When Myspace started out several years ago, the first crowd that flocked to it was the trendy tween crowd that did nothing but post random photos and blogs about virtually nothing. It was merely an advanced telephone system; communicating with friends as if you were calling your girlfriends to gossip about he-said-she-said stuff and the latest cute guy in school. But since online social networking has evolved and countless networking sites have sprung to life, these sites are not forums to just chat anymore – online social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more are fantastic business tools and are certainly NOT just for the tweens.

The Internet now runs our business lives, so naturally our social lives are following suit. It seems as though everybody has a profile on some social networking site out there. As our personal and business lives are developing more and more of an online presence, the gap between our business selves and our personal selves becomes smaller and smaller. Business (and life in general for that matter) is all about communicating and networking. Traditional business marketing tactics are getting worn out, and everyone is trying to figure out new ways to let people know about their business and what they do. However the best marketing tool is also the simplest: networking.

I’ll give you a great tip: networking is telling other people what you do and learning about what other people do. So what do you think these people on Twitter and Facebook are doing? They’re telling other people what they do and they’re learning about what other people do. Do you see a similarity? Building a profile on various networking sites (Facebook and LinkedIn are the best for business networking) and gearing your posted information in a business direction is a great way to search for potential clients and vendors, and allow your potential clients and vendors to search for you. And the best part: it’s free! Another great feature about joining these sites is that you can have access to tons of inexpensive ad placement opportunities and get great marketing results with very little time, effort, and money involved.

So if you’re in your 30’s, 40’s, or 50’s, don’t worry: these networking sites aren’t filled with a bunch of gossiping kids anymore. You’ll be happy to find many other like-minded business professionals out there to network with.