We all know that relationships matter in business. So we work hard to stay top of mind with our clients, customers, colleagues, and prospects.

Advertising. E-mail marketing. Facebook pages (and hopefully conversations). Postcards and other direct mail. Quick @ tweets. The list goes on. And on.

One-on-one meetings are, of course, awesome. But they’re time-consuming, so we actually see people only sporadically. And that’s when they live in the same city or town.

Skype changes that.

My colleague Mary Deming Barber, who lives and works 3,400 miles away from me, and I have been having a back-and-forth conversation via Twitter direct messages (DM) and e-mail for some time now. But today when she DM’ed me, I suggested we have a quick chat on Skype.

Skype (with video) is almost as good as being in the same room. Minus the coffee (or beer) accompaniment. It’s more personal than a phone call, because you can see the person. So 5 minutes feels like 5 good minutes.

Are you using Skype in your business? And have you Skype’d someone today?

Photo by re-ality (Flickr).