by Ruth Belena

Created on: November 23, 2010

Many entrepreneurs use blogs, social networks and online business communities to gain a good reputation and build trust online. Business advice can be freely sought and given online in business community forums. Blogs also allow entrepreneurs to comment on business matters, and to answer each other queries, and many new business connections can be made through social networking.

1. Start to connect through social networks

Opening an account at Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn will help you to connect with other entrepreneurs. Each site allows you to have a bio or profile, which you can use to identify yourself and your business.

At Twitter it is important to state within a very brief bio what sort of business you are in. Your profile link should lead to your website or blog.  When you start tweeting, and you include links to business articles or blog posts, you will soon get other entrepreneurs following you. You can use business keywords or hashtags, such as #entrepreneur, when you use the Twitter search box to find tweets from other users who are also entrepreneurs. You should easily find some who are actively involved in your line of business.

On Facebook you can set up a profile and also have your own business page. You can join groups and "like" pages set up by other entrepreneurs. Soon you will get requests from people asking to be your friend on Facebook, and others will start following your page. On Facebook you can start discussions, add comments, request information or simply chat about business with fellow entrepreneurs.

LinkedIn is highly useful for serious networking in business and it is easy to connect with other entrepreneurs and business people. You can build up your own community of business connections at LinkedIn when you join in group discussion and follow suggested links to profiles of other people in your line of business.     

2. Start a business blog

Blogging is never a waste of time when you are serious about being an entrepreneur. Not only can you use a blog to promote you own business online, you can use blog posts to ask for suggestions or request information. You can share business information and promote your blog posts in social networks. You should then get responses from users of those sites as well as from other members

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