Atomicdust

Ten Things I Learned at Social Fresh (In 140 Characters or Less)

by Danielle Hohmeier

This past week, I attended Social Fresh, a social media conference. 

That’s like when a bunch of nerds sit around and tweet each other from across the table, right? 

Well, sort of. I’m sure a lot of us are self-proclaimed nerds and there was a lot of tweeting going on... but that is not what Social Fresh is about. 

Social Fresh, the brainchild of social media consultant Jason Keath, is an one day event  that brings marketing professionals together to share insight on the evolving world of social media. The St. Louis event featured big name speakers like Jay Baer of ConvinceandConvert.com, Jason Falls of SocialMediaExplorer.com, and Amber Naslund of Radian 6.

After spending nearly ten hours listening to top-notch speakers and mingling with marketing professionals from around the country, my mind was buzzing. I left the conference with renewed inspiration in social media... and a notebook full of barely legible notes to be organized. 

I wanted to share with you some key bits of advice I took away from the conference, and, in the true spirit of social media, thought it would be best to write them in Twitter’s 140 character limit (by the way, I did not meet a single person at this conference who said, “Oh I don’t have a Twitter account. That is a waste of time.” What are you waiting for? Sign up.): 

• Case studies are great way to show success, but remember, there is no roadmap, no checklist. Every company needs their own strategy.
• Passion trumps position in social media. Don't just stick it in a department because it 'should' be there. Find someone who 'gets it.'
• You define the measurement. Start thinking in terms of Return on 'Objectives' rather than ROI. What did you want? Did you get it?
• "The thing about social media is the tools always change" (Jay Baer). It used to be Yahoo, used to be AOL. The tools have, and will, change.
• Leverage social media for your B2B interactions. At the core, they are both about relationships, loyalty, trust, and education. 
• Don't just talk about your product/company, talk about your category. Become a trusted resource for your customers.
• Numbers don't matter. Becoming a fan/follower only takes one click. Don't overvalue that click. Put the value on engagement and loyalty.
• People are sick of being bombarded with traditional marketing messages. It has to be about real conversations, not just about selling.
• "Social Media did not invent criticism" (Amber Naslund). They will have the conversation with or without you. You might as well be involved.
• Social media is about real, honest conversation. That is a basic business principal you should apply to all your marketing, not just online.

Overall, Social Fresh just reinforced what I already believe about social media- you can’t ignore it anymore. It is not a trend that will just go away. Will it always be Facebook? or Twitter? or Foursquare? Maybe not, but ten years ago, MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook didn’t even exist and now they see a combined 250 million unique visitors every month. Just think of where we will be in another ten years....

(Want more proof as to how fast digital media is changing? Check out this video.)

Danielle Hohmeier writes about marketing and design in the digital world for Atomicdust, with a focus on marketing convergence and social media.