Strangely enough I found out today that I am addicted to the idea of social network, to be more precise, online networks.

Today, my professor asked the class what plans did we have immediately after graduation. My reflex response was "twitter." As the class sat there laughing I realized that I probably would be indeed tweeting right after I got handed my degree.

It went from being signed to only one social network, Myspace, to the now several that I manage and update frequently. Whether I am micro-blogging, stumbling (stumbleupon), or digging (digg) I find myself needing to tell somebody something.

How can I take this seemingly mindless task of sharing and posting to its next level? To be clear, How can I make this disadvantage an advantage?

Most people think that such social networks are for nerds, or social hounds but really these tools are available for an endless array opportunities. I believe that these networks are the newest forms of marketing. Most are starting to refer to these networks as Social Media Marketing. While I wont delve into fully of my idea's (as I have intellectual property on them) but I will enlighten you with some ways others have made social networks.

As an avid follower of Tim Ferris he recently made a post on his blog about "Measuring Social Media ROI." That is measuring ones return on invest (ROI) on social media. It was more or less a study he conducted, quiet successfully I might ad, to measure the dollar amount impact his blog/twitter had. He basically challenged his readers to follow him (see: TweetToBeat) in which he would donate $1 to a specific cause also another third party would match $2 to Tim's donation making a total of $3 for every new follower. At the end of the study he calculated that he had a total of over 37,000 new followers which calculated to about 17 every hour in the 2 weeks he ran the study.

Ok, so what can I takeaway from what I just stated. Look at the power Tim had over readers he was able to tap into 37,000 new people within 2 weeks or 17 people every hour simply by micro-blogging. I see a huge opportunities for young entrepreneurs like myself in using web traffic in a marketing aspect. It has been long since believed that online marketing was pretty much useless (to a point). I mean common how often do we click banner ads that pop up because it so happen to interest us? Be honest most of us have pop-up blockers and dont want to deal with it.

Using Social Media to market is just a phenomenal idea, especially if it benefits a cause like Tim Ferris demonstrated. One idea would be to release social media network sites to generate traffic on things otherwise unknown or normally out of the target market. Another idea would be to link networks to connect people from otherwise different segments. For example; while the immediate need for a business HVAC system would not be what most of us would be looking for but I bet you within your social network (especially if it includes small businesses) you may know someone that may need it.

This is just my two-cents on how social media while mundane in nature could be used to affect business.

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