. After you bookmark it, other people can save it as well in their accounts and share it with others.

Video online social networking sites like YouTube offer users the chance to upload and share videos with the world. Using video is an effective way to get the message out about a product or service which sometimes is hard to write in words. If you are an affiliate marketer you can do a product review with video and give the user a real inside look at what it is you are selling and show things that can’t be done with words.

There are many different categories of online social networking sites, but they all share one thing in common. They bring together like minded people and offer them the chance to share their ideas and thoughts with everyone in the group. Many new and emerging networks are built around niches that target a particular group of people.

The one thing to keep in mind before attempting to use a social networking website for traffic is that if you come across as a spammer, the chances are that you will not get the desired results. It is very important from the start that you right away establish yourself as a real person and offer as much value as possible to the community. Doing this will ensure that you maximize your time and your efforts will be rewarded greatly.

With the advent of the internet, the whole world has shrunk to the size of your laptop. People can connect to other people with similar interests across thousands of miles. While critics of the internet find many disadvantages in the whole situation, there are a lot of advantages in being able to find friends and clients across the world for both individuals and businesses. And the web sites facilitating these fruitful connections are the vast majority of highly popular social networking sites on the internet. Some of the main advantages of social networking for both individuals and for businesses are discussed below:

Social Networking for Individuals: In a world where people are getting busier with their lives day by day, social networking sites are doing a great job of bringing friends, families and even strangers closer. Just imagine the joy of finding your long lost child- hood best friend on a social networking site like orkut.com or classmates.com. Most of us have gone through this experience and we all know that it is something that cannot be described easily in words.

Apart from connecting with old friends, you get to meet a whole lot of new people on these social networking web sites, and contrary to popular belief, not all of them are fakes. There are a wide number of good people like you who are out in the wide wide cyber world who are just as lonely as you are and are looking for like minded friends or companions. And a number of them have also succeeded at it. In fact it is so common that we all know people who met on line and are happily married today.

Social Networking for Businesses: While almost everyone is aware of the advantages of social networking for individuals, not many businesses are aware of the huge potential that this has in store for them. Joining a social networking site is one of the best and easiest ways of advertising about your business. What is more is that it is absolutely free. And on top of this, most such web sites will give you ample space to talk about your products and services.

It is a great method of increasing your client base and you are not even restricted by geographical boundaries. So while you can make a community of local businesses in order to garner your local target customer, you can also join communities of other similar businesses in order to be conspicuous to the overseas buyer who is sitting in another country or continent. It is an absolute win-win situation for you, so if havent joined a site till now, it is time that you did it right away!

According to news by BBC, Business 2.0 magazine has named StumbleUpon the number one social media company. It is a net discovery site founded in the year 2001, has member strength of more than 2 million registered users. The Web 2.0 traffic concept has been growing in strength after this evidence of traffic generation and more business companies are trying to shift business from the earlier model of Web 1.0 concept.

Tim O’ Reilly was one of the first to use the term Web 2.0. According to him, it is a web-based software that is updated constantly and mutually. One of the primary concepts of Web 2.0 traffic is remixing; and the more number of people consume it the better it functions.

A group of people has to build up social networks to properly use the service. Web 2.0 is the new trend in web designing and development, and mainly refers to supposedly second generation of online population, that is to say, communities and hosted services, such as social networking sites, folksonomies and wikies. Folksonomies aim at creating collaborative environment, creativity and sharing between groups.

Talking of social networks Digg, Stumble Upon and Propeller are the best places to get started with Web 2.0 traffic. Anything to share you can post it on Digg. Digg’s Alexa traffic ranking is below 200. StumbleUpon has its traffic ranking under 300 and Propeller has its ranking under 2000. The entire ranking is among 2 million plus websites that comes under the shroud of major search engines.

Therefore, when a ‘would be blogger’ is trying to get noticed then it is always advisable to come under the shadow of something big to start with. Build something, put it in the shadow of something already established and let it move on when it grows up.

Web 2.0 traffic needs promotion like every other business ventures. News and blogs are the most important of the elements to attract visitors, and traffic with them. News, videos, podcasts, images all is part of the community build-up process in Digg.

Blogs get comments and through this link baits can be made. Link baits are useful links redirected to the target website through an informative article. Information is shared through communities like Propeller, StumbleUpon and Facebook. No matter what the type of information is, personal or commercial, it can be passed on through social networking sites.

Web 2.0 traffic perception has created hype in the mind of the consumers as well as the executives. It is easy to know the concept, but to implement it is a lot harder. The new web concept can create a new enterprise solution, but – “do you need it?” and if yes then “by how?” are the two foremost things that are creating the confusion. Realistic use within an organization can transform Web 2.0 to Enterprise 2.0.

When Google started its online community Orkut, it was an instant hit. It zoomed in on millions of netizens all over the world. Facebook, another community, was started in the Google path. It became another craze and in September 2007 it topped the chart in terms of network traffic.

Online communities are nothing but social networks. They follow the new web concept of build a house and let it serve itself. The Bit torrent community also follows the same concept to create its own Web 2.0 traffic. One system acts as a server or seeder and other leech files from it. They are called leechers. When the sharing is 100% complete the leechers become the seeders; the process continues, building collaborative intelligence, the final end point for total development.

Social network sites in some cases can be considered the ‘duct tape’ of the global communications community. What had once hit the internet scene as an online ‘location’ for the ‘younger’ generation to communicate socially is now big business.

Combining with the technology of the internet and connecting global online communities, these sites are now recognized for their ability to attract large audiences. The ability to communicate thoughts, ideas, news, or other forms of information within and amongst these various online communities around the world 24/7 couldn’t be ignored.

The popularity of these type sites stem from their ‘casual’ structure which in turn attracted the masses that today are captivated by the many social networks online.
Of course it didn’t take long for marketers ranging from 5th Avenue down to small ‘mom and pop’ entrepreneurs to realize and harness the potential and power of these sites. 

Social network marketing has uncorked a completely new mindset and direction for both the mainstream and small-time marketers. The emphasis on relationship marketing is a strong indication of the unilateral shift in this ‘internet age’ marketing mindset.

The acceptance and embrace of social networks have now spawned sites that cater to an older generation as well as those that focus on working professionals. Whether discussing health issues, current events or business strategies these type sites have revealed an AWESOME POTENTIAL.

Social network marketing today is quickly becoming the online marketing approach of choice due to its ability to develop more personal and long term relations with customers. This relationship marketing really harkens back to ‘the day’ when a handshake could ’seal’ a deal. The value of trust has now been rediscovered on the internet. The irony here is the internet was once considered the MOST impersonal way of communicating since interpersonal contact was minimized due to the technologies involved.

Online marketing seemingly has turned the corner with the increasing use of these type sites as a favorable platform on which to implement many business strategies. 

Growing steadily in use, popularity, and sites, social networks are casting a larger shadow on the internet horizon. Both the business and communication potential these sites possess has now been identified.

Whatever your reasons or purpose may be social network sites seem to be the easiest and most effective means to spread the word. From an online marketing perspective, the growth rate and potential customer base these sites offer is undeniable, too tempting to pass up, and by no means should not be ignored!