This is a question I am often asked and it is always referenced with ‘there are lots of people with different ideas’, ah how I remember the old days in the beginning of Search Engine Marketing – the answer – it is all very logical my dear Watson.

It begins with you have to be in it to win it! So this means you need to create a blog, there are two types of blogs as of writing, a blog like this (blog stems from weblog and blogging means to blog) – blogging has been around a few years now, so this is a fairly safe bet that you should do this as millions of people already have.

There are whole courses around blogging, some of which I have written.  We have a good number of blogging sites now and they all work very well – so you are reading from someone who has been there and done it – I think this is an important distinction and something you should look for when choosing someone to work with.

Now I have an admission to make, I have not posted anything for over a month – I have just had a new son, and have been doing the rounds with the in-laws, Christening etc – all good fun – but the big benefit to you is I have spent my time writing and have come up with three books, the first is registered as SearchTopTips and by its nature, it includes more detail on Social Marketing – just thought I would give you a heads up, that the book is coming… the book is coming… the book is coming…

So the first type of blog is a blog, the second type of blog is a micro blog – of which Twitter is one – open one of those as well.

Then go to Ning.com and create a private ning for your company – this is where you and all your team can post handy information about your business in private if you wish or in public – just be careful about what you say – nothing too personal or derogotory please – unless you want to get picked up by the press and potentially sued…

The next thing is Podcasting and Videocasting (sometimes called vodcasting). Now I have appeared on Podcasts and always been reluctant to do one. The reason is that I had never worked out a plan and was afraid that my production values and quality of content would be too low! Oh how I am so wrong, and yet, like you have not missed out on this phenomenon – so in this case I have not ‘done’ what I am recommending – there is always an exception to the rule. But I have appeared on one and I am a member of the british podcasting society… However I have done about 300 videos, now those I know how to do – and I have to admit I have only, after 300 of them, just worked out how to make them work… So this is why you should work with someone who has ‘done that, been there’ I am pretty sure that what I have learnt with Vodcasting will work on Podcasting – I know, I know. I still have to do that before you can hire me to help with that.

Now, I am skipping over the whole culture change thing here, although it is an absolutely vital point, I think if you go down the route of opening accounts and setting up blogs and nings and things then you will learn more and more about what to do as there are so many guides out there already – but it is covered in my book…

Moving quickly on, you next need to consider how to harness all your assets as these are the biggest things, your blog content – and I would take the route of focussing the blog and micro blog on your business – so the kind of assets we are looking for include: proposals, powerpoints, your website, direct mail that you have written, sales presentations, emails, testimonials – all your paraphenalia that already exists and then think about how you can acquire more and repurpose what you have, i.e. there is more than one way to tell the same story and if it is worth telling, tell it again… Again this really is covered in my book…

Next, once your site is built, your blog is running and your micro blogging accounts are open you start using them to build a foundation, to anounce and engage with the market place, to build your reputation and expertise, by sharing with others. The big danger here is that you must not give away the crown Jewels, you have to hold back something as this is how you make your living, but also you have to educate and demonstrate that you have the knowledge and the capability to help -as we most definitely do…

So lets look more at how you promote – well there are sites out there – Social Bookmarking sites – where you open accounts and book mark your best posts – like http://www.stumbleupon.com (now shown on Google Search Results Pages (SERPS!)). The there the crowd sourced News Aggregators – Mixx.com for instance, again open an account and you can add news releases, book reviews, or events – always read the user guidelines as if you overtly promote and ‘behave badly’ you could create a negative effect!

Now, with all that lovely content that you have produced, news, articles, videos and ahem, podcasts, you can find specific media type sites that are dedicated to distributing that kind of content – flickr for photos – youtube for videos… You set up an account and upload…

Ok, next up is the Social Media Networks… Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace… you need to open an account, set up a space for you and create a further page – for your business, in these you then upload essential content to build an initial content foundation – remember what we said about re-using your content – in these cases you will probably want to start with your foundation content and modify to suit each environment. You will see that Facebook and Linkedin offer the ability to integrate your blogs and in some cases your flickr account… You can just keep on going with this.

There is more! We are getting advanced now… Here it is: Swikis, Wikis and virtual worlds… A Wicki is a open website that allows others to modify the content – you need some experience for this and you need to keep this moving. Virtual Worlds are tougher to understand and you just need to get into these before you start committing to your marketing plan… Check this out: http://www.virtualworldsreview.com. A Swicki http://www.eurekster.com: is a custom social search portal on the topic of your choice powered by your community… With every search, vote and click, your Swicki generates more relevant results and turns into a valuable asset for you and your community. ooh!

Ok now we are in to mass marketing and simultaneous events such as webcasts and teleseminars… this is where social media tends to move on from the web and integrate with the outside world, but is still very integrated. This is extremely advanced now and this assumes that you really have all your assets and business in place – this is where you communicate live on a call or over the web – but it does extend further and for this you really need a plan – this is where sales joins up the marketing activities.

On this, here is the beginnings of a plan – just visit http://www.gotomeeting.com and and arrange a one to one, or a few to a few meetings and you can get familiar with the way it works and start to deliver some short term success and comfort with the process. The big plan revolves around the building of your sales funnel and building a sales funnel is detailed in my book Successtoptips. It will also be the subject of my next post – when I get back from Finland and have recovered from Skiing (badly).

One word of warning – do not abuse – do not spam – I have experienced first hand the power of all these ‘assets’ (I have been on the receiving end of podcasts!) and they are so valuable that they are just not worth abusing. Open each account in your own name and keep it real!

There is more to come, more you can do, even though this page is packed full of top tips and links, there is more that twitter to microblogging and each of the other subject areas has many players all of which are looking to be fed with your content!

I almost forgot, widgets, badges and RSS feeds -  these will help you market your content assets and are the subject of several other posts. I hope you like the way I have tried to bring it all together and I would love to hear of your success and your comments!