We’re pleased to announce the launch of the Online Business Networking Weblog. We’ve been running articles on our site since March, but the new blog format will give us the opportunity to provide more commentary, tips, and success stories from the rapidly growing realm of online social networking.

Now, there are already a lot of other weblogs out there about social software — what makes this one different? The #1 difference is that our focus is on the point of view of the business practitioner… “How do I as a salesman, entrepreneur, business development executive, job seeker, free agent, etc., best leverage these new technologies to advance my career and grow my business?”

All posts are open for comment, and we’ll be blogrolling and tracking pingbacks soon, so we invite you to share your thoughts, either here or on your own blog, as we collectively explore the benefits and best practices of online business networking.

Many thanks to Matt Mullenweg and the rest of the WordPress developers for their support and a great platform.

Scott Allen was among the networking experts asked by top networking e-zine Network Moves to provide their predictions regarding business networking trends for 2004. There seems to be universal agreement that in face-to-face networking, a variety of new formats, such as Speed Networking, NetStorming, et al., are going to continue to grow as an alternative to traditional cocktail parties and the “everyone-give-your-30-second-elevator-speech-followed-by-a-speaker” format.

But the opinions on online social networking were widely varied, from skeptical to evangelical. See what the experts had to say.