We are living in a time when it has never been easier to stay connected with people. Yet, we're so busy it feels like we've never been more disconnected.

With word of mouth marketing and referrals playing such a large role in the success of our Green Industry businesses, the name of the game is to stay top of mind with customers, prospects and others within our sphere of influence.

To do this, you need to invest time nurturing relationships with these key individuals.

You can start by connecting with your sphere of influence where they're already hanging out--in online social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

When you understand who is hanging out where, then you can determine where to spend your valuable time.

But, how do you know where your contacts are hanging out online? And which ones are most active?

Here are three ways to find your customers and other key contacts online:

Upload your contact list

Facebook and LinkedIn (not Twitter) allow you to upload a .csv or .txt file of your contacts list.

Whether you use Microsoft Outlook, Google Contacts or other CRM software, you should be able to export your list of contacts as a .csv file. You then upload this file to Facebook, for instance, which in turn will then present to you all of your contacts using Facebook.

Then, follow and connect with whomever you so choose.

Here's a short demonstration:

The Flowtown Super Secret Spy Machine

Flowtown is a very powerful service that will take your contacts list (as a .csv file like above) and automatically generate a detailed online profile for each contact.

Flowtown goes beyond Facebook and LinkedIn by including Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube and a host of other social media sites like Amazon.com and Pandora.

This screen capture shows the social networks that a few of my contacts are active in. Flowtown automatically generates this report.

It will also tell you where your contacts are spending a majority of their time.

This screen capture reveals that 20% of my contacts are on LinkedIn and 16% are on Facebook. This data helps determine where to spend your time online.

You cannot, however, follow or connect with your contacts from within Flowtown. You would have to do this manually.

Realtime connections with Rapportive

Rapportive is a Gmail add-on that displays a "social widget" within an email thread. This widget displays the social media profile and presence of the person you are communicating with.

This screen capture shows the Rapportive "social widget" within a Gmail thread.

Why is this so useful? Whenever someone emails you--a client, prospect, media contact, etc.--their online social networks are automatically displayed for you. Rapportive does all the searching for you in realtime. You can then immediately follow or connect with whomever you choose.

Within just one hour of adding this to my Gmail account, I was able to connect with four key contacts that I never knew were on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Rapportive is one more good reason to switch to Gmail.

I suggest searching for your contacts at least once every three months. Not all of your contacts participate in online social networks, but many will. And some will be much more active than others.

The name of the game is to stay connected to your sphere of influence online. Of course, you have to find them first. So, get in the game and start searching and interacting!