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Doing even a few of these things will set you apart from the vast majority of people who view social network sites as toys and networking as “just for fun” (though it can be fun, too).

Social networking sites have a reputation as being huge time wasters, and for most people, they are. If you can afford that luxury, more power to you; for the rest of you, really think about what social networking can do for you and focus your energies to making that work.

That’s one of the reasons why I tend to think that social media (by which I mean actual conversations and relationship building exercises, not widgets and Facebook fliers) is more aligned with the goals of a PR program than it is with marketing.

“If you create great content and no one knows about it to link to it, you’re spinning your wheels. A combination of content as well as social networking, link networking, public relations and gaining editorial visibility as well as viral and individual link solicitations will all work together synergistically. Building a community of consumers of your content as well as relationships with the media in your industry is the distribution network necessary to gain the most link value out of creating great content.”

Some websites are designed to be games. Most are not. But have you ever heard people, or found yourself addicted to Digg, YouTube, or Facebook? Have you ever wondered why? Well, it’s because they are games, at least partially! Officially, they are social networks, news aggregators, etc. and not designed as game sites like Second Life is. However, these sites contain all factors of a game. They are not only useful, but also entertaining. You can manage relationships with friends, gain recognition, and even set trends. This book will describe the view of websites as games in general, and then study Digg, YouTube and Facebook as specific case studies. It will show you what the goals of these websites are, how to play, and how to win. Applying the game perspective to more areas of the web, users may find other hidden games and can thus use those sites with greater efficiency. Web designers also can learn from this perspective and use the game design to achieve better results.

If you use social networking tools, I'd love to get your input. Do you think a typical marketer or sales person (who isn't a good “networker” already) can build relationships and generate sales leads for their company from a social networking tool? Why or why not?