Social networking can be a useful tool when boosting your company’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Grab social media names for your company. Simply fill out the profile for your company. You don’t have to be an active member to sign up. Do this for all of the major social networking sites: Twitter, Digg, Facebook, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, and Reddit.

• If you can, add your company’s website link to your social media page. Great linking opportunity!

• It’s also a great idea to ask your site’s visitors to link to or follow your social media pages. While it doesn’t necessarily boost your SEO, it gets your customers interacting with your company.

• Create a blog for your company. Link to your site from your blog—another linking opportunity. Blogs provide an opportunity to update content regularly, archive links, and readers boost your ranking with SEO.

Social media is viewed by many as a time-waster. But some companies are realizing its capacity to bring new viewers to their sites and to share quick, important bits of information with loyal customers. Used correctly, social media can also boost your status with the all-powerful search-engines that we are always trying to impress.