Entrepreneurs Should Work to Maximize Their Social Networks

According to the U.S. Department of Labor in March 2009, the U.S. registered over 690,000 job losses. Are you looking for a job? Consider creating your own. There are numerous valuable resources to help you connect with aspiring entrepreneurs and get your business ideas off the ground using one of the over 57 million social networks and blogs worldwide that generate over one million new website postings each day.
Often FREE to join, social networks offer valuable resources for job seekers, start-up money sources, service providers and entrepreneur contacts.
By actively using social networks, you can quickly post online content, ads, resumes, and find help. Content postings are instantly routed to other people in the network that can answer your questions or offer support. Members of social networks can search through profiles of other members, contact them or post a request or classified ad to talk about fulfilling business needs. Most profiles on social networks are targeted and specific so it's easy to find valuable contacts in your particular region.
Social networks help entrepreneurs succeed by providing them with the guidance, tools and resources necessary to setup their company and gain exposure. By posting a simple message on a blog or social network, entrepreneurs can automatically reach over 1.1 billion online users worldwide.
Many entrepreneur social networks offer excellent tools to create your FREE business profile or explore industry data, and communicate interactively with other entrepreneurs. Popular entrepreneur networks include; LinkedIn, MeetUp, Wordpress.com, FastCompany, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Another cool feature is that you're able to create your own blog topics, appear on the main pages and increase search engine optimization (SEO) exposure for your new business on Yahoo, Google or MSN.
PartnerUp.com is a social network for entrepreneurs who are searching for business partners, co-founders, executives, board members and accountants to gain advice or find commercial office space and other business needs. It also has a Resource Directory menu that allows small and mid-sized businesses to advertise their services.
Many social networks neglect the content aspect that makes the StartupNation website useful. With articles, forums, blogs, on-demand seminars, and podcasts, entrepreneurs are better prepared to make valuable business decisions. 
There are a wide range of topics being discussed including business planning, marketing and web-based sales information. The site also offers a series of competitions, such as "dorm-based 20" and "elevator sales pitch" contests.
If you're a young entrepreneur and socially active or just curious, then Young Entrepreneur.com is a great starting point for you. This community appears as a discussion forum, with business topics such as e-commerce, search engine optimization (SEO), marketing, IT & Internet, and franchising resources. Aside from their main forum and threads, there is a popular blog and some great video training.
Many grassroots community social network blogs such as your local newspaper online, generally offer FREE of charge directory resources to local manufacturers, providing marketplace exposure to facilitate local and international e-commerce transactions. This can be an excellent social network for establishing vital business connections within the manufacturing community; and helpful knowledge exchange for sharing information, ideas and expertise that can benefit the local manufacturing sector. Checkout your local small business Chamber of Commerce for additional social network resources.
Most social network communities use practical general rules such as allowing like-minded considerate individuals to self-organize into sub-groups, protecting conversations from scale, rewarding members that promote good work, and so on.
Imposing artificial rules that are counter to natural social inclinations are likely to invoke dissonance and prevent natural communities from forming as they should. The basic rules of social interaction and media apply.
Social networks are useful to connect the community with the other customer relationship management (CRM)-related aspects of your organization. Customer communities have been used successfully to improve services, promoting innovation, trend spotting, marketing, and lead generation helpful in gaining rewards of efficiency, and productivity increases.
By seizing and conquer every possibility in social networking with entrepreneurs you'll be one step closer to achieving your goals. Think of your career goals and entrepreneurial objectives as a race. To go for the gold in your race you have create your own opportunities.

Dr. Farrah Gray is the author of "The Truth Shall Make You Rich: The New Road Map to Radical Prosperity," "Get Real, Get Rich: Conquer the 7 Lies Blocking You from Success" and the international best-seller "Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out." He is chairman of the Farrah Gray Foundation. Dr. Gray can be reached via email at [email protected] or his web site at http://www.drfarrahgray.com.