I am not being sarcastic when I say that the first step in getting social on the web… is getting on the web. Before you can create engagement and interaction you have to create a virtual presence for yourself. Claim your virtual real estate!

Keep in mind that having internet real estate doesn’t necessarily mean you live there! In other words, just because you are listed on Blip.fm… doesn’t mean that you know what it really is, or even use it. The more places you are listed – the easier it will be for people to find you (even if you are kind of faking it .

So where should you and/or your business be listed?

1. The most popular social networking sites

✓ Facebook
✓ Twitter
✓ LinkedIn

2. Online Phone Books: 76% of people say they don’t use print phone books anymore. But what about the internet? The more places you are listed, the easier it will be for people to find you through Google or other search engines.

✓ Google Business
✓ YellowPages.com
✓ Switchboard.com
✓ Yelp.com
✓ Twellow
✓ eComplements.com

3. A website and/or blog: Websites are more effective if they are more than online business cards. What do I mean? Websites should be living things – able to interact with visitors, draw visitors back and offer them value. And of course they need to offer easy to find contact and service information. And, FYI, free services are less likely to be found in search engines.

✓ Interactive
✓ Informative
✓ Valuable
✓ Marketable
✓ Search Engine Optimized

4. Up and Coming Social Media Tools: Foresquare.com, for example, is all the buzz. If you know anything about social media, you should be on Foresquare… right? MYTH. Using any and all social media tools can dilute your efforts! As a general rule, LIST yourself on all social media tools, even the small ones, but don’t waste your time trying to make rain out of an empty cup.

Here are some sites that have either been around a while, or are new, that you should be listed on and keep your ears open for:

✓ Foresquare.com
✓ FriendFeed
✓ Bolt.com
✓ Friendster
✓ hi5
✓ Google Buzz

5. Media-Specific Social Sharing Sites: Depending on your industry and your target market, there are some other sites that may be useful to you. You can share video, photos and music! Keep in mind that you can list yourself in these places without being active, which is better than nothing.

✓ YouTube
✓ Blip.fm
✓ Flickr
✓ Myspace

6. Other Social News or Bookmarking Sites: People share more than media files… they also like to share information. The following sites are places where people share links to websites, news and their blogs:

✓ Technorati
✓ StumbleUpon
✓ Delicious

7. Niche-Specific Social Networks: Ning.com for example allows people to create their own social networking sites (like mini Facebooks) for niche-specific topics. So presidential historian Doug Wead has a Ning network for students of history, and there are networks for Women Who Love Cigars, and Working Moms… you get the point!

✓ Ning.com