I just spent several days traveling with my family. On this trip we didn't have too much music for my little girls in the car, but I've certainly had my fair share over the last few years. Maybe this guy's got the right idea when he combines music that all kids know with the tunes of songs the parents will probably like.

Back in January I posted my prediction that the possible economic recession would be good for new media marketing. At the time the recession was only talked about in theory. Today, we're more aware of it and may even be feeling it a bit. I heard recently that the economy my remain in this state for another twelve to eighteen months, and I contend that this is still a good opportunity for the expansion of social media marketing (and social media marketers.) Here's the original post from January in its entirety. I think it fits today just as much as it did then. (Note: some of the links in the post below go to my old blog.)

There's lots of news today about a possible recession. The Federal Reserve made the biggest rate cut in 24 years today to head a recession off at the pass but the stock market isn't really responding well so far. While a recession (or even the hint of one) will increase fears in many traditional sectors of media and marketing, I think new media marketers will benefit from this and here's why....

• Blogs don't cost anything to start.
• Online video is free. So is creating your own video channel on YouTube.
• Creating a Facebook group doesn't cost anything.
• Recording a podcast costs next to nothing.
• A basic Flickr account to engage your customers is free.
• Twitter doesn't charge to message the people most interested in what you are doing.
• AdWords only cost you something when someone clicks your ad (and you determine the cost per click.)

There will still be marketing in a recessed economy. There will still be marketers spending money in a recessed economy, even if there's not as much of it. What marketers will be paying for, however, is not the use of the technology, the air time to broadcast its message, or the placement for ads. What they'll pay for is help to use the new media well. When faced with decreased marketing budgets, new media will emerge as the cheaper option because companies will pay consultants (i.e. digital coaches) a few thousand dollars to teach them how to fish the new way. This may be the tipping point for new media marketing as marketers and advertisers give it a shot out of financial necessity rather than being convinced that it's the right thing to do. Whatever the case, a recession is going to be good news for new media marketing. It's bad news for traditional advertising and marketing, but Google was already telling us that.

I've played Guitar Hero a few times with my friend Chris and it's really a lot of fun. When I saw this video I was impressed at many levels. The creativity, planning, and execution of this is simply impressive. If you like Guitar Hero, you're going to like this. If you've never seen Guitar Hero, this isn't going to make any sense to you...in which case here's a different guitar video you may enjoy instead.

In the most recent episode of The New Mediology, Nathan and I discussed RSS. RSS isn't the sexiest thing to talk about in social media, but it's really important to know why (and how) RSS changes everything for content creators. Think about it like this: it used to be important for people to come to your website to see what you had to say. You tracked page views and unique visits because that was your gauge for success. Now, with RSS you can allow people to stay current with you content but they never need to visit your blog or website again. They can aggregate your content with all the other content they're interested in.

For some content creators, RSS is a welcome technology because it increases the number of people who can be exposed to your content and decide for themselves that it's worth their time again. For others, RSS seems like trouble because it threatens all of the control that once existed over the distribution of content. In this episode, we covered what RSS is and why it's really important to understand and fully utilize for anyone who creates content.

In David Meerman Scott's book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, there is a section about the words and phrases marketers have overused and therefore invalidated from any impact they might have once had. He refers to these words as "gobbledygook" and even wrote a whole manifesto on the topic.

Words and phrases that lack meaning are the enemy of good blogging. They undermine any impact you hope to make and erode any trust you hope to build. They're empty, meaningless, useless, and sometimes just downright misleading. Instead of using these words, try something that actually says what you mean. Even better, say something you can absolutely validate.

In the list below, I've pulled several examples of gobbledygook from David Meerman Scott's book with a few of my own personal favorites (or non-favorites as the case may be.) Starting today, don't ever use these words or phrases again:

• Synergy
• Best practice
• Revolutionary
• Leading
• Unsurpassed
• Cutting-edge
• Best in class
• Unparalleled
• Out-of-the-box thinking
• Industry-standard
• Since 1964 (or whenever it was the business started as if that matters)

Consumers know these words usually don't mean anything but good marketers still use them like they make the copy more official when they're present. The good news is that the tone and style of social media has really changed the voice of professional communication. Whereas the kind of words listed above used to pass for professional, it now sounds like the empty, meaningless stuff it was all along.

I still have to stop myself sometimes from using a few of these, but I'm trying to remove them from my professional vocabulary. Maybe if I do I'll really be an out-of-the-box, cutting-edge, revolutionary consultant with all of these best practices and bags full of synergy. Now that would be unparalleled!

About a year ago I started working with Jeff Mims, the owner of Mossy Creek Custom. Jeff is a gunsmith who was launching his business in the Nashville area. I encouraged him to start blogging as the primary means of promoting his business because, like many people starting their own businesses, he had very little money to put into marketing and promotion. I spent some time with Jeff so he would have the best perspective to make blogging work for him. He then went and set up a free Wordpress blog and got busy blogging.

A year later Mossy Creek Custom is getting business from across the country and Jeff's blog posts are found much higher in Google search results than gunsmiths who have been around for decades.

