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.

We have another batter up for social media batting practice. Dave Delaney has recommended five tips for a pediatrician. The full scenario and his ideas are below. While we’re on the social media batting practice topic…Mitch Joel included a comment from me on his most recent episode of Six Pixels of Separation. He had some great additional info to include. Here’s the scenario that was pitched to Dave and his ideas follow…

Scenario: A pediatrician wants to know how she would be able to use social media to promote her practice. She’s currently spending money on local advertising in multiple areas and wants to know how social media marketing would work for her. She’s not viewed as the best pediatrician in her community but is widely recognized as one of the top five.

Dave’s ideas:

1. I would recommend that the pediatrician create a Google Adwords campaign targeted to her local zipcode(s).
2. I’d advise that she be sure she is included on Goggle in their business search results by adding herself to Google maps.
3. Depending on her available time and interest, I would suggest developing a blog and posting to it regularly. The blog would also offer all appropriate social bookmarks and tags.
4. She should also considering posting on local parenting forums always being sure to link back to her website.
5. Finally, she should consider sponsoring a quality parenting Internet radio show (AKA “podcast”) like Two Boobs and a Baby.

Thanks for the ideas Dave. I’ll include a similar real-life scenario I discussed a long time ago about a blogging dentist I know here in town.

A few weeks ago I was blessed and honored to sit down for a few minutes with Dan Miller, the author of No More Mondays and 48 Days to the Work You Love for his podcast. We talked specifically about why you should care about blogging and other social media, how a person can use new media tools to promote what they do, some examples where I’ve seen this work, and how to get started.

Here’s a link to listen to the interview on Dan’s website or subscribe to Dan’s podcast and listen to it there.

If you want to know a bit about what Dan’s specialty is, check out this video of him on a recent Dave Ramsey Show and his blog. Dan’s principles have a lot to do with where I am today professionally and I’m grateful for the time and wisdom he’s provided. He’s also a great person to work for because he knows what he wants to know, he knows what he doesn’t know, and he finds the people to help him know what he needs to know.