Getting involved with social networking is not a joke. Unfortunately, many people think that it is. For instance, it is often a running joke between my boyfriend and I that whenever I log into Twitter or am working on another social networking site such as a Facebook account that I'm not really “doing work”. However, this is the common misconception that people who aren't really familiar with social networking have. In fact, my boyfriend's brother runs two hugely successful websites but was reluctant to get involved with social networking tools such as StumbleUpon and Twitter because he thought that they were “a waste of time”. How unfortunate!

While there are some people who use Twitter for their own personal use (I have a Twitter account for this purpose for example), there are also plenty of other people who have caught the social media/microblogging bug and are taking full advantage of it. Look at any major news network now for example. Why, just the other day, I was watching Fox News when they announced that they were going to read off a few of the Twitter messages that they had received. They then cut to a shot of the anchorman actually tweeting live on the air! How far we have come!

From your major corporations and CEOs to your next door neighbor or your kid brother, it seems like everyone and anyone has some sort of social media or social networking connection. For instance, I recently discovered that half of my family is on Facebook, which is great because it allows me to keep in touch with them on a daily basis (if I choose). And while I opt to keep my Facebook and Twitter accounts as non-work-related, this doesn't mean that these social networking sites aren't advantageous for business purposes. For example, whenever I log into my Facebook account, there are usually ads along the right side of the margins. Additionally, businesses can create their own “fan pages” where Facebook users can choose whether or not they support a company or idea by “becoming a fan” of their Facebook page. All of this works to draw attention to that particular business or person thereby helping to build that business' credibility, which will hopefully lead to a profit once people start purchasing their product or service.

There are plenty of clever ways to market yourself on the Internet, and many people are finding that it is significantly cheaper to do so (typically costing a fraction of the price it would be to run a televised advertisement or a print ad. So, why wouldn't someone jump on board with social media? On the Internet, however, it is not about the CEO or the corporation necessarily. Rather, the control of what gets said is generated purely by the consumer. This puts the pressure on businesses to be able to perform up to par or bear the wrath of the angry consumers. Remember, it only takes a matter of seconds for a trending topic to start on a microblogging service like Twitter, and if that topic is about you, you would want it to be all good things, wouldn't you?