Wikipedia: Wikipedia.org is an online en-cyclopedia anyone can contribute to. If you decide to contribute, remain neutral and cite your sources. There are more than 10 million articles in 250 languages, with 2.5 million articles in English.

Facebook: The most popular online social networking site, Facebook.com is often viewed as a personal medium, but it might be right for your company to create a fan page to communicate with a target audience. Facebook allows users to update status, build a profile, add friends, join groups or fan pages, upload pictures and share events.

MySpace: An older networking site similar to Facebook, MySpace.com is significantly declining in popularity and has a heavy band and artist audience.

Linkedin.coM: LinkedIn is a professional networking site where you can build your resume, add connections, join groups and contribute to conversations. Also be sure to go to the answers section, contribute and be seen as an expert.

bLogS: In its simplest form a blog (short for “weblog”) is an online journal; today, there are blogs on every topic imaginable. Blogs are a way of building a community, so tell a story, invite comments and share expertise. Keep in mind that more than 65% of visitors will be unique as they might search for something specific and find your blog.

TWiTTer: Twitter is a microblog in which users answer the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. Create a profile, share your URL and a brief bio, customize your page, then sign up to follow other people’s “tweets.” A way to find people who are talking about what you like is to go to search.twitter.com and type in a topic. Keep in mind that twitter is a community: contribute to conversations, answer questions and respond to other tweets (“retweet”) often.

TechnoraTi: Technorati is one of the many sources for bloggers to find content. It also measures how many bloggers have blogged a story, so it is a great monitoring tool.

digg: Digg.com is a social bookmarking tool based on the concept that users decide what is the most important content, rather than those who are producing it. Users will mark (or Digg) stories that they like—the more Diggs a story has, the further up on the home page it appears.

FLickr: Flickr.com is one of the most popular photo-sharing sites on the Internet. It is a great way for reporters or editors to find pictures by both amateur and professional photographers. Make your photos easier to find by adding keyword-specific tags to each one.

youTube: YouTube.com is a video-sharing site where users can watch and comment on videos uploaded by other users. You can also embed a YouTube video on your website or share the link.

podcaSTS: Similar to radio shows, pod-casts are downloadable to your computer and can be transferred to your iPod. Some companies use podcasts to share interviews or Q&A sessions with employees.

reaL SiMpLe SyndicaTion (rSS): RSS feeds are used to share content that is updated regularly or changes frequently, such as the CNN News Feed. RSS feeds are aggregated into RSS readers (such as Google Reader) to display updates from multiple sites in one place.

Search engine opTiMizaTion (Seo): Appearing at the top of search-engine listings in your area of expertise is paramount, as most people do a search and click only on the first couple of links that are returned. SEO is a series of techniques applied to a web site to boost its position in search-engine rankings. Many specialized firms provide this service to companies.

online Social Media outlets your guide to

rSS

podcaSTS

googLe adWordS: AdWords allows you to pay for a desirable placement within the search results, although your company will appear as a sponsored link.

googLe aLerTS: A great monitoring tool for topics you are interested in, Google Alerts allows you to insert keywords, and the search engine will automatically send you an e-mail when it finds new content containing those words.

WikiS: Used mostly to communicate internally and often password-protected, Wikis are simi-lar to a company intranet, in which users can share and update content without having to e-mail. The most popular wiki is PBWiki.com, which is free and extremely user-friendly.

ning: Still in the early stages of development, Ning allows users to create targeted social networks. Ning has grown by 4 million users in the last year and currently has 6.5 million users, according to Compete.com.

pLaxo: Plaxo is an online address book that lets you move contacts, calendar data and other things out your computer’s e-mail program and onto globally accessible platforms such as Google, AIM and Yahoo. Plaxo is also a social networking service similar to Facebook.

MoniToring: With online social media efforts underway, you’ll want to measure your effectiveness. There are many services, such as PR Newswire, Vocus, Cision and Radian6, that provide online social media monitoring to fit your needs. These services range from $500 to $1,000 each month, and allow you to monitor what is being said online about you firm.