With the advent of Web 2.0 came the ability to communicate with people from all over the world in more ways than anyone ever thought possible. It is absolutely amazing how anyone can now connect with anyone else on the internet. Your Average Joe is connecting and communicating with famous people and millionaires. Have you ever wanted to ask George Bush a question? The internet makes it so easy.

One of my husband's close friends is two connections away from Hillary Clinton and John McCain in his LinkedIn account. Would you like an introduction? One of my role models that I follow intensely is Anthony Robbins. He recently launched a blog and created a Twitter account. I can now ask him anything, or tell him anything. He reads his blog comments himself and posts tweets to his twitter account personally. If I'm lucky he may even send me an answer.

As far as marketing goes, I was speaking to a good friend of mine the other day about how she markets her distribution company. Her business markets offline and online. 90% of their online marketing is free and 80% of her business comes from online efforts. Her business grossed $1.3 million last year.

I was reading an article the other day about a company that was doing really well with their offline marketing efforts. It took a few years for them to be convinced that adding online marketing could boost their business. They finally took the plunge. Their business skyrocketed by 40% in just a few months. They are now putting a new marketing plan in place that will turn some of their offline marketing efforts into online. They have found their online marketing to be more effective. They can market online to more people for less money.

Social networking seems to be the biggest hype of all. Most online social networking efforts are free to very inexpensive. A few popular sites that are considered part of social networking are twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, ning.com, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, and more. It takes a little effort to get some payoff with social networking, but when you are consistent with your efforts it can go a long way to driving traffic to your website, increasing your exposure and establishing yourself as an expert in your field of business.

Not only can social networks bring you closer to your customers and offer them a way to learn to trust you, but it can be fun, too!