Compare These Top Vendors for Online Social Networking

If you want to promote yourself or your business, find key connections within the business world or meet professionals in your local business community, a B2B online social networking directory can help you quickly expand your network.

Once considered the domain of students or twenty-somethings, social networking sites have expanded to include small and large businesses, entrepreneurs and executives. Use online social networking to:

1. Showcase your company and its products or services.
2.  Raise your profile and meet other professionals or potential clients, associates or employers.
3. Help people inside and outside your company stay connected by creating your own online social networking site.

Use an online social networking site to promote your business

The earliest social networking sites started out as a venue for musicians, as with MySpace, or as a way for classmates to connect, as with FaceBook. However, entrepreneurs and small business owners are discovering their potential for creating awareness and exposure for their companies. Even many small, neighborhood coffee houses have their own pages, where they promote their services and special events like poetry readings and open mic nights.

Elevate your professional profile through online social networking

Some of the newest additions to the social networking community are sites designed specifically for professionals. With these sites, you not only post your work experience or awards, for example, but also your connections with other people in that community. If you'd like to meet an important business connection, you can contact them directly through their personal page, or through a shared connection. This can open doors for you that might otherwise remain closed.

Find local connections through an online social networking list

One of the greatest advantages of online social networking is the ease of meeting people from all over the world. However, these sites are also valuable ways to connect with local professionals. Some sites focus specifically on connecting people within a city or state, while others are general networking sites that allow you to search for people with shared interests within a geographic region.

Build your own online social networking directory

You can also use online social networking sites to help your employees stay connected, and to maintain strong relationships with people outside the company, such as prospects, clients and associates. By building your own community, you foster increased interaction and communication between people inside and outside your company.

• When you join an online social networking site, take as much care creating your profile as you did when you created your company's website--it may be your first, and perhaps only, introduction to potential clients or employers.