There has been a lot of talk lately about the viral nature of Facebook and Twitter and how it can help build a person's business. Initially, I took very little notice but the chatter was getting louder and louder, so I decided to look into it.

What I discovered really took me by surprise. It became obvious that these were two serious sites. They were not only being used by teenagers who just enjoyed spending their spare time messaging back and fore to their friends. These sites were being used by all types of very prominent business people.

It didn't make much sense to me, so I decided to talk to some people I know who are part of the social networking system and they reported back to me that they were actually 'doing business' when they were using these social websites. They said that visits to their personal websites were up dramatically and their sales were also.

I realized that my friends who were getting the best results from being on these sites took it very seriously. It was actually part of doing business and they set time aside each day to visit the Facebook and Twitter pages and interact with others. Some of them had even taken courses in how best to utilize these sites.

Newbies tend to add friends at a frantic pace, but this is not recommended, particularly for business people. Quality is more important that quantity, especially for the first 100-200 people you invite to be your 'friend'. This intial group of people will be the most impactful and you want to make these high level people in your industry.

To use this as a business tool, it is suggested that you add new content on a daily basis. This takes very little time and most people only set aside 10 minutes or so to do a few postings. Of course, those who are going on the sites strictly for the social aspect obviously spend a lot more time there. Try to add relevant content, as that's what the search engines are looking for.

Facebook is the 5th largest visited website in the World and it is growing at an immense pace daily. If you want to be part of this new way of expanding your business via Web 2.0, which is social network marketing, then go right now and sign up for an account with Facebook and Twitter and start social networking. It's free, it's not time consuming at all and it will definitely help grow your business exponentially.

I now have my own Twitter and Facebook pages and I invite you to sign up too.