Your first step in becoming a social media guru is to start branding yourself. Start by checking all major social networks to see if your brand is available. If you are want to be a social media guru for hire then brand yourself and if you are doing it for a company then brand for them. Make sure similar user names are available then sing up even if you are not planning on using a specific network right now. That way when you are ready to use it you will have a familiar name available. Don't believe me look at nissan.com, you would think that that belongs to the car company...wrong. They did not think in advance.
One you have all of the names in use then start creating icons for your profile. If you are doing it as a person then use a picture of yourself because people will be more likely to follow a person. Do not start any social media activity with the default or empty Icons.If you are a company then brand yourself with your profile pics. Use a large image and size it to the different aspects needed. If you can afford it have a graphic designer get creative with them incorporating it with your logo. Anybody familiar with after effects should be able to achieve greatness with your design.
Here are some images I used for Movie Hive as examples:
Icon for Social Media Sites
Cover image for social sites, modified for each site.
Branding Should be chosen well and at the very start and heart of your social media campaign.
http://www.laptopbagsandcases.com/ Chose a tree frog as their character to represent them and it has received a lot of attention even though their social media campaign just started. In this video you can see the many uses of the frog:
