Last week an order came if for my Social Networking for Business Profits – In 30 Minutes a Day or Less eBook. I also got an email from the person who purchased it and it turns out he is someone I hadn’t seen or been in touch with in over 20 years. We had met many years ago at a previous company where I used to lead Personal Growth seminars.

The interesting part is how he found me. He was doing a search for a business podcast and he stumbled upon an interview I had done for an Internet Radio station. Based on our previous relationship and his current interest in Social Media, he decided to purchase the eBook.

He then wrote me an email which allowed us to re-established a connection and started a new conversation. Who knows where this new conversation will lead?

This is what Social Networking is all about. Making new connections, sustaining existing or rekindling previous ones. This is a different mindset than looking at the particular ROI of every activity on-line.

Granted, there needs to be an ROI to Social Networking – otherwise it is easy to get carried and take away from doing business. However, determining how to measure the true ROI of Social Networking may be a bit more complicated.

What results have you gotten out of all this time and effort you are putting into this (Social Networking)? I get asked this question a lot. As I mentioned in my previous post, people are concerned that Social Networking will divert much of their time and produce little in terms of results.

I’ve learned that results in Social Networking are not linear. What I mean by this is that you don’t get from a to z in a straight line. For example, in the old paradigm of direct sales you could count on sending a certain number of direct mail pieces and getting a certain number of responses. That process was linear and predictable. Social Networking is not.

The way information travels through networks is very dynamic. It goes all over the place. In doesn’t follow a particular path. Which is why you need to be patient. You also need to plant a lot of seeds to see which ones grow.

A blog post by itself will probably do very little. However there may come a time when you have built your visibility and your credibility through multiple conversations and relationships, that one post can have a huge impact in the results you will get.

To date I have published several blogs, have a podcast series and I’m just about finished writing an eBook. What is happening is that I’m getting connections and conversations through these various efforts that probably would not have happened if I had only done one.

Remember this concept when you are evaluating your ROI for Social Networking.