One of the most valuable educational tools for professionals is right at your fingertips but it is rarely used for these reasons. Business to business types of sales or networking with other professionals in your line of work is simple and easy using social media sites including Twitter, Google+ and a range of other options.

The key is to follow people that can provide you with insight and information and not just try to market their service and products non-stop.

There are three important reasons why you need to consider following specific companies and their staff, even if you may not be currently in need of their services.

This is because these professionals are going to provide you with little nuggets of knowledge that you can use in your own business marketing and management strategies. 

1. Information in Manageable Amounts

Twitter is a true gem and allows you to access, in 140 characters or less, important points about online marketing, website development and growing your online presence. You can follow Twitter by conversations, by people or by brand.

You can choose to follow strictly as an observer, but even more important, you can jump in and shape the conversation. Engaging with professionals both in our company and other followers is a great way to learn more and gain insight into very specific marketing tools and techniques.

2. Developing a Personal Relationship

Having the ability to develop a personal relationship with a company or a professional in a company is one way to build trust and confidence in a brand, product or service. For example, on local GooglePlus pages you can provide information about your company with some amazing posts that will cover topics such as online reputation management and social media trends along with tips on how to manage your paid search ads. All this information is free, you just need to visit local Google+ pages and spend some time browsing around.

Once you read the blogs and join in the comments, you will start to develop a relationship with writers and other professionals, which we think is a great idea.

3. Getting Information Fast

What we have found is that clients, followers and fans need to have information readily available. They don’t want to search through endless blog posts, articles and white papers; they want to use social media to get the concise information they need. 

Take or advice and tap into having the advantage of the wealth of information found on social media sites to build your own online presence. It is relevant, timely and delivered right to you whenever you want it.