My thanks go to Graham Jones, Internet Psychologist, for the inspiration for this blog. I heard Graham speak at a Ladies and Gentlemen That Lunch networking meeting earlier this year, when he shared with us his five step plan for social media, which looks something like this.

1. Plan ? have a strategy, decide exactly what you want to achieve, set targets and goals. For instance, do you want to use social media to find new contacts, or build your reputation?  Are you using it primarily to keep abreast of industry news, or to share your advice with other people? How many contacts do you want to connect with?
2. Blog ? adding content should be your primary activity and the more the better. At the time of writing this blog, we?re posting on it twice a week. We?ll be going back up to three posts each week in the New Year. If you?re just starting out with a blog, aim to post once a week and build up from there.
3. Integrate ? connect your blog to every social media outlet important to your market, but especially Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Each time we publish a post on this blog, a tweet goes out automatically; we keep tweeting that tweet until another blog is posted. Our blogs also go onto our Facebook page.
4. Monitor ? constantly be aware of your readership and what they are doing with your content. We use Tweet Deck to see who is talking about us on Twitter and who is retweeting us. Tools like Google Alerts will also tell you who is talking about you.
5. Respond ? reply to the engagement you receive and use that to help develop your future plans. Reply to direct messages through Twitter and get into conversations with your followers ? it can lead to work and ideas for new products and services. Respond to comments on your blog, LinkedIn and Facebook for the same reasons.

Many people start using social media without really thinking about where they?re going with it. That?s a bit like starting out on a journey without actually knowing where you?re going. Without a destination to head to, you?ll just end up driving round and round in circles, wasting your time. Follow Graham?s five step plan and you?ll save yourself lots of time and effort, while making the most of this active marketing tool.

You can read more of Graham?s words of wisdom at www.GrahamJones.co.uk.