Everyone knows about the major social networking accounts: Facebook, Myspace and now the surge of Twitter. People often choose one of these 3 top sites because it has the most users or their friends are already there.

However, these social networks are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other social networks, some more geographically based and some interest based. So how many are enough? Which ones should you make sure you’re using.

The open ocean of social networks is vast. CNET recently annouced that the ‘build-your-own-social networking site’ Ning, now boasts 22 million registered users and one million different social networks within the site. The social rating and networking site Digg continues to grow with close to 10 million unique visitors per month. And the social bookmarking site StumbleUpon has 7.5 million registered users.

These numbers don’t even account for the many smaller social networking sites that are popular in Europe and Asia and the niche sites that are interest-based — LinkedIn for the business crowd, fuzzster for petlovers, Model Mayhem for models and photographers,  TikiCentral for lovers of Polynesian Pop and so on. All these sites, though different in their approach, are social in nature. So which ones should you use? All of them? Just one of them?

Before answering these questions, it’s important first to ask what is your goal with social networking. Business? School? Marketing? Networking?

If you’re using social networking just to keep up with friends and family, then you’re best sticking with Facebook. Facebook now features 200 million users, which means there’s a much higher likelihood that your friends and family are going to be on Facebook, compared to other sites.

However, if you’re looking to connect with a specific demographic, then you should find out which social networking sites they use. This could mean attaching yourself to one of Facebook’s Fan pages or you may need to seek out a niche site as mentioned above. Ask yourself this question: Where do my people congregate online?

This doesn’t mean you should sign up for 10 social networking sites! Social networking takes time and effort. Unless they have a dedicated Social Media Manager, most small businesses or individual ventures don’t have time to keep up with this many sites. You’ll be spread too thin and will never really become a member of any site.

Therefore, stick to a limited number of sites. Two to three social networking sites is a pretty safe number. This keeps you from being spread too thin — although you’ll still probably find yourself ‘playing favorites’ and devoting more of your time to one of them.

How many social networking accounts do you have? Is it more than 10? Should there be a standard number?

(Via Tutorial Blog.)