It used to be that a rolodex was your most important asset as a business professional. And that’s still the case, but now it’s called your “social graph.” This collection of our online connections to our colleagues, friends and business partners is changing how we communicate and the ways in which we consume and produce information. Don’t believe it? Look no further than Google — recently released Real-time and Social Search indicates the significance online networking will play in every Web professional’s business moving forward. Social media, or media developed by those within your social sphere, has changed not only how we interact with friends and colleagues, but also how businesses market themselves and, in some cases, operate entirely. That’s forcing many to change how they think and act on the World Wide Web.

A recent study by Business.com found that webinars, podcasts, user ratings and reviews, and corporate profiles on social networks were the most popular social media resources used by professionals to gain information. Facebook was the most popular social networking site for business owners; with 83 percent of business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations maintaining one or more profiles on Facebook (only 45 percent do so on Twitter). Business-tobusiness (B2B) companies, on the other hand, have profiles on both sites in more or less equal proportion — 77 percent on Facebook and 73 percent on Twitter.

So what does all this mean to you? Social media is not simply a fleeting curiosity. Participants using social media in their day-to-day jobs visit company or brand profiles on social sites 62 percent of the time and 55 percent of them search for business information on the social sites. It must be understood then, that using available resources across the social media landscape will serve you well.

What you might find most interesting in Website Magazine’s Top 50 list of social media outlets is the variety of resources. While Facebook tops the list and Twitter secures a respectable fourth spot in the rankings, there are many other notable resources (e.g. LinkedIn at #7 or FriendFeed at #32) that might offer your Internet-based enterprise an advantage in gaining greater brand exposure and website traffic. The tools that help Web professionals facilitate this socializing have also generated some attention. Ping.fm (#41), Tweet- Deck (#48) and even ClipMarks.com (#33) might fly under the radar, but remain an essential part of many professionals’ day-to-day use on the Web.

ABOUT THIS RANKED DATA: Website Magazine’sTop 50 rankings are a measure of a website’s popularity. Ranks are calculating using a proprietary method that focuses on average daily unique visitors and page views over a specified period of time as reported by multiple data sources. The website with the highest combination of factors is ranked in the first position. Conducting research, making formal comparisons, and talking to existing clients and users before making purchasing decisions is always recommended.