Many of us actively use sites like Twitter and Facebook to promote our businesses. And those of us looking to connect     with more business-related contacts may turn to sites like LinkedIn to develop relationships with people we have worked with or may want to work with.

With the growing use of social networking by business professionals, there is a growing number of social networking  sites focused on business users and meeting their needs. Here is a list of 20 social networking sites for entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals that are worth a look.

Biznik – A community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to helping each other succeed.

cmypitch.com – A business website for UK entrepreneurs to get quotes, advice and more.  Read more... (404 words, 28 images, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Balancing your work and personal life on social networking tools such as Facebook has become more complex than ever — and the dangers go beyond the well-publicized examples of posting party pictures to your profile.

A more subtle faux pas can affect your online reputation and even future job path, as your friend list on Facebook includes both personal and professional contacts. Information you post can mess up your work relationships and personal ones in one quick swoop.

For example, the immediacy and ease with which you can post a quip on Facebook may get you into trouble if you’re teasing your significant other — plus tell work colleagues more than they need or want to know about your relationship. This recent story of a man caught cheating by his wife when she perused his iPhone got us thinking: In this day of gadgetry and near-constant contact via social networking, how can you avoid blunders that will deem you a thoughtless spouse, friend or colleague?  Read more... (1576 words, 73 images, estimated 6:18 mins reading time)

Follow me: http://twitter.com/bardi_toto

Twitter is everywhere. It’s impossible to escape the ubiquitous 140 character microblog. Sure, some people have tried to move to Jaiku or Pownce, begging me to do the same, but until those two applications get as much functionality off their own site as Twitter has, I’m sticking with my Tweets. In order to enjoy Twitter and other microblog applications, they have to be truly portable. In spite of all its shortcomings, Twitter has definitely nailed portability.

I’ve been a plain vanilla Tweeter for a long time. I have Twitter on instant message relay, and that’s been about the extent of my innovation with the product. Recently I decided to explore the possibilities of many of the third party Twitter applications out there and see if any offered me features I was missing (like user avatars showing on instant message Tweets, for example – it’s impossible to keep all those Tweets straight sometimes).  Read more... (1068 words, 7 images, estimated 4:16 mins reading time)