When I think about building networks, I automatically think of the battles associated with looking for a new job. First, you find yourself in need of a new job. Then you think of every person you have ever known in your life and figure out if their experience and connections are useful to you in your job search.

You find yourself talking to people you haven’t talked to in years. You casually ask, “Hey, what have you been up to? Where are you working now?….” Despite your superb performance of the guy who just wants to catch up with an old friend, it doesn’t take long for them to find out the real reason you called.

If you ever feel guilty doing this, maybe you should. But hey, we all do it. (For advice on building your network, who better than Monster?)

Just like you need to network in order to get a job, you need huge online networks in order to create buzz about yourself and company. This is when schmoozing on a large scale takes place.

Large scale schmoozing is best done with online tools. They allow you to have instant access to a huge number of people that are interested in your industry and product or service. Then once you’ve found them, you can start talking to them. Let the networking begin!

Social networks are a great way to find people that match your target. They also make it easier to get involved in relevant communities. Just think about your first few days on Facebook (assuming you have one, because any self-respecting person living in the 2Gs should have one). Almost instantly, you had people from elementary school asking to be your friend and suggesting other friends and telling you to join all kinds of groups. Then before you knew it, you had over one hundred friends and you felt more popular then ever before.

It is, however, a little different building a network for your business, but we can help you with that.

What is public relations? Advertising without any money. So what is online PR? Dirt cheap.

The internet has made it a million times easier to monitor your brand reputation and find out what people are saying about you. And let’s be serious, the only way to manage your brand reputation is to know what people are already saying.

The main difference between online and offline PR is, obviously, one is dependent on online media outlets while the other is dependent on “real life” venues. Because of the nature of online media, it means that you have to constantly be aware what is being said about you and then quickly respond. To show you how crazy fast news can spread on the internet, check out Managing Public Relations in Real Time.

Fisher-Price apparently did not subscribe to this whole online PR thing when the story got out about them using lead paint on their toys. When a story is released that you – a company that makes toys for little children – are using a poisonous substance to make your products, you better say something …. quick.

We’re all about saying things quick. We are able to track what people are saying about you in real time, which allows us to respond in a timely manner.

But the aspect of online PR that is probably more applicable to most companies – those that aren’t killing children – is building relationships. Heck, it’s right there in the name. You should be constantly checking relevant blogs, message boards, forums, etc., to get to know your customers and potential customers. Then you can respond to them in a meaningful way, therefore creating relationships.

We’re all about relationships. It makes it a lot easier to spread buzz if people like and trust you. So we make sure we are talking to the right people about the right things in the right way at the right time.