Remember when the fax machine seemed like the greatest workplace invention ever? Then along came e-mail, and who would have guessed something so fast and so efficient could also be so cheap? It does make you wonder what The Next Big Thing will be – and in fact there are some who will tell you it’s here now in the social networking services popping up all over the Web.

If you think of social networking as something high school and college kids are doing on MySpace and Facebook, you’d be right, of course. But the whole social networking phenomenon has evolved and today professional folks are using these and more business-focused networks such as LinkedIn and Ryze to connect and build relationships with potential customers, clients and partners.

Many take it even further, engaging in what Joanna L. Krotz refers to as “social media marketing” to promote their expertise – and in doing so – their products and services too. In her Office Live Small Business column, Krotz discusses how this marketing trend taps into the rising influence of user-generated communities like the social networking sites – but also blogs, wikis and bookmarking sites.

So is any of this right for you?  If a key part of building your business is making connections, social media marketing may be worth exploring. It won’t cost you a lot of money, but it will take an expenditure of time to get started. Krotz’s column offers a lot of good information to help you do just that.

See you online,

Monte Enbysk