I don’t know about you, but networking has probably been the single most important factor in sustaining and growing my business. That and referrals.

So last month I decided to get my act into gear and join Total Networking (new window), a thriving monthly networking group based in Grantham.

I’d known about this group, and indeed attended years ago, but never got round to joining. Well, I put that right last month and took advantage of their “on the night” offer of deducting the night’s meeting fees from the annual fee, so it only cost me £40 and not £60.

BTW, non-member meeting fees are £20 and member meeting fees only £15. For that you get a delicious two-course meal followed by coffee. A meeting sponsor’s presentation and a longer guest-speaker presentation.

But for me the best bit is being able to find out about and talk to other local business people in a non-sales environment. Everyone’s relaxed, enjoying the meal, talking about their businesses, and how they can help their clients/customers.

I find it very educational but in a relaxed and informative way, which is really why I’m writing about it now. Because last night it so happened I got talking to David Lankester, a Health and Safety expert, and before we sat down for the meal we got into a discussion about how blogging could help a business develop new markets and increase the client base.

David then brought it up at our table and, along with Liselle Barnsley of Tailored Marketing solutions (new window), we discussed and elaborated on the subject of blogging.

But because we all participated in a non-sales environment a sales pitch was avoided and everyone seemed to enjoy the conversation. And afterwards three people asked if taught about the subject. The answer of course is yes, for a fee. :)

Next month who knows what we’ll end up talking about, but one thing I know is it’ll almost certainly be educational and informative. And that’s why I keep going back to the good networking events.

Today, Microsoft’s MySpace has upgraded it’s video facilities to compete against Google’s YouTube, and you can find the site at www.myspacetv.com.

It is reported that…

“MySpace TV will be an independent site and will not require a user to have a MySpace ID. There will be integration between MySpace and MySpace TV, enabling MySpace users to display their videos easily within their profiles.”

But that’s not my experience. I was redirected to Myspace to sign up for an account. I’ve done so and will investigate further.

My reasons for doing so are because I’ve already been exploring the possibilities of video podcasting. By that I mean using a blog to distribute video material to potentially interested visitors to my website.

Of course, in my case this gives me the ability to introduce this relatively new medium to any of my clients who see the marketing potential of using video on their own websites. So expect to see a video podcast of me presenting a short “Blogging For business” seminar in the not too distant future here in this blog.

Once this is up and running a group of business associates are looking to put together a series of training workshops on marketing and pr, which will equip businesses with the knowledge to use the latest web tools such as video and audio podcasting alongside blogs to better promote their businesses on the web.

One of the major obstacles to video blogging has been storage and bandwidth issues, but I am now at the stage where these problems can be solved. In other words we have a workable solution.

Already audio podcasts are having many beneficial effects for the producers and users/potential clients, and video podcasts are fast becoming a reality for medium/small businesses to use in their marketing mix, too.

I have a lot of respect for Gerry McGovern. An expert on Web content and the customer centric philosophy.

So when, quite a few months ago, he claimed blogs were not important and had very little to offer companies I was quite surprised. I kept my own counsel, but continued to suggest to my clients that they could write newsletters with links to their blogs so that customers could get the full story and leave comments. This is the foundation of what blogging is all about - feedback, dialogue, relationship building.

Imagine my surprise then when Gerry started his own blog on 07 March. And not only that, he’s putting links from his newsletter, New Thinking (which I’ve been subscribed to since July 2005) to his new blog. But whatever he may have said in the past when it comes to blogs he now thinks… ‘Blogging is indeed about more and better conversations with your customers. It’s about getting and keeping in touch.’ Nice one Gerry.