By Don Reisinger

The web is filled with social networks: We have Twitter for meeting new people, Facebook for old college buddies, and Bebo for those of us who don’t want to hang out with the mainstream. Those social networks are rarely viewed as corporate services — they’re relaxing at the end of a long workday, not playgrounds for more business activity. But I would argue that social networks provide value to a business person on several levels, whether it be for those furiously working each day in a cubicle or for others closing big deals on the golf course.

Social networks can help make you a smarter business person, and there’s a lot of corporate value to be found in them. (Did you know that Dell has made over $6 million from Twitter alone?) It’s time to exploit them for your business, and here’s how:

1. Get involved. The only way to use social networks to improve business is to join some sites. LinkedIn is a good start, but you’ll need to do much more if you plan to make your social life profitable. Social networks require participation. If you don’t get involved, you’ll never find value in the social web.

2. There’s more than LinkedIn. There’s little debating that LinkedIn is ideal for those who want to network with other professionals. But Twitter, Facebook and the rest also provide real value to a business person. In many cases, they allow you to find folks you might have otherwise missed offline. They also provide you with a “cheat sheet” of information, like interests and education, that could help you close a deal. For example, I recently got in touch with a local professional who needed some basic tech services. I used Facebook to get to know him and what his interests were. When we finally had a chance to meet, I referenced his love of the New York Yankees and some films we both enjoy to get the conversation started, which may have helped me close the deal.

3. It’s networking, but online. One of the first rules you learn in any business school is to network. It’s not always what you know, it’s who you know. Social-networking sites are ideal for those who want to network. You can use them to get back in touch with old friends, get to know colleagues, or network with other local professionals trying to do the same. You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to get to know clients when you’re introduced by a mutual acquaintance.

4. Don’t underestimate Twitter’s value. It might not seem like the best choice for a business person at first glance, but after further inspection, you might find that Twitter is a fine networking platform. It’s filled with active members who want to get to know others, and there are far more professionals than you think. And thanks to several third-party Twitter tools, like WeFollow, it shouldn’t take long to find folks in your area you want to target. WeFollow lets you find people based on categories. So if you want to find entrepreneurs, you can. If you want to find marketing professionals in New York, you can do that, too.

Dell, for one, has shown just how important Twitter can be to a company’s bottom line by offering sales through its Twitter feed, listening to what customers are looking for, and telling those followers about available coupons. In the meantime, besides the $6.5 million it’s pulled in from using the site, it’s attracted a whopping 1.5 million followers looking for deals.

5. Join the conversation. Once you join social networks and you know who you want to target, start talking. Get to know what they discuss and join that discussion. Social networking is not about being shy; it’s about being willing to open up in an online world that has stayed anonymous for far too long. That means you’ll need to talk about your interests and topics that others in your social network are engaged in.