1. Find a service that can update your statuses across services.

Finding a service that lets you sync or link all of your various networking services together. HelloTxt is a great service that connects most of the major social sites and provides a mobile website as well when you are on the go!

2. Learn to update all at once and one time a day maximum.

This goes for email too, but pick a time of the day to allow yourself some social networking time. Set an alarm if you need to and say “when the clock strikes 2PM I am done!” This will eliminate the distraction of getting sucked in for hours just checking who did what in Mafia on Facebook (I hate Facebook Apps by the way)

3. Pick one service to be your “home base” and from there feed out.

If you spend more time on MySpace make that the one that you do most of your work on, and connect people through your site to this “home social base”. Having a central location for things can also help when we talk about the last step intergration. Mine is Facebook…MySpace is just too cluttered for me

4. Mention other people often and linkbacks. Retweets are your friend!

Linking is a huge part of social networking. When you retweet some random company’s post they notice. It is a free chance for you name and profile to pop up on someone else’s radar. This is also true about making comments on blog posts. This not only puts your name and website address on someone else’s site it can help to boost your Search Engine rankings. This also rings true to following others. Make sure you keep up-to-date with what other people are saying about your business or your industry in general.

5. Integration is the KEY!

If you use a blog to syndicate content and keep people updated on your business then you have one of the greatest tools to save you time. If you are using WordPress there are countless plugins that allow you to connect your blog directly to your various social networks, I am a fan of Twitter Tools and Wordbook myself. You can also add services like ShareThis to your site to allow your users to post your content to their social networks. Make sure to use your website to also alert people to the various places you network. Don’t be afraid to be bold and say “I DON’T USE MYSPACE! DON’T MESSAGE ME!!”  Just make sure to tell them that you are plugged in and show them all the ways they can find you!