Social networking is the gathering of individuals into specific groups. These groups can be physical or virtual. Sports clubs, associations and neighbourhoods are all social networks and are easy to imagine. In this day and age however, social networking is the term more commonly used to describe an online community where literally millions of people can come to share common interests. With more than 10 social networking websites with a reported excess of 100 million active users, there’s no doubt that the social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are extremely powerful tools. Although difficult to prove, there are many statistics bandied about which reinforce the power of these networks. Facebook, which was launched in 2004, had an astounding 600 million users by January 2011.

Twitter, on the other hand, which was launched in 2006 (and doesn’t disclose its membership levels), is reported to have had 65 million tweets per day in 2010. So there’s no doubt there’s a big audience to be tapped into. What’s more that audience is live, active and connected. They are consumers. So what can they do to help you grow your online business? Before you think about launching a social networking campaign, the two most important things you need are: first an address on the web or a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and second a clear and concise message. Why do you need a URL? If you think about it, there’s no point whatsoever in getting social networkers excited about your message unless you have an online location to direct them to.

» Read more: How social networks will help your online business