I interviewed Jeff last week in his shop because his business seems like one of the least likely candidates for blogging as a marketing strategy, but you'll hear in the interview below that it's certainly paying off. The point here is that if good blogging can work for a gunsmith, why wouldn't it work for you?

Apparently the people of the country of Estonia really like to swing, but not your ordinary, everyday kind of swing. No, that's not good enough. They kiik. Kiik means swing in Estonian. Apparently "ing" means: try not to wet your pants. That would make the official translation, "swing while trying not to wet your pants."

These guys like their swings to go 360 degrees...and you stand up. No sitting on your rear like a lazy American. Personally, I like a little adventure. I'd bungee jump or sky dive, but for some reason this just bothers me a lot more than those. Maybe it has something to do with a bad experience on the pirate ship at Carowinds long time ago. Here's the kiik in action. Would you do this?

Yesterday I found a post from Hugh MacLeod about something he calls "social objects." Hugh draws cartoons and is also a savvy about social media marketer. Social objects are, as best I can define it, ideas, experiences, or goods that have value for the people you want to reach. This is so close, in my view, to how I look at content for social media, it's practically the same thing.

Whether we're talking about content or social objects, the key is using social media tools to create or spread something they find valuable. You want them to elect to have your idea, cartoon, or product. You're not forcing anything with this approach. They take it and run with it and you're glad for them to have it. If it costs them something, they will pay it because they have chosen it for themselves. If we're talking about free ideas, then it doesn't cost them anything but the time they spend, so they will take it and the ideas become part of their thinking.

So What?
So what does this have to do with your business and actually selling something? Everything. You may feel like creating valuable content is a waste of time when you should be out there selling yourself or your products. You may think this is all a luxury that other people have ,but you have more important things to do than create social objects. Hugh gives away his cartoons and even provides the high resolution versions so people can do other things with them. Think that's pretty dumb marketing? Well, here's Hugh's take, which is going to totally move your cheese if these are new ideas for you:

For example, in October, 2006 I post the Microsoft Blue Monster cartoon. Within a few months Microsoft is somehow paying me a lot of money to do other drawings for them. Without the former, the latter would never have happened. And without the latter, Sun Microsystems would never have approached me. Everything feeds into everything else. Exactly.

In other words, I don't create the online cartoons as "products" to be sold. I create the cartoons as "Social Objects", i.e. "Sharing Devices" that help me to build relationships with.

As with all things, the REAL value comes from the human relationships that are built AROUND the social object, not the object in itself.

I have seen this same principle work for my own business many times. Many of my clients have stories just like Hugh's above. This is a paradigm shift, but I think it's helpful for people who haven't quite figured out that social media marketing is more than just using new technology. It's about social objects and content that people find valueable. Once enough people find value in something you provide the revenue will follow.

I'd like to make a request: please be quiet. Don't say anything. Please don't say anything at all to the people you're trying to reach, and especially don't try to do it with social media tools. Don't even think about starting a blog or creating a YouTube channel or signing up for Twitter. Please don't begin a Facebook group, Flickr page or launch a podcast. Don't do any of these. Just be quiet, unless of course, you really have something to say.

Sure, a lot of people are using social media. According to Forrester's early 2008 data, 90% of Americans between 18-24 years old, 84% between 25-34 years old, 76% between 35-44 years old, and 72% of 45-54 year olds are using some kind of social media. Clearly, most Americans are online and using social media technology, but please don't let these numbers encourage you to begin engaging them in social media unless you actually have something to say.

So how will you know if you have something to say? Start with these:

• If you have truth to share, you have something to say.
• If you have an experience to draw from, you have something to say.
• If you know something I should know, you have something to say.
• If you can tell me about someone I should meet, you have something to say.
• If you have perspective where I am lacking, you have something to say.

The biggest misconception about social media tools is that they fix communication issues. They don't. They merely extend the reach of what you already have to say. Therefore, if you don't have anything to say already, you now have the opportunity to be equally ineffective to a larger number of people.

Social media doesn't consist of magic beans and pixie dust. It doesn't create something for you that wasn't there to begin with. If you're saying nothing today, you will say nothing in more places with social media. Your silence will be amplified and resound with a great hollowness that would echo for eternity if not for the absence of anything there in the first place.

My advice to anyone interested in social media tools is that they immediately forget about it. First, figure out what you actually have to say. What is the message? What compelling content do you have to offer? To what degree are you willing to engage in conversation openly and candidly with people who may want to talk to you?

These are the types of questions that are appropriate to get started. The wrong questions begin with choosing technology. The technology should fit the content, not the other way around.

Content, then, becomes your focus rather than the technology. Content is the basis on which people will measure you in social media. Good blogs have good content. Bad blogs have bad content. The content is not good because the blog is good. The blog is good because the content made it so.

As you consider social media as a means of reaching people, don't neglect the more important task of focusing on great content. Yes, you can reach far and wide with social media tools. Social media has become a useful and persuasive force. It's wide access and ease of use have created more opportunities for more people than media has ever provided in history. The case is compelling and seemingly irresistible, but if we want to reach people with these great tools and we don't do it with compelling content, then what are we really doing? We might as well just be quiet.

