Here is a transcript of the audio and video posts on YoutTube and here at The Social Media Bible web site of my Five P’s Of Social Media Implementation.  I hope it is helpful!

Hello, my name is Lon Safko, co-author of The Social Media Bible, published by John Wiley & Sons, the most comprehensive book ever written on the subject of social media.

And today I will be speaking about the Five P’s of Social Media Implementation.  Everybody asks, “Okay, now that I’m getting a better idea of what social media is, “How do I actually apply it?”  Well, these five P’s actually are Profiles, Propagate, Produce, Participate, and Progress.

The first one we’ll talk about is Profiles.  There are basically two categories within Profiles.  Profiles are Lon Safko in LinkedIn, in FaceBook, in MySpace, in Flickr.  And the importance of filling out your profile, right now, is to make sure that you lock in your name under that profile before someone else gets it and precludes you from doing that for the rest of you life.

Also, we’re finding cyber squatters… people who are going out and just taking people’s names and then trying to sell them later.

The second part of the profile is Groups… The Social Media Bible, social media.  So if you’ve got a particular subject matter that you can think that you’re going to participate in, make sure you get that group so that you can have some control over it and, again, before someone else takes the group name and precludes you from ever being able to use it.

The second “P” is Propagate.  That means that after you created your accounts, your Flickr accounts, your pod bean, your YouTube account, propagate those accounts.  And what I mean by that is, “Look, you’ve got photographs, you’ve got company photographs, you’ve got product photographs, service photographs.  You’ve got customer photographs, you’ve got video.”  Get out there and get all of your stuff, collect it all and actually get it up on these websites.  And this is because if you’re not in the game, you cannot win.  You’ve got to be able to participate by propagating these sites.

The third one is Produce.  If you don’t have a lot of content, or if you just want to add new content…create it, produce it!  It’s not that hard.  Your computer, more than likely, has a built in microphone and sound editing software, so to create a podcast like I’m doing right here, essentially is 100% free.  There is no associated cost.  Just sit down, get familiarized with it, practice it a few times, and start talking about it.  And the most important thing that I have to tell you if you’re going to produce video or audio, or even text in a blog format…is “What’s in it for me?”

For the same reasons that you clicked on this, you want to know about implementation.  There’s a strong, “What’s in it for me”… WII-FM…message.  Your take away is that you are going to, just by giving me a few minutes of your time, going to understand how to actually begin to implement social media.

So make sure that when you’re creating your video…you’re creating your audio, you’re writing your blog… that there’s going to be a strong, “What’s in it for me – message” for your customers…a reason for them to actually watch, listen, or look at your particular content.

The forth “P” is Participate.  Participate means that you need to get out and actually participate in other people’s content in their blogs.  Begin commenting, but don’t just jump in and comment.  After talking with Robert Scoble and Chris Heuer from The Social Media Club…one of the things that kept coming out in all these interviews at www.TheSocialMediabible.com was that you can’t just jump into the conversation.  You need to listen.  You need to understand.  You need to participate.

And I liken it to going to a party.  You walk into a party and there’s little groups around the room that are talking and having a conversation.  And for you to walk up to that group and just say, “Hi, my name is Lon, and I sell this and that,” and interrupt everybody is completely inappropriate.  You walk up to the group, you listen to the conversation, you wait to you have something of value to add.  And you simply add that value by commenting on a blog, on a video, or even on photographs.

So participate first, and again, if you’re not participating you’re not in the game and you cannot win.

And the fifth “P” is Progress.  The old saying goes, “You cannot manage what you don’t measure,” so be sure you manage your progress.  And what does that mean?  How many views has your video gotten on YouTube?  How many downloads were there of your podcast?  How many views of your Flickr photographs?  How many comments are coming in on your blogs?  How many Google Alerts, where other people are linking to your website?

These are ways that you can manage your progress, but you have to measure it in order to manage it.  And it’s really simple to get out there, and almost all of these tools are absolutely free; like Google Alerts is really valuable!  Please, go do that.  And of course, what Albert Einstein once defined as “insanity” was doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results….that’s really true.  So when you get out there and you’re looking at your progress, and which videos are being viewed the most, and which blogs are being linked to the most, it’s got to kind of give you an idea of what your customers, what your prospects, what your followers are most interested in.

So it’s really simple.  The videos that aren’t getting any views…well, stop it.  The ones that are…well simply do more of those.  The same thing goes for your blog.

That’s all I have time for right now.  Stay in touch.  Come over to this Social Media Website where I’ll give you more of these types of insightful tips.

And so again, really, thank you.  So get out there.  I want you to complete your profiles, create your groups…there’s your first “P.”  Propagate your account with good content, produce good meaningful “What’s in it for me-content,” whether it’s just a simple photograph or built-in audio file, like this one, or a video…go get a video camera.

Participate is #4.  Participate in the conversation.  Comment on people’s blogs and, of course, measure your progress…for the fifth “P.”

This has been Lon Safko, the co-author of The Social Media Bible.  Be sure to check out our other valuable social media tactics, tools, and strategies that can be found in The Social Media Bible book and its companion website, www.TheSocialMediaBible.com.

For more information about me, Lon Safko, by all means visit my website at www.LonSafko.com.

And thank you for listening [reading]….

Lon Safko