Charlene Li, VP and Principal Analyst, at Forrester Research has written on why companies should consider adopting social networks as part of their sales & marketing arsenal.

Let’s start with a fundamental premise – that all business is social and personal. Business involves people and communications and we all prize “networking” skills and opportunities. Businesses don’t strike deals with each other – people do. And we build bonds by talking about everything from sports teams and the weather to our families and hobbies.

So we as business people already engage in social networking every day, primarily through phone calls, emails, meetings, and events. The same activities take place on social networking sites – people share the tidbits and moments that build relationships.

What’s the business value of staying on top of your network? As we know from experience, priceless.

Admittedly, social networking is still in its nascent stages and there aren’t currently too many good business applications available. Hence, the reason we don’t see too much of it in the corporate arena. However, there are some examples of social networking being used in corporate HR for recruiting candidates by the likes of Ernst & Young no less, and for community building by Bank of America, and eBay. Academia also uses social networks for recruiting students. So, although social networking may not be appropriate for every company, if your company’s target market is already on social networks, there may be some value in exploring that option.