Lots of people are talking about ways to use social media to market your business. You can create a Facebook fan page, start a LinkedIn group, or tell the world about your services on Twitter. These are all great things to do. But for me, the real value in social media is how it enhances my efforts to create meaningful relationships with new people. 
This is me and Joe Cortez, meeting at Stauf's in real time after connecting on Twitter.
Let's take a look at a before and after scenario.
How networking used to work: I'd meet someone (let's call him Dave) at a meeting or networking function. Dave and I would chat about this and that, maybe talk about how much we loved the new Star Trek or what a giant disappointment the last Wolverine turned out to be. Then, we'd exchange business cards and move on to meet more people. A day or two later, I'd e-mail Dave and tell him how nice it was to meet him. If Dave was really interesting, I'd invite him out for a cup of coffee. Then we'd go our separate ways. Even though I wanted to stay in touch with Dave, calling him or inviting him out for more coffee seemed a little pushy, if not downright creepy. Dave and I might see each other again, a few months later, at another event. We'd politely say hi and engage in more small talk. But such an amount of time had passed that it was like we were meeting all over again.
