The kids are back in school. Halloween candy is stocked on store shelves. And before we know it, the ball will drop on the new year. Have you done everything that you wanted to this year: on your website, in your publications, with your money? If not, now is the time to get busy. Here are six things to do before 2008 is history:

The private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, specializing in the media, communications and information industries, recently released their annual report on media spending. According to the report, total communications spending is projected to grow 5.4 percent in 2008 to $924 billion. Outsourced custom publishing was one of the eight media segments that exhibited double-digit growth from 2002-2007. Along with word-of mouth marketing, pure-play Internet and mobile services, branded entertainment, out-of-home media, professional and business information services, VSS predicts that custom publishing will continue its growth momentum over the next five years, resulting in a solid decade of double-digit gains.

The Hammock spelling bee team swapped paint with 10 other great teams in the 15th Annual NALC Spelling Bee on Sept. 9, and, after sustaining some sheet metal damage, finished out of the money for the first time in 4 years.

The evening’s theme was NASCAR, so the track was littered with racing terms. Hammock ran into trouble on the word “monocoque,” literally “single shell,” which is a term used in auto and other kinds of design. We overcorrected by spelling it “monococque,” and spun out in the “chicane,” another racing word we heard last night.

A non-racing word that quickly became the most-uttered term of the evening was “Pshaw,” a somewhat archaic interjection that was more polite to say as teams fell by the wayside than what most of us were thinking.

The winner of the evening was the law firm of Neal & Harwell, who ran neck and neck with Davis-Kidd Booksellers until nosing ahead on the word “inchoate.” They sealed their victory by correctly spelling “shibboleth.”

Beemasters were author Ann Patchett and her husband, Karl Vandevender. Both of them struggled at times with pronunciations and joshed with each other throughout the event, which was entertaining—when it wasn’t distracting.

Hammock congratulates Neal & Harwell on their victory, but cautions them not to get too attached to the traveling trophy. We’ll be back next year to reclaim it.

Recently I asked three of our printers why it is so important for us to deliver our files on schedule. And all three basically gave the same answer.

We’d already been toying around with the idea of writing a post on soliciting and handling content from your members, when SNAP beat us to it. So first, we recommend you check out Gregory Fine’s tips on handling volunteer content on the SNAP website.
I’ll add these thoughts, based on Hammock’s years of working with association publications. Consider these ideas as you manage your publication and your volunteers. Every association is different, so you’ll need to create a process that works for you.

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite tech bloggers, Louis Gray, wrote a great item regarding the myth of “social media overload.” In it, he listed what he thinks are the types of social media a person needs to be using these days in order maintain his or her identity online and to engage in the conversations taking place on the world live web.

The list, which likely will appear daunting to you if you don’t maintain any of them, is a great roundup. As many of the accounts he mentions work with one another (as in, when you update one, it will notify the other), the task of maintaining them is not as challenging at it may appear.

Most importantly, Louis explains that you don’t need to register for every new version of each one of these categories of services. People like Louis (and me) will sign up for every new one of these we run across, but that’s mainly for research purposes.

Here’s what Louis describes as a “full deck” of social media tools:

1 or more blogs that you manage.
1 or more accounts on an RSS feed reader.
1 or more microblogging identities.
1 or more accounts on a business networking tool.
1 or more accounts on a social network.
1 or more accounts on a service aggregator or lifestream.
(Also helpful: A social bookmarking site, online photo site, music recommendation service, etc.)

While I agree fully with Louis, if I were just starting out doing all of this and looked at this list, I’d probably not start. That’s one of the reasons I recommend people set up a FaceBook account (even if they are outside its core demographics). It is one service that lets you experiment with all the types of features and functions Louis lists. Personally, I have several reasons that FaceBook doesn’t work for me, but when it comes to providing a way to manage your identity, network of connections and a means of expressing yourself online, FaceBook is the benchmark service. Nothing else — and by nothing else, I mean LinkedIn or Plaxo — comes close to packaging together so many different functions and features.

