The Good, the Bad & the Ugly of Business Focused Social Networking for the Internet Marketer

[This is part of a series on Web 2.0 Business Networking]

Business owners in the offline world know the value of networking. There are many opportunities locally, nationally and worldwide for meeting new people who share similar business interests and benefiting from these contacts.

The value of networking only increases when you take it online. It’s easier to reach more people and it usually costs far less.

There is a wide variety of networking opportunities on the web – as you’ve seen from the list above, some are free and some come with features that involve a fee to use.

Good networking opportunities bring you into contact with those who are potential:

Customers
List Subscribers
Source of Word of Mouth Referrals
Affiliates
Cooperative Partners
Media Contacts

Good networking behavior includes:

Showing interest in others.
Asking questions that help you to learn about your target market.
Offering to help others with useful introductions when possible.
Answering questions when appropriate.
Respecting moderators and rules.

Bad networking behavior includes:

Only talking about you.
Spamming with links or ads.
Offering non-constructive criticism.

Ugly networking behavior includes:

Pushing business opportunities on those who haven’t asked for info.
Harvesting contact information without permission.
Flaming competitors.

Online networking can move beyond interaction on social networking sites. There are a growing number of opportunities for networking via audio and even video through services like Skype (http://www.skype.com), Co-Op World (http://www.coopworld.com) and Go To Meeting (http://www.gotomeeting.com).

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Web 2.0 Business Networking