As social media becomes more prevalent in society, high tech businesses and professionals are increasingly seeing the value in online social media for networking, marketing, or employment opportunities. It is true that certain aspects of online networking can degenerate into a virtual room of vulturous vendors, but most social networks can be administered and controlled to meet the professional standards of any high tech business.

Social networks, such as LinkedIn (B2B), Facebook (quickly evolving into a B2B and B2C), and Twitter (B2C and B2B) allow your firm to have an online social profile or presence with its customer and fan base. These connections are individuals connecting your business in new ways – some are current or former employees and others are just customers and fans. Build your brand’s friend or fan base with content feeds or great press coverage, and grow your brand’s value through monitoring and participating in online social networks. Social media like LinkedIn and Twitter can allow you to leverage personal and professional networking connections.

Do you need to lead a social media charge for your business? Here are five steps you can take to start a social media presence for you and your company:

1. Company LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter Page

The first step is to create a company profile on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), Facebook (www.facebook.com), and Twitter (www.twitter.com). These are currently the most essential networks with the most value for brand building and potential impressions. It is critical to complete the profile set-up and fill out all the areas of information you can. There is nothing that says “disengaged” more than an incomplete profile.

1. Customer-Focused Employee Participation

Any of your company’s employees that are customer-focused or customer-facing should be on LinkedIn and Facebook, and properly participating. To clarify, that means employees who visually state employment on their profile need to be active, engaged, and posting content that meets your professional standards. Employees are ambassadors of your brand and can influence, both positively and negative, the company’s brand image.

1. Profile Pictures

Nearly one-third of all LinkedIn profiles don’t have a profile picture. Any company profile or employee profile on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter needs to have a picture, and not just so people can see your pretty eyes. Social media has already gone through a few cycles of scams, and the lack of a profile picture is a red flag that a scam may be hiding behind a friend or LinkedIn request. If you don’t feel comfortable using your own photo, use your company logo or picture of something professionally relevant to your position.

1. Compounding Content

Press releases, news, white papers, and any other content your company has should be aggregated on your company website and via online services, such as Delicious (www.delicious.com), Digg (www.digg.com), Reddit (www.reddit.com), and StumbleUpon (www.stumbleupon.com).

1. Content Distribution

Use Twitter (or TweetDeck), LinkedIn, and Facebook to distribute all your content. This includes blog posts, white papers, press releases, or other relevant news. Closely monitor how people are responding to your content – e.g. direct messages, retweets, or replies on Twitter, and sharing on Facebook and LinkedIn. Edit any inappropriate responses to your content, or respond back in a timely fashion to questions, concerns, or praises for the value you are providing. Actively engaging with your social media audience is one of the fastest ways to turning clients and customers into raving fans of your business.

That is a straightforward way to implement social media into your company’s marketing mix. Think of social media as a new and innovative tool for your company’s continual improvement plan – just like any new tool you might adopt to building your business. Social media might feel like a fad, but it is truly a trend that is shaping how we use the Internet in the future. A future your business wants to be relevant in.

For more than ten years, the high tech PR firm MediaFirst has been combining creativity and engineering to deliver great strategy, positioning, writing, and guidance for technology firms in their respective niches. If you want to expand your audience, generate leads, attract investors, and solidify your success, select MediaFirst for your next high tech PR campaign.

Ethan Luke. High tech pr - MediaFirst is a high-tech, public relations and marketing services firm with unique abilities that best publicize and promote the business of your technology.