The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives hosted a very informative conference today on the Business Applications of Social Networking. FWE&E aligned the conference with the launch of their own online community, a great example of a real world implementation of a social network (I know, gasp!)

Other than that, there was a slew of pertinent information for businesses struggling to execute a useful and manageable social media strategy from a list of speakers that included Ross Mayfield of SocialText (Eastwick is a SocialText customer), Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester and Gina Bianchini of Ning. Here’s the gist:

• Social networking is still about people Realize the needs of your target audience then decide a strategy that makes sense for their needs
• Start small You may want to have four billion people in your network, but begin with a core group and build from there
• It takes work Social networks do grow organically, but you still need someone to push it along with stimulating conversation, compelling content, radical ideas, etc., etc.
  
• Be patient If you are implementing a useful network and have the motivation chances are it will succeed, just not overnight
• There is no one answer Use the other networks out there to your advantage, collaborate and “cross-pollinate”
• Sometimes, there is no answer As Gina Bianchini put it today “Social networking isn’t for everyone” and that’s OK. If it doesn’t make sense for your business, don’t push it.

Update: I just realized that my colleague Stuart Froman also blogged about this event earlier today (thanks for beating me to the punch Stu!) Check it out here, he’s a much better writer than I am.

Forrester, FWE&E, Gina Bianchini, Jeremiah Owyang, Ning, Ross Mayfield, social media, SocialText