Some banks – Fortune 500’s mind you – are embracing the world of social networking to finally gain insight into the financial needs of small business owners.

Banks like Bank of America, Capital One, and Visa, Inc are barrowing a page from Facebook to really get at the heart of their small business customers.

B of A – a leader in the banking world of social networking – launched its Small Business Online Community web site in October ‘07.

There’s no advertising – no user fee – just a good old fashion forum on all things small business finance. Kudos to B of A for not trying to generate revenue here.

While business owners won’t find a “status update” feature, the site does give them a place to get tips and feedback from their counterparts.

Some of the more popular topics include: how to start a home-based business, how to convert online traffic to sales, and how to develop successful marketing plans.

The other guys are using their social networks a bit differently.

Instead of just one site, Capitol One has created a network of sites as a way to reach more small business owners online.

Visa, Inc has even gone so far as to set up a Facebook business network. And get this – as part of the effort, Visa promised to give away $2M of Facebook advertising to small-business owners. 

I checked the Visa Business Network this morning. It has nearly 23,000 active monthly members – no telling, though, which of them won the $2M in advertising.

It seems to me some of these banks may be grasping at straws here.

You would have thought they had this small business insight already –  right?

Banks – I offer you this one piece of advice:

Loosen up the purse strings and start lending again.  Small business owners – and the economy – will thank you for it later.

Things won’t turn around overnight, and it seems small businesses have caught on to the notion: When the going gets tough – the tough get networking.

I’m not just talking about social networks – I’m talking all networks : Blogs, forums, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

They’re all being used by small businesses to their fullest advantage and  - for some – business couldn’t be better.

Case in point:

The Charlotte Observer recently featured the story of specialty food maker Donya Schweizer.

When Donya had trouble getting her line of gourmet foods off the ground she turned to blogging and social networking.  A quick WordPress setup and her blog was up and running in a day. She then used the power of Facebook and Twitter to kick start a word-of-mouth campaign. 1,300 Twitter followers later, Donya can’t get her chocolate-infused meat rubs out the door fast enough.

Wait.

Chocolate-infused meat rubs?

I digress.

Bottom line –  Web 2.0 platforms have reached a social tipping point. They’ve transformed the way we communicate and how small businesses operate.

In fact, corporate spending on Web 2.0 software – including blogs, social networks, mashups, podcasts, RSS, widgets and wikis – is expected to climb by a whopping 43% annually.

The networking revolution is here and any business that does not take full advantage of it is – well – not doing good business.