Web 2.0 professional networks: Are you missing out?

While the Web 2.0 revolution continues, some people already say Web 3.0 will mean the death of SEO, which is like saying "sea salt will be the death of French fries". The fact is nobody is going to take the "S" out of search or the search out of the web, and as long as people use search, SEO will exist. I personally believe SEO will become natural for those who provide great site content and offer people what they truly have an interest in. I also believe SEO will exist as long as search ranking algorithms exist. Everyone within the SEO Industry spends a significant amount of time concentrating on harnessing traffic from social networking sites, but is this an effective method for your business? With over 300 social networking sites, the most effective way to generate better results with minimum effort is to join up on small social sites that are focused within specific niche areas. Below I listed sites that must be considered by every sales person, marketer, real estate agent, recruiter or small business owner and Internet entrepreneur.

A great example is www.LinkedIn.com, where many professionals spend a great deal of time answering questions related to their industry every day. I have noticed the majority of them are self-employed entrepreneurs, real estate and travel agents, marketers that previously sold door-to-door and small business owners. I am personally using my LinkedIn profile as a virtual business card and as a free survey tool. Whenever you answer a question raised by another member, you have an option to place a link to your site in addition to the link for your profile that is automatically placed by the system. If you provide a really good answer to a question, you can be nominated as "best answer" in that specific category. This adds weight to your level of expertise within the industry and can lead to some significant new contacts.

Watch the video below to learn more about LinkedIn and how to use its features:

Other great networking sites for professionals are www.Xing.com, which is better known in Europe, and www.Collectives.com. Collectives has an absolutely amazing interface where it is very easy to find membership pricing options compared to LinkedIn, where it is very difficult finding the pricing options (believe it or not, they do have paid membership options).

I personally work between LinkedIn and Elance.com. LinkedIn brings you new business contacts and has the "free survey" option where you ask questions and let people answer them. However, if I need a job to be done, I am going to use Elance.com. As far as I know, 99% of Elance professionals don't even know LinkedIn exists. I asked a friend who makes serious money on Elance about it and he looked at me as if I'd offered to sell him my old Donkey Kong machine. My message to the gang at LinkedIn: "Get some press". I believe most people that join the Elance network will stay there because it is a great resource they have been looking for while LinkedIn wasn't on the map.

One of the best social sites for promoting your business locally is www.Meetup.com. I personally call it "throw-your-Yellow book- away" tool. The groups on Meetup are optimized for local access; you can meet wine lovers, web designers, SEO specialists or simply women in business, all of whom are within a quick commute to a very non-digital soiree. As a business tool it is easy to use: just join for free, select a group and bring on the charm. You can also become a group organizer for a small fee, worth every penny if the word "networking" appears in your business plan.

www.Jigsaw.com is an online directory of more than 8 million business contacts and it will save you precious time if you are a salesperson, recruiter, marketer or business owner. The Jigsaw was founded to help sales professionals "win back that 1/3 of a salesperson's time spent calling and crawling in search of the right person with whom to open a dialog". I was wondering why Jigsaw's community is not that big compared to LinkedIn's and the answer came as soon as I started the registration process... They require you to confirm your personality by calling them (!) or by entering your credit card number. At that point I was surprised that they have members at all... Try it yourself and you'll see what I am talking about::))

If you know any other business network and would like to share i, contact me and I will gladly add it to this hub! You can contact me through my Social bookmarking site for bloggers, or email through Hubpages! Leave your comments as well, I really appreciate your time and your opinion is very important for me. As usually, if any of you need SEO help, I am more than glad to help with my free seo report for your site, contact me with the URL and I'll get back to you.