Social networking is one of the forces that has helped define the past decade. Since the rise of Facebook, LinkedIn, and the various alternatives that have since sprung up, most of our connected population have been confronted with the challenges of an online life. This has had a profound effect on how we communicate with each other, in practical, emotional and psychological ways. It is no longer effective for professionals to ignore these forces, tools and situations.

Using social networking as a professional communications tool means navigating the etiquette as well as the technology. It means dealing with new influences and cause and effect. New paradigms and concepts. Just getting through it all can be challenging, but to leverage it for our personal success can seem like a form of wizardry. Fortunately, we are still human beings, and we still follow enough of the basic rules of interaction to allow us to make sense of it all – and to have a plan.