My head is ready to burst from all the conversations I was excited to be a part of today at the BlogHer Business conference in NYC. For those of you not familiar with this conference, BlogHer Business is a wonderful event focused on social media but geared toward women. I know many of my clients are women business owners who sell to women and my reason for attending this amazing event was to listen to other women businesses discuss their success with the social media world.

Anyone who knows me, knows I speak often about considering new media as an important component to your web marketing strategy, and today's conference further proves my point. You need to ask yourself, "Is my customer active in social media?" More often than not the answer is yes. But if you're not involved in this world, the power of social media is easy to dismiss. One of the panelists had a great comment, she said (this is not an exact quote,) "When I wanted to use social media for HP I need to have a social media lobotomy." I think that maybe that is what we need to do as small business owners. We need to erase everything we think we know about this world and throw out our preconceived notions about what social media is. (Look for a discussion on what exactly social media is in the coming weeks!)

I heard so many different case studies today but the one theme that seemed to be common across all of them is that large or small, businesses need to understand that the old rules aren't cutting it in 2008. Consumers and business owners are not buying because you sell to them anymore. You need to connect with your clients and potential consumers and build a personal relationship without face to face contact. Social media, whether it be podcasting, blogging or using social tools to connect, allows you to make that personal connection via technology. People, specifically women want to feel that you're building a relationship with them. One speaker said it best, customer's don't want a "one night stand, they want to know you're committed to being in a relationship."

So let's start with this question: How are you building relationships with your customers? (Leave us your comments. )