The latest special report from The Economist (disclosure client) called A world of connections examines the potential of social networking in business. It’s a 14-page guide that you could share with anyone that is yet to be convinced of developing their business via networked connections.

The report predicts a positive outlook for social networks in business in a series of articles that examine the potential of social networks to generate income  and support business functions such as marketing, recruitment and research.

Fears such as productivity-drain and privacy are also tackled head-on in articles on each topic.

The Economist argues that “social networks are more robust than their critics think, though not every site will prosper and that social-networking technologies are [already] generating considerable benefits for businesses”.

Small businesses have been the fastest to profit from networks according The Economist mainly as a word-of-mouth extension of an existing marketing effort.

As well as a basic guide to social networks for business, The Economist special report contains much for advocates.

It predicts the development of Facebook Connect’s model where profiles are transferable from network-to-network and between different network-based web applications.

Twitter according to a quote from its founder Biz Stone will become an information company but The Economist says its challenge is “transforming […] raw data points into profit.”

Finally there’s a powerful prediction that we may no even have begun to see the potential of networks. The special report predicts a future that will see a powerful mash-up of machine, location and social network to deliver applications that we haven’t even begun to consider.