Have you ever wondered what social networking sites you should be on? There are a few main ones that you must be on - MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. You may also want to join the social networking sites that are specific to your industry. Of course you are already on Active Rain.

The first thing to do before setting up a social network is to sit down and write a profile - one common profile that you will use on all your social networking sites. Your profile should show people who you are and why you are competent to do what you do. You want to add your personality to this profile, too. Many of the sites have places for you to list your interests, so that's a good place to start adding personality.

So how much of "you" should you add? That's a good question. Since you plan on doing business with some of your contacts, then try to stay on the professional side. When in doubt, look at other people's profiles and see what they do. Don't outright copy someone, though.

Then choose one photo that you will be common to all the sites. To brand your social networking sites to your website, gather together your header, your logo, and your main website color codes to be used to customize your site.

Now that you have so many social networking profiles out there, what's the point of having a website? Think of yourself as a rock star. You round up your band and your costumes and put them in the tour bus. You visit many cities gathering a following. That's your social networking. Each site is a city where you gather fans. Some of your fans may become groupies and follow you around to other sites. Unlike rock stars, you should reciprocate and add them or follow them also.

But you can't fit everything you own into your tour bus. You can't fit all your products, all your services, plus all your price lists. You may fit a few testimonials, but not all. You get the picture. What you need is a home base, a place where these things all fit. That's your website or your blog site. On the social networking sites you are going to leave links so when your fans want to know more about you, they will click on the link to your website or your blog. That's where they will find out everything they need to know.