• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, August 28, 2007 10:32 AM

The press, still flush with love for Facebook, has declared that social networking is the Next Big Thing for business, too. Thousands of business professionals now use Facebook for business; targeted professional groups are sprouting up, too. But it's not just Web professionals online.

Doctors are congregating at sites like Sermo.com to share information about their various specialties, which in some instances can even lead to diagnoses. INMobile.org is a new social network for the wireless industry. LinkedIn, of course, is the granddaddy of professional networking, although it's used more for growing contact lists and for job recruitment than actual social networking.

The new breed of professional social networks are more Facebook-like, with profile pages, professional credentials, personal blogs/diaries, "friends" lists, IM chat and invitations to real or online events. The movement away from Facebook toward something more local and intimate is inevitable, especially for younger generations, which don't want to mix social life with business. Earlier this month, Nieslen/NetRatings parent VNU launched NielsenConnect, a social networking service for media industry professionals. And, next month, MediaPost will start connecting its users through a social network as one of many offerings for its thousands of media community members.

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