I have been attending lots of events recently for marketing people who are interested in how social media strategy can help them achieve their B2B marketing objectives. They have been popular and have had great turnouts, but I still think social media is a cult, esoteric concept to most marketing people. There is still a long way to go to get past cynicism and internal 'poo-pooing' to the idea that social media is about more than Facebook! When I meet marketing folk at these dos they normally tell me that they want to learn more but they still seem tentative about how they can incorporate social media into their strategy. And if they feel like this can you imagine what their colleagues internally think! These keen but still unsure marketing people have often got a battle on their hands to get budget and backing to invest in this new area.

What people need is some simple and practical entry points (baby steps!) into this unchartered and exciting territory. Here's what I suggest:

1. Start using Twitter yourself first to get the hang of it before you set up your company on there(follow us if you like!). Have a play and see what it's all about - it's the only way to understand it. Don't worry about what to say, just say whatever pops into your head! You need to talk to have a conversation so just say something!

2. Start listening to what is going on out there in your target community. See what people are talking about on the specialist sites, what groups exist on social networking groups, what people are saying on blogs and forums. Have a weekly call internally to formalise this activitiy and task each person with the job of bringing at least one thing of interest to the table.

3. After the call, start brainstroming the type of things you might blog about, using the stuff you've come across as inspiration. Subjects should be of interest to your audience (obviously!), and be written by someone who cares about what they are writing about - this is key.

Once you've done these three things, you will be much more prepared to enter this arena, instead of getting stuck straight into it and feeling unsure about what lays ahead.

Let us know how you get on... Good luck!