Looking for ways to get on the social networking bandwagon? Here are our top six tips:

• Start a Facebook Group (and MySpace page). Keep it updated with authentic, not antiseptic “insider” information about your company.

• Have someone at your company Twitter. I can’t overstate the prevalence of Twitter at SXSWi. It was mentioned in every session I attended. Have them tell about tradeshows, seeing new styles, plans, etc. (Interested in trying it? Feel free to follow me, teambuilder99.)

• Have someone (or people) at your company contribute to a company blog. Again, authentic and customer-centric, not antiseptic. At Dell, the head of PR and Micheal Dell himself are involved in the Dell blog. (Google loves constantly updated content, and therefore has a particular love of blogs.)

• Have places for your customers to communicate with you on your website. Forums are still viable (and are also loved by Google).

• Make social strategy the responsibility of every employee. Involve everyone in the company in some way, maybe not blogging but monitoring, getting customer feedback, etc. Everyone at Wright Strategies contributes to our blog.

• Start small, grow fast. Increase your risk tolerance. The groundswell is fairly forgiving, and not getting involved just makes you look trite. Remember – your customers are talking about you, and it will hurt you if you’re not part of the conversation.

Do you have an idea not included here? Include a comment, and we’ll address in a future post.