In todays world, who would you trust and use when in need of service or products? Who would you trust to overhaul your engine, surgically remove a tumor, create your website? Of course! A person who has some sort of name. Someone famed for what they do.
How can you do that for your business? What about doing that for your CV? Where can you do this?
The answer lies in social networking. Here you have a platform to voice your opinion, and let's face it, the louder an opinion, the more you hear from that person. (A good example is one young South African Politician who, although says completely the wrong thing 90% of the time, is a KNOWN celebrity).
But you need to be careful. You do not want to create a negative impression of your services by completely mouthing off. Make sure that your opinions have value.
For example: We recently had a baby. Being our first, my wife decided to do lots of research on the internet. Using forums, she started realizing that people using these forums trusted and respected certain people on the forum. What was their secret? They replied to all topics, providing reliable, researched answers that eventually helped them gain a celebrity status.
Using social networks, this is vital if you are to stand out. Using tools like discussion forums, groups discussions and writing articles about a topic related to your industry will enhance peoples view of you, or your business's knowledge base.
If you can successfully do this, people will view you as the authority on a subject. This will enable them to choose YOU to fill their needs.