At first, social networking was a novelty, a fun thing you did for your social life.
Then businesses came on board, seeing how everything from Facebook-like interactivity to Twitter-y updates could help get their messages out.
Now, social networking has become so much the norm that businesses are trying to figure out how best to use it within their own companies and networks to drive results.
Indeed, social networking for businesses is seen as a next big thing.
"It's going to be something like email that's going to be ubiquitous and that people are going to expect to use in combination with a lot of different applications," said Rob Helm, an analyst with the independent research firm Directions on Microsoft.
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