Connecting socially with clients and colleagues is a technique most sales reps mastered long ago. Now, business analysts say, this is a skill that must be translated to an online, digital world.

Joel Warady, a marketing guru and principal of the Joel Warady Group, Evanston, Ill., says social networking isn't going away any time soon. He explains it as a social structure made of individuals and organizations tied together by one or more relationships—visions, ideas, financial exchange, trade or even airline route. Urging printers to get their businesses on board with the trend, he cites that more than 1.4 billion people are online. The numbers are surprising, he says—two million emails and one million instant messages are sent each second.

"The internet is just a bunch of people talking to each other," he says, reassuring printers. It's not high hurdle, but it's a conversation that smart sellers need to join. "And your customers may not be going through your website to get your information—they're going on Facebook." Social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, PrintJunkie and Yelp are social networking sites growing in popularity.

"Don't ignore one [site] over the other," he urges. "You can't just do one anymore; you have to do them all." By setting up a profile for a business, today's print buyers, many of whom turn to social networking sites, can find you through new ways. Regular customers may not find you online, Warady warned, but exploring new avenues of self-promotion are likely to yield new clients.

Steve Lance and Paul Kurnit, partners at PS Insights, New York City, named social networking as one of the most important items in their "50 Trends in 50 Minutes" presentation. With more than 400 websites dedicated to social networking, however, we may begin to see some burnout and eventual backlash against the trend. The communications tool will normalize and become part of regular contact with friends and associates, they predict.

Some printers questioned the value of becoming involved with social networking and were worried it would become a time and resource drain. Warady reassured them that the strategy creates more prospects while leaving your traditional customer relationship intact. He stressed the importance of paying attention to both trends in the printing industry and the larger business community, as they have a trickle-down effect.

Donna Lewis, director of Hendricks Business Solutions, Salisbury, N.C., said the "50 Trends in 50 Minutes" education session gave her some broad ideas to take back to her small distributorship. The session touched upon the ability of smaller companies to help larger ones save money—an idea Lewis says her business can exploit. "We can serve bigger companies and let them know what we can do for them. Every one of those 50 trends could be used," she added.