Best Ways for Brands to Utilize Social Media

Whether you think Brands should have a relationship with their consumers (and build Tribes) or you believe that Brands aren't in the business of 'making friends' (according to this New York Times article - the banner ads in social media sites just aren't working) you can't ignore them altogether.

Regardless of where you fall on the issue - the following list will give you a starter kit on where to go to make sure you are a part of the conversation.

RSS:

• Google - http://www.google.com    (be sure to set up a google alert to watch for mentions)
  
• PR Newswire RSS - www.prnewswire.com
• PR Newswire Widget - http://www.prnewswire.com/rss/rss_googlegadgetfaq.html 
• Yahoo - http://my.yahoo.com
• Netvibes - www.netvibes.com

Blog Search Engines:

• Technorati - www.technorati.com 
• Google Blog Search - http://blogsearch.google.com/?tab=wb&hl=en 
• BlogPulse - www.blogpulse.com 
• Ice Rocket - www.icerocket.com 

Microblogging

• Twitter- www.twitter.com (be sure to set up a twitter alert to watch for mentions of you)
• Jaiku - www.jaiku.com
• Pownce - www.pownce.com 

Web Analytics

• Quantcast - www.quantcast.com 
• Compete - www.compete.com 
• Alexa - www.alexa.com  

Social Bookmarking / Tagging:

• Delicious - http://del.icio.us 
• Digg: www.digg.com 
  
• Newsvine:  www.newsvine.com 
• StumbleUpon:  www.stumbleupon.com 

Tools for SEO:

• Google Trends:  www.google.com/trends 
• Google Insights for Search: http://www.google.com/insights/search 

Wikipedia - www.wikipedia.org - with user provided content, it is a good bet to double check entires for your company, products, and senior staff - just to be safe.