The hype over online social networks is exploding. You hear the names flung around like tchotchkies at a trade show: MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Technorati, Del.icio.us, and so on. Whether you’re fully involved or still trying to figure out where your brand might fit, social media is driving a dramatic shift in the way marketers communicate their brand message.

The media buzz about social networking typically focuses on the technology. These social media applications act as a vehicle to power the consumers’ desire to be heard—to be part of the conversation. It’s easy for marketers to focus on all the shiny new blogs, podcasts, viral video, wikis, and other tools. But what fuels the consumers’ rapid adoption of social media is their personal passion and the sense of empowerment that those tools provide.

Consumers want to be part of a community, to share, to participate. In fact, they are out there now, talking about your brand and your company. What are they saying? Is it positive or negative? What are they also saying about your competitors? What are your competitors doing to ingratiate the online community?

To find the answers you need go where your industry’s conversations are taking place. You need to find out where your consumers going and determine how you can join the conversation on their terms. Leverage social media to create better ways to communicate with them, provide relevant content and tools for the good of the community. To gain trust you must respond to feedback quickly and sincerely.

So where do you begin this new media journey? On your own doorstep, of course. Evaluate where you are, then start with small steps and work your way up. Some areas to consider:

1. Company Web Site. Re-think your corporate web site. Transform it from a flat marketing department collection of products, press releases and company history into a Web 2.0 “architecture of participation.” Stop thinking Web site and starting thinking Web Services. Develop innovative web applications and widgets. Develop ways to enable collaboration and sharing. Allow user generated content such as forums, discussion groups, photo and video sharing, and user reviews. Don’t let the fear of a negative comment stifle the potential positive benefits you will receive. When you receive negative feedback you can deal with it swiftly and honestly, which builds trust within the rest of the community. In fact, handled correctly, you can turn a dissatisfied consumer into a brand evangelist.

2. Portable Content. Create portable content such as podcasts, downloadable video and Flash presentations. Let the user interact with your content when and where they want: desktop, laptop or mobile phone. The future in portable content is embeddable content, which are small snippets of content embedded on another web site. As more sites make content embeddable, the Web will become decentralized. Then traffic will be something that happens elsewhere, not just on your site.

3. Blogs & Social News. Read your industry’s blogs and post comments to them frequently. Ask the experts questions or offer your opinion. In addition to positioning you or your company as market leader, your comments can lead traffic back to your site or blog. Join social news sites like digg, Reddit or Yelp. Social news sites allow users to vote on the importance of the content, so popular content rises to the front page, less popular content gets buried. If you don’t already have a blog start one. Start small at first and blog internally. Once you’ve developed your niche and you’re blogging on a regular basis, invite key suppliers or clients to review your blog to provide feedback. Then, open the doors to your contacts and begin promoting it to your social network.

4. Social Networks. Leverage your company’s Web presence by joining social and business networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and possibly even MySpace. Facebook, in May 2007, launched the Facebook platform, providing developers the opportunity to create their own applications. Thousand of applications have been developed for Facebook users since then. Individuals develop some and others are commercially sponsored. The most talked about commercial sponsor is TripAdvisor who recently spent $3 million on the “Where I’ve Been Application.” Facebook also allows the commercial sponsorship of user groups. The sponsored group program at Facebook lets branks buy a link from the Facebook sign-in landing page to a group page that contains ad copy and a message board. The key to a successful foray into social networks is to engage the user on a personal level and to provide them with something of value. Brands such as Apple, EA Games, Fox News, Macy’s, Microsoft, and Toyota have sponsored Facebook groups. Another option worth consideration: Create your own social network at KickApps or Ning. These services give you total control over your own social network and provide applications, widgets and blogs similar to the big social sites. Numerous packaged goods brands have created small social networks as a central core to their offline advertising campaigns.

5. Bookmarking/Taggin. Tagging is the practice and method of collaborative categorization using freely-chosen keywords called tags. On the social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us or the social tagging sites like Flickr, users define what keywords most appropriately describe the content. The most popular terms float to the top of the features and often uses share their links with their contacts. Other features have emerged such as user ratings, user comments, the ability to import and export, add notes, reviews, email links, automatic notification, feed subscription, and the creation of social groups. There are not many marketing opportunities on these sites but targeted, subtle promotions have emerged. Flickr has a Camera Finder with information on the major brands.

6. Micromedia. Learn more about micromedia, also referred to as nanoblogging. Services such as Twitter, Pownce and Jaiki provide a platform for users to update their status (answering the question what are you doing now?) in short mini-blog posts for friends and associates to keep up with each other’s activities and whereabouts. Companies are using nanoblogging to announce new products or send consumer alerts. Bloggers announce new blog posts or podcasts. Nanobloggers have been recognized as a valuable breaking news source. I received information within seconds of the recent San Francisco power outage and saw messages from the scene of the Minneapolis bridge collapse minutes after it happened. In fact, the Los Angeles Fire Department has opened up a Twitter channel to send or receive information as it happens.

7. Online Video. There’s no question that video is a very effective communications tool. So it’s understandable that the popularity of Web video has exploded as entertainment on sites like YouTube, Google Video, Revver, eyespot and blip.tv. There have been very few commercial viral video successes and marketers are still experimenting to learn the best way to leverage the video sharing platforms. However with the right strategy it can be done. Dupont recently launched a successful series titled ‘DuPont Science Stories’ on the popular web video sites. They promoted them in science blogs and other targeted web sites. The results exceeded expectations. There are still other opportunities for web video outside the corporate Web site. HomeDepot.com TV provides customers with product demos, how-to videos and promotions for installation services. Expo.TV offers consumer generated Videopinions on almost every product imaginable.

This is not a comprehensive list, but it’s a good introduction. The online world continues to evolve at rapid pace. But for now, you’re ready to beginning turning your customers into brand evangelists. So be proactive, start the conversation and actively solicit your consumers’ thoughts and contributions.