Even before you’ve fully understood the fuss around Facebook, along comes yet another social networking tool that has got the web-enabled generation all aflutter.

If you haven’t even heard of Twitter, there’s no need to feel bad – its still a very recent phenomenon, even when measured in Internet time.  But it is a rapidly growing phenomenon and could be a useful tool to grow your professional connections.  So do check out CIO magazine’s quick and easy guide on how to Twitter for business people.

Networking Together – an WSJ Online article – describes how the rapid growth of social networking sites is giving small businesses an invaluable opportunity to dramatically expand their reach.

Small businesses, being more nimble and usually more approachable, are apparently better positioned to take advantage of the social networking phenomenon than larger companies. However, it does take some effort and planning to successfully leverage this medium.

The trick is to create a web presence that is compelling enough for your target audience to visit regularly and, crucially, for members to start contributing content to.

Most businesses are failing to take advantage of the potential benefits offered by the rapid growth of the social networking phenomenon. This according to a recent Gartner study which claims that businesses that harness the social web appropriately can “increase savings, productivity and profits”.

The gut reaction of most businesses is to block their employees’ access to social sites as such activity is perceived to be frivolous time-wasting. However, some smart firms are starting to realize that incorporating the social networks into their work-flows can actually dramatically increase their employees reach and productivity.

One such example is the use of social networks in the recruitment space. Many organizations have discovered that social networking sites are proving more cost-effective and efficient at recruiting the right talent than even specialized recruitment consultants. Indeed, even the high-end recruitment firms themselves are already using the social web as a key resource for tracking down the right candidates.

Another interesting development is in the way employees within an organization are communicating amongst themselves. Many teams have discovered that the messaging capabilities embedded in most social networking sites are far more effective at enabling collaboration and team-work than such traditional tools as email.

Bottom line – don’t dismiss the social networking phenomenon as a passing fad or distraction. It’s here to stay and can actually be turned into a powerful productivity tool if incorporated properly into your workflow.

A BusinessWeek article reports that LinkedIn successfully raised $53 million in additional funding from VCs. This effectively values the professional networking site at more than $1-billion.

LinkedIn is one of the few social sites that has figured out how to profit consistently from user-generated content. It is expected to generate $100-million in revenue this year and its user base is still growing aggressively. Compared to the other social sites, its average user is also older and richer.

LinkedIn expects to use the extra cash to develop new communication and collaboration tools for its members and to fund expansion into new markets in Europe and China. While its current membership base is heavily US-skewed, the site does already have a significant global footprint. Singapore-based members are estimated to number well over 50,000 – making LinkedIn a useful networking and research tool for smart local businesses.

In 2005, BusinessWeek ran a cover story predicting that the emerging phenomenon of blogging would have a significant impact businesses on communications. Three years on, the story “Blogs Will Change Your Business” remains one of the magazine’s most read articles online.

However, while blogs certainly have become an important medium, it is just one of the do-it yourself “communication multipliers” to have emerged on the internet since the article was published. Social networks like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn are have burst onto the scene as have a myriad of smaller social connectors and collaboration tools.

BusinessWeek thus felt compelled to update their story and review some of the Social Web developments they did not foresee in their original article. Beyond Blogs is well worth a read for an overview on how these emerging social media tools are having a very real impact on business processes today.

BusinessWeek has updated its “Blogs Will Change Your Business” article that was published in 2005 just as the blogging phenomenon was taking off.The social web has evolved quite a bit since 2005 – Wikis, Social Networks, Podcasts & Video Blogs have emerged and are being adopted as credible business tools; Twittering is no longer just for birds.You can read the full updated article here.It is a rather long and rambling article, but the bottom line is: the Social Web is here to stay; the role that social media will play in business is an evolving story, but there is no denying its already significant impact on how businesses communicate with their extended communities.