Network marketing is going through an important transformation and a big part of that transformation is tied to the social aspects of the internet. This used to be an industry that depended on the size of your address book and cultivating the relationships of friends and family. Today the internet lets us reach out to a much wider audience to find the people who are a good fit for the industry.

Cold Calling: The Bane of Network Marketing
There are a lot of people that are still told to buy leads and spend several hours on the phone calling them. Network marketers who successfully make the transition to doing business online see this as a complete waste, as there are much more effective and less painful ways to work.
New network marketers approach this process with fear and unease. For the veterans it's a bane of existence and seen as a necessary evil. They haven't begun to master network marketing on the internet and so this is the only tool they have in their playbook. There are definitely better tools and techniques available.

The initial development: Pay-per-click advertising
The first route many marketers make when moving their offline business online is to advertise with the pay-per-click (PPC) services like Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search, and MSN AdCenter. Those who click on the ads may be brought to an online business presentation or, better yet, offered a report, service or other product in exchange for a name and email address. This allows the marketer to follow up by email and spend more time with people who actively want to know more.
This leads into...

Follow-up: Automated, personal, or other?
While autoresponder messages can take you a certain down the road to building a relationship with the people on your list, it's really on part of the puzzle. Typically a marketer will load up the autoresponder software with a series of 10, 20, 30 or more messages set to go out over time and then just leave it at that.
The shortcoming of this is that people are familiar with the idea of automated messages, so if the messages are generic enough to be set up three months in advance, then it's probably not reflecting what's going on in your daily progress, changes and refinement.
The point of the messages is to share something of value about you, your business, and how you are developing it. If the messages are stale, the audience loses interest. To help with that, use the "broadcast" feature of the autoresponder software to send out real-time updates on business events, life changes, or something new just learned.
This keeps the messages fresh and relevant. A great way to provide this content is through...

A Blog!
Blogs are a key piece of building your online presence. They are perfect for sharing thoughts on business, society, interests... all things that make a person an individual. This is where the social aspect of network marketing on the internet really comes into play. By giving of yourself, you show that you are an able leader and have the compassion and insight necessary for coaching a group to success.
By placing an opt-in form on the blog you can have people sign up to receive your updates by email or they can subscribe through your RSS feed.

A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to The Forum...
Online forums existed before the buzz phrase "Web 2.0" came about, and even existed as "bulletin boards" before forum technology as we know it now came about. There are often people on forums who are new the network marketing industry, so this becomes a great place to help someone else get started and show professionalism by *not* trying to recruit them into your business.
It's a great way to find like minded people and maybe even start a collaboration. Approach these groups as if you were their house guest. Think of it as being a guest in someone's home. You wouldn't walk in, first thing, and say, "your carpet looks worn - have I got a carpet deal for you!" So don't go into a forum for the sole purpose of trying to get traffic. Be a part of the community and the rewards will come naturally.

So learn to use the internet's social capacities, but do it responsibly. Like anything, these tools can be abused and it can turn out worse than wasting all that time and money cold calling.

About the Author
TheCompleteMarketer.com blog makes network marketing on the internet fun! Roger Hutchison runs the site (http://www.TheCompleteMarketer.com ) and encourages discussion and questions. Post your question and get notified by email when it's answered on the site!