Instead of focusing all of your marketing efforts on big, established social networks like Facebook -- that attract scores of people you aren't targeting and will likely never target -- consider building your own social network for your customers, prospects or partners. A small community of interested people is better for your business than a large community of interesting people.

Ning is a platform that allows any group or person to create their own niche online social network. I'm experimenting with Ning now, and so far I'm impressed. You can set up your own social network framework in minutes for free -- with many of the same social engagement bells and whistles you'd expect. For a small monthly fee, you can use your own domain and get additional features.

The company, which was founded by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, recently raised $15 million in new funding. They have close to 30 million registered users and they claim to be growing at a rate of nearly 4,000 new networks each day.