When someone asks you who your friends are, do you respond with the names of the people closest to you or do you immediately think of those who are in your online social network? Increasingly, we each have a wide circle of “friends” that we turn to for support in different areas of our lives. And as this becomes more important to each of us, we are seeking out new ways to better communicate with people situated on all of the rungs of our social networking ladder. VoIP is a leader in these new online communication methods.

VoIP allows us to make calls through our computers which offers significant benefits when it comes to social networking. Many of us have friends around the globe that we stay in touch with primarily through online networks. We can enhance those relationships by using VoIP to have voice conversations that don’t require us to pay long-distance and international calling fees. At the same time, VoIP can allow us to take budding online relationships and improve them.

This is seen in the personal realm when VoIP offers people on online dating sites the option to speak with each other through the Internet without exchanging personal phone number information. The most extensive example of this is seen in the recent partnership between VoIP provider Jangl and online dating site PlentyOfFish; however, many other dating sites are starting to take the cue and offering similar services.

A similar type of communication benefit can be seen in business when online companies seal deals with new customers by moving a conversation from email to the phone. Jangl is a leading VoIP provider in this service as well but it is also offered by other VoIP companies including eStara, IfByPhone and Tring Me. Their customers can download a “click to call me” widget and place it on their website or online networking profiles. Customers can then place a call to them easily in order to ask questions about products and to purchase services. These customer might not make that call if it weren’t made so easy by the VoIP system.

By adding voice back to the online conversations that we’re having, we’re bringing computer conversations full circle and really starting to communicate with those people that we’re getting to know online. As both social networking and VoIP start to go mobile, facilitating phone conversations with our online friends will become even easier.