Want to be the best of the best? Well if you are ignoring all of the social networking that is being done out there you are missing out on a lot of big chances to expand your audience and bring in a few new customers, readers, or listeners – depending on the business you are in. Here are a few proven social networking tips I have either used myself or seen used by others.

1. Building Your Brand via the Social Networks

If you have a brand that people like, chances are they will want to be your friend on these various different social networks that are out there. There days there are more and more MySpace and Facebook profiles based around businesses, podcasts and important people on the Web.

2. Make Friends With People Like Yourself

Find like-minded people and friends and add them to your lists via the different social networks out there. This way you are building a little network of people who are just like you and probably will enjoy anything you write or post about. Don’t just go adding a million random people just for the sake of adding people. Find people who you think would interested in what you have to say.

3. Share Your Posts and Content Via the Social Networks

Use the message posting and sharing services they provide to your advantage. MySpace has the “Post a Bulletin” where you can pimp your goods. Facebook has the “Share a Link” function that does much of the same thing. Post teaser links (giving a little ‘bit of information) and a link to go back to your own Web site.

4. Use Widgets and Gadgets to Pimp Your Digital Goods

Take advantage of some of the RSS gadgets out there you can add to places like MySpace to spread the word about yourself. You could use FeedBurner’s headline animator or something like SpringWidgets – where you can put a flash powered RSS reader right on your profile.

5. Add a Player for your Podcast Promotion

Podcasters – there are a number of flash mp3 players you can use as well on MySpace and other social networks that let you plug in custom code. One of my most favorite ones is the one that Odeo produces. Check out my list of the five best podcast players to get a couple of more suggestions.

6. Watch the People Watching You With MyBlogLog

One of my favorite networks out there, MyBlogLog provides you with a little widget you can put on your Web site that shows other MyBlogLog members who are visiting your Web site. Not to be one to show the trap door in the hat that the rabbit is being pulled through – but this is a good trick to make yourself look more popular than you really might be.

7. Add a Link to your Forum Signature

Forums are those social networking tools before social networking had a name. Adding a few link to your signature (if allowed via the forum rules) is a good way to get some links coming back into your Web site too.

8. Add Your RSS Feed to Facebook

On Facebook you can plug your RSS feed right into your profile. Just edit your “Notes” section and include that they should be importing from your RSS feed of choice. Word of warning though, if you post like 20 messages a day you could be getting yourself into trouble. Might just want to include your “light” RSS feed here.

9. Stumble Yourself on StumbleUpon (and get others to stumble you too!)

Make sure you get your most popular content and Web sites listed on StumbleUpon in one way, shape of form. They will deliver you a boat load of traffic (if you content is good) and they also have a pretty cool advertising service as well.

10. Always Digg in Moderation

To digg or not to digg – is that really a question? Now I am not going to tell you to submit everything you do to Digg. Most people find that very annoying and it could get you blocked from the service. It is good to have an account there though so you can meet like-minded people and you can also watch (and interact if you must) when something of yours makes it to the top of the list there.

11. Include a URL on Your Profile Picture

Create a profile icon or picture for the services you sign up for that has your URL on it. This might sound like a cheap form of advertisements – but the more often you can get people to see that URL – the more likely they’ll give it a visit or at least have it stuck in the back of their head to use at a later time and date.

12. Add a Link Back to All of Your Various Projects

More likely than not, all of these services allow you to list at least one link back to your Web site or Web project – take advantage of that. Make sure you include your links and give them descriptions as well so that people know what they are clicking to.

13. Don’t Forget Your Subscription Links

When you include your link to your Web site on one of the social networks out there, also make sure that you list your RSS feed as well. You might put that little orange icon next to each link so people know how to subscribe to you content. You might also include the “Add to Google” or “Add to My Yahoo” type subscription buttons as well to make it easier for people look at your link to subscribe via their subscription method of choice.

14. Is Your Project Social Network Friendly?

Do you have something that others might want to share? Online comics like bLaugh are a good example of this. Right on the Web page, you are given an little “embed code” so that people can share your link on the Web via any social networking service.