Awhile ago I began deliberately working on my personal and professional social media strategy – and began doing readings, querying people, etc.  My goal? What was a good core social media strategy that wouldn't overtake one's life and let me pursue my personal and professional goals.

What I found actually surprised me a bit, and I'll share it here.

After examining various sources, getting Q&A answered among friends and on LinkedIn, and reading up on social media, I found three must-use social media tools for your personal and professional means (if they're not the same, like me), and a fourth, optional tool.  So without further ado (whatever ado is), here's the social media tools I've found you must be using.

FACEBOOK:
Facebook is pretty much unavoidable as, at least, an outpost for future work and social connectivity.  It's powerful, easy to use, constantly expanding – and it has name and brand recognition so people are going to it anyway.

Facebook however does require some ramp-up time and training time as it IS really powerful, which means you both want to use it properly and not do anything embarrassing (such as expose photos from that wild party to everyone).  I recommend taking some time to use it and play around with it, give yourself a few days.

ADDITIONAL SITES: You may also want to consider a presence on MySpace, Plaxo, and Orkut and/or other specialist networks depending on your goals.

LINKEDIN:
Yes, LinkedIn is a Fan To Pro crush object, but we're not alone in our love for the site.  LinkedIn is, if anything, more unavoidable than Facebook for the careerist because it does one thing – business networking – very well.  Everyone is using it, it does well, it's growing – so get to it.

One of the social media advantages with Linkedin is that, simply, its more singular focus means it's easier to use and forumlate a strategy for yourself.  It's business networking period, so once you know your networking goals, then you can leverage LinkedIn almost instinctively.

LinkedIn, despite it's specificity, can actually be a bigger time-consumer than some other social media.  It's precise focus means there's little fat here – so you can get right to joining groups, finding events, contacting old classmates, and answering and reading questions.  Time can vanish quite easily into LinkedIn – and yes, this is from direct experience and observation of others.

ADDITIONALS: Some people use Plaxo as well, but LinkedIn seems to be the way to go.  You may also want to consider a Relationship Management tool to use in parallel.

TWITTER:
Ah, Twitter.  It wasn't long ago that I recall Twitter being mocked (not that I was exactly enthused about it myself, beyond its simplicity).  However Twitter is also a case of "doing one thing really well" and now that everyone is using it and is aware of it, its value is pretty firmly set in the online social media space.

An important decision in Twitter is to decide just how you're going to use it because Twitter, being a simple tool, can be employed in many ways.  It can be totally personally, totally professional, or a mixture (which is what I do).  Get Twitter, but have or develop a Plan for it.

A lot of professionals I see using Twitter use it:
1) To broadcast status reguarly, such as once a day,of projects.
2) To note interesting industry news.
3) To broadcast company information (on, say, a corporate Twitter).

From what I can tell the best uses of Twitter for a professional are therefore:
1) Maintaining a constant presence online people can pay attention to.
2) Using it to monitor other people/groups/companies whose presence you want to know about, and perhaps even setting up the text alerts.

In my case, I use Twitter as a general tool of personal presence and to follow specific people and feeds.  Thus I don't discuss any intimately personal or silly things, but I also don't get distant and focus only on business.  I use it to maintain a personal "brand" presence – neither coldly professional nor intimately personal, but a way to get to know me and keep up with me.

ADDITIONALS: There is no real Twitter substitute that has such prominence and mindshare.

OPTIONAL AREA: The Personal web page
The personal web page is something that seems to come and go in prominence, but I'd say its something you can't ignore and should probably have for a few reasons:

1) It's a definite final address for people to go to.  In an age of having 40 different social media accounts, one reliable URL that you can take anywhere provides a solid point of contact.
2) You can get a custom email address for the domain, thus cementing your "brand" and making you less dependent on other providers.
3) You have complete control over how it works.
4) You can host other things there – such as a blog, a gallery, etc.
5) You can easily link to other forms of social media.

A personal page may not be for everyone – yet – but I strongly recommend it.  The value of having an established presence, even if it just points to your blog or Facebook profile is invaluable, and it gives you a foundation for future work.  Much like everything else of course, you need to decide on a strategy.

As a side note another thing I've seen is the Family Page – families get a domain for their last name or similar, subdivide it, and each family member gets a page, email, etc.  It may be a worthwhile alternative, but may be a bit too personal for some career focuses.

I hope this helped everyone out!  Let me know your social media strategies and findings.

- Steve