Here’s the deck of social media tools I use most:

RexBlog.com: For the most part, this is what I consider to be my professional and business-related focus (media, technology, conversational & new media, marketing, magazines). However, I do reserve the right to head off into totally unrelated topics at times.
Delicious.com/rexblog: These are sites I bookmark that are related to business-related topics. I sometimes refer to this as my “link blog.”

Hammock.com/rexhammock : My official Hammock Inc. “people page.”

RexHammock.com : Personal passions and random-topic tumble-log.

Twitter.com/r : Stream-of-life commentary in < 140 character posts, and where I “hang-out” online.

Flickr.com/rexblog : Where I post photos.

YouTube.com/rexhammock : Where I post videos.

FriendFeed.com/rexhammock : A “lifestream” (a combined flow) of everything I post anywhere.
Facebook, Linkedin, etc.: I don’t really “express myself” on these and other “social networking” sites, but on most of them, you can find me if you search for my name or the username “rexhammock.”

Bonus advice for those who have several cards from the social media deck: Use the microformat tag rel=”me” (as explained here) when you link between your “full deck” of accounts. Technically, I’m not sure what I just said, but Kevin Marks told me to do it so I do. I don’t know exactly how it works, but the result is this: When you Google my name, all of my different social media accounts show up, even though they have different usernames (rexblog, “r”, rex, rexhammock).

It’s the beginning of September and we already have one of the features (edit, photography and layout) ready for the December/January issue of MyBusiness. How’s that for working ahead?
Are we studious? Umm, yes, but that’s not exactly why the story’s ready to go. You see, that feature was slated for October/November up until pretty much the last minute, but we ended up not having room for it, so we’re putting it in the next issue. You didn’t think we were just going to throw it away, did you?

Awards contests are the term paper/finals of the publishing industry. As a custom media company, Hammock enters a number of contests each year, and we’ve done well. Entering a competition is a true team effort – at the minimum you involve at least one editor, a writer, and a designer, More often, you have to pull everyone in and engage in serious discussions about your product and about strategy.

That takes a lot of time – and the fact that competition sponsors often extend the deadlines testifies that most companies go down to the wire to get the job done. If you’ve done it, you know. If not, I’m here to help you through the process.

Over more than 21 years with custom media firms, I have somehow regularly drawn the award entry wrangling duty. So I feel that I can speak as an expert when it comes to making it to the FedEx collection center just before closing.

Here are my tips for my fellow competition wranglers:

The basic building block – the DNA, if you will – of the United States Marine Corps as a fighting force is the rifle squad. And in an era of asymmetric warfare, the Corps is reshaping and re-equipping its squads to do more and do so with greater autonomy.
As described in the latest issue of Semper Fi, the member magazine we publish for the Marine Corps League, “The Marine Corps is the only military service in the world that uses a 13-man infantry squad … The squad is the lowest element in the Marine Corps that can actually receive a mission.”
The new issue of Semper Fi explores how the Corps is modifying its DNA at a new facility called “The Gruntworks” aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA. With the assistance of field-proven Marines, the Gruntworks crew is working to lighten, toughen and make more efficient every ounce of gear carried by today’s Marines. That’s a tall order – typical equipment loads can weigh 100 pounds or more.
Elsewhere in this issue, we begin exploring the history of Camp Lejeune, NC, and the Marines presence in the Carolinas. The flat, sandy coastal beaches have seen innumerable practice assaults as the Corps developed and continues to perfect its signature amphibious attack methods.
Semper Fi also revisits Beirut, Lebanon, where 25 years ago this Oct. 23, terrorists bombed the Marine peacekeeper barracks, killing 221 Marines as well as other military personnel. Many regard that as the first open shot in today’s Global War on Terror.
We also remember another iconic moment in Marine history – the 90th anniversary of the bloody, WWI battle of Belleau Wood, France, where tradition holds that the US Marines earned the nickname “Devil Dogs” as they ferociously defeated a larger German army and turned the tide of that war.

Every year at this time, Hammock editors work with our clients to compile annual editorial slates. Here are a few hints we’ve learned that make the process go more smoothly—and pump up magazine stakeholders about the coming year.