How different today's business management environment is from the one we learned about in business school 25 to 30 years ago.  No one could have predicted the growing importance of such business marketing activities as blogging and online social networks, yet today the savvy manager realizes there is an advantage to be gained by using them.

Today's business graduates have no problem utilizing these tools, and will make great advances in their career pass more tenured people because of this involvement.  I have slowly adapted. 

I have used the social network LinkedIn to some degree, mostly connecting with people I've known throughut my educational and professional careers.  I am just getting acquainted with using it for business reasons.  And I have been writing a general business blog in support of our three books for the past year.  I now need to evolve to use it for my professional work.

Inc. magazine (Sept. 2008) recognized the importance of these eletronic mediums, and found that 31% of CEOs maintain a blog or social network--and for the most part they love them.  here are some comments:

• "More effective than any marketing budget for getting our name out there," Todd Cieplinski, Universal Mind.
• "The blogs are 50% of website traffic.  Great participation," Parsa Rohani, Neudesic.
• "Results have been great--we had more than 100,000 visits in May alone,"  Kevin McLaughlin, Smart Destinations.
• "The community members are our fourth-highest revenue source," Bryan Howe, MasterPlans.
• "Within 60 days of launching our blog, it is our top referral source," David Link, ScienceLogic.
• "Our clients love it, and lots if people in our industry pay attention to it," Michael Biggerstaff, Nxtbook Media.