What does Facebook have to do with Business?

We have been talking about Facebook, Digg and Del.icio.us, among other tools, in the Thirty Day Challenge. It occurred to me today, that these are the Web 2.0 equivalent of the business networking we used to do when we went to networking meetings at the Chamber of Commerce.

You young'uns have just digitized what we old fogies did in person. And of course, now that we have a global marketplace and a 24/7 information overload always-on environment, it makes sense to use these tools to conduct that aspect of business. Of course, they are great for your lifestyle applications too!

Getting an endorsement from someone else for your business was always extremely valuable. Now, in Web 2.0 style, you get a thumbs up or a 5-star rating from people anywhere in the world who thought your stuff has merit.

I almost hate to see those dots connected. Many business colleagues were flummoxed by Facebook and MySpace. That kept the competition out and we early adopters in. Trust the juggernaut that is internet marketing to find a way to almost spoil it in the process (to wit: many fake MySpace pages). But the pendulum has only begun to swing.



Legitimate marketers and business people are using the same leverage, with the same social media tools, to create authentic business opportunities and get that first dollar (or ten) while doing a lot of good in the process.

I haven't even begun to tap the potential of some of these tools, but by working through the material in the Thirty Day Challenge, I'm getting new ideas for how they could be used to help my students and clients immensely. The next month is going to be very exciting!