UPDATED! See the “Resources” page for more on social networking!

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, flickr… if you haven’t heard of any of those, you’ve been living under a rock. Welcome to 2009.

Social networking is a way to get your name, and your business’ name, out into the world. More than free advertising, if you spend just a few minutes a day networking, it gives potential customers a look at who you are. Like the “good old days” when the butcher would gab at his customers about their families and town business, but with a wider audience. People like to know who they are buying from or getting services from, but in the days of Made in China and Wal-Mart, it’s not a common occurrence to know anything real about the company or people who run it. Social networking websites let you give a real face to your business, and customers will respond.

It’s best if you have a website where you can link your networking profiles to and from, but even if you don’t, they will help bring people, and sales, in.

Where to start?
First, a valid email address. You’ll have activation emails to attend to, and potential customers who may contact you, so use an email when networking that you check often (and can rely on to deliver your email, I’m seeing many people with crappy ISP emails that never see any mail in their inbox).

Start with just a couple websites. Everyone is on Facebook. Chances are, when you sign up, you’ll be shown a list of people in your email contact list who are already there. You can also search for people by name or email address. Twitter about happenings with yourself and your business. Just made a batch of product, updated your blog, opened your store, are running a sale? Tell people about it! Once you’re comfortable with those, add on LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.

Make sure all your profiles contain a link to your website and/or blog, and link your website back to your profiles. In previous posts about SEO(1)(2)(3), I mentioned link backs – the links to your site from Facebook, LinkedIn, all of them, count as link backs! It will help your rankings.

If you have a blog, update it regularly so people finding your site have current news to look at – it makes your site, and your business, look more “cared for”.

A word of caution, stay professional unless you know the people you’re talking with online. The potential to get a bad name online is high and one bad review can come up high in search results for your business.