David Teten and I just debuted our first monthly column for Fast Company, entitled Crossing the Social Networking Chasm, about how this technology is moving into the mainstream. In the article, we look at some of the objections people are raising about social networking sites and re-assess “realistic” expectations of them.

Business networking sites are not living up to the expectations of many people. They don’t effectively represent electronically the complexities of interpersonal relationships. They create awkward social situations that don’t exist face to face — such as how to deal with an explicit request to be someone’s friend, something most of us haven’t had to deal with since third grade. And they don’t prevent spam.

But the fact that they’re not yet living up to their potential shouldn’t blind us from the real immediate benefits to be gained.

We then look at five key benefits of online social networks that you can realize immediately:

1. Searchable directory
2. High visibility at low cost
3. Receptive audience
4. Easy group-forming
5. Get visibility into the networks of your connections

So many of the objections I hear to online networking sites have to do with them not being a good mirror of in-person relationships. Basically, so what? There’s a value judgment implicit in that which says that in-person relationships are, essentially, “perfect”, and that it’s a zero-sum game, i.e., any other kind of relationhips must be inferior. Why can’t we simply say that online relationships, and the tools and communities in which we create and maintain them, are fundamentally different in some ways, and simply take them on their own merits, rather than in comparison to in-person relationships?