1.) Start small: You have to start somewhere. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the social profiles. The best ones to get your feet wet are Linkedin, FaceBook and Myspace. Upload your logo, write a company description and other information relevant to your business.

2.) Knock yourself out: Have fun personalizing your page! You get to say whatever you want about yourself and your business. Who better to talk about you…than you?

3.) Invite friends: Each website has services to easily find people you already know with a profile. If they don’t have a profile you  can invite them to create their own. They might benefit from a little social marketing as well.

4.) Join groups: Find out where your audience chats, hangs out or looks for information. By joining  the conversation you can peak your audiences interest or just get your name out there. Groups can have hundreds or thousands of members.

5.) Updates: Daily, weekly, monthly; this is really about how much you put into it. And with anything worthwhile this isn’t an automatic source of income. Spend a little time everyday to update your status, search for people you know and for people you’d like to know.

You have the opportunity to put positive information on the web about your company through social sites, discussion forums and blogs. This information is not necessarily posed as selling. Ask some of the people at your next meeting or conference where they spend their time online. Use a RegOnline survey. If you give your customers good information, then they will come back and read more and remember you. Maybe even bookmark your site. And in the web world, that’s a great compliment.