Movie scores wouldn't be anything as we know them today without the well-known composer John Williams. He's responsible for the scores from movies like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Jaws, Superman, Jurrasic Park, and Schindler's List...and that's just a sample. Seriously, this guy's written some of the best known film scores ever. It was only fitting, then, for someone to show a little love. And this is what they came out with:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4]

If you want a little more John Williams check out this video.

Twitter provides the uncanny opportunity for you to connect with people. Whether you find them or they find you, the potential to discover like-minded people is perhaps one of the best things about Twitter. In many cases you don't personally know the people you're connecting with and that's why you want to make sure your Twitter account legitimizes you. Whenever you follow someone on Twitter they will most assuredly check out your Twitter page to see what you're all about.

They're probably wondering these questions:

• Who are you?
• Why are you following me?
• Why should I follow you?
• Is this person legitimate or are they a spammer of some kind?

Surely not everyone thinks each of these questions when someone follows them, but these are the things that run through my head. I'll typically follow anyone who seems like they share a common interest with me, even if it's a remote interest. I'm always more likely to follow a person rather than an organization but in the end the decision comes down to whether I think you're legitimate or not.

In an age where we can have friends that we'll never meet in person, legitimacy is a big issue. You want to do everything you can to show people you're a well-meaning, legitimate, non-spammy kind of person.

There are several things you can do to your Twitter account to show that you indeed are legitimate:

1. Add your picture to your profile. A logo or some other picture is all right, but there's no denying the connection of knowing what someone looks like. By adding your picture, you remove the opportunity for suspicion because if you don't use it, it's possible a potential follower could say, "Why won't he/she show us what they look like? Are they hiding something?" More than likely you're not hiding, but the absence of the picture can always make people wonder. Besides, you're blowing an opportunity for real life connections. Your face becomes your brand on Twitter, so how well branded are you right now?
2. Add a link. Your Twitter profile will let you link anywhere you want. This is your best opportunity to let people find out whether your legitimate or not. If you're a blogger, send people to your blog. If you're not a blogger but work for a company and are on the corporate "about us" page, link there so we can see who you are and read the bio. You just want to give people the opportunity to find out more about you to validate that you are who you say you are and subsequently worth knowing.
3. Write a bio. Fill in your bio (within the 160 character limit provided) on the page. This is probably the least important thing you can do but it's still helpful to give a snapshot of who you are and what you're all about.

I'm surprised how many people don't actually do these things. Sometimes people just forget to go back and check a few of these after they set up their accounts. That happened to me actually, so I understand. Twitter works best when you know you're getting insight from legitimate people, so do everything you can to show you're an authentic person. You know you're real so why not let everyone else know too?

On the American Express Open Forum there are many great videos from well-known business leaders. In particular, there are several really good clips from an interview with Seth Godin and Tom Peters. In one clip, Godin and Peters specifically talk about the importance of blogging and have many excellent things to say about why they view blogging so favorably.

Godin on Blogging
Godin says that what matters about blogging is the humility that comes from it, thinking about how you're going to say something, and learning how to explain yourself. You do this to force yourself to become part of the conversation even if it's not a big conversation, and that posture change, changes everything.

Peters on Blogging
Peters had one of the strongest statements about blogging in business I've ever heard. He said, "No single thing in the last fifteen years, professionally, has been more important to my life than blogging. It has changed my life, it has changed my perspective, it has changed my intellectual outlook, it's changed my emotional outlook (and it's the best damn marketing tool by an order of magnitude that I've ever had.)"

Here's the link to see it for yourself.

Side Note - AmEx's Open Forum Isn't: Incidentally, in a strange twist if irony, I must say that American Express totally dropped the ball here. Despite the fact that this is the "open" forum, the ability to share the videos is quite closed. They're all for people promoting the videos via Digg, Delicious, Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon, but the absence of allowing the videos to be shared while embedded in blogs is noticeably absent. I would have loved to embed the video in this blog post, but the Open Forum is closed to bloggers. Oh well. They get an A+ for content and a C- for execution.

I was talking to my friend Ray Sadler recently about blogging. We were discussing the fact that the idea of blogging is increasingly appealing to people even though they may not know the full extent of what blogging requires. They like the idea of blogging, but aren't thinking about the commitment to blogging that's necessary. Ray likened it to sex because the idea of sex, and sex itself, is great, but not everyone is ready for the baby that may result from the sex. You may say, "yeah, but what about birth control?" Well, there's no birth control in blogging. You're either prepared to do it for the long haul or you should abstain. It's really that simple.

Your blog requires feeding with a regular diet of good content. She requires regular care and attention. She'll wake you up in the middle of the night with an idea that you absolutely have to get out of your head. She'll expose things about you that you never knew about yourself. She'll challenge you, frustrate you, and bring more joy than you ever thought a little blog could.

The next thing you know she's all grown up and getting attention from guys like Google and Yahoo! Pretty soon your blog's introducing you to people you would have never known otherwise. Some of those people will help your business. Some of those people will become friends. Some of those people will need your help.

Then, one day down the road, you'll be thinking about your blog and realize none of that would have happened without her. That's when you know it was worth the time, effort, frustration, and expense...and you'll smile proudly.