Moxley Carmichael creative director Charley Sexton and I attended the SocialFresh Nashville conference on Jan. 11, 2010. The group of 270 attendees was friendly and fun to be around. The speakers were insightful and — more importantly — experienced. Big thanks to the Social Media Club of Nashville for volunteer staffing. You guys were helpful and on top of everything, even finding my missing nametag. And of course thanks to Jason Keath (Twitter, web) for being the big brain behind SocialFresh.

I take notes at events with pen and paper. Sure, many of you cannot imagine anything but a computer or other gadget, but for me it’s great. If I write something down I can remember it better and when I get back I can reinforce it again by typing it all up. I guess it’s a habit from college that never left.

So after writing then typing, in no particular order, here are my takeaways from SocialFresh Nashville 2010:

• When creating content for your company or cause, be passionate about your topic and make it personal. Passionate and personal is more interesting.
• When using that content to connect with potential customers, first ensure the content is helpful and relevant. Make selling very subtle. If your intent is only to sell and not to first add value, that intent will come through, and you risk being ignored.
• Let your use of online tools evolve with the needs of your followers and fans. In the beginning, Southwest Airlines’ Twitter followers only wanted weather updates and trivia. After a couple of years they were ready for ticket promotions. Southwest adjusted the outreach with the needs of their Twitter audience.
• If you’re advocating for new media in a corporate environment, establish an executive sponsor who can help. Then educate employees so they’re behind you.
• Decide early whether you want big numbers of followers/fans or a smaller, more relevant group. This decision will affect how you operate.
• Be efficient and choose the right tool. If you require only a few sales or have limited inventory, targeted landing pages or pay-per-click advertising may be more effective than a big new media campaign.
• With metrics, patience is important. You need data over time to compare results, and you need patience to get data over time.
• And finally, my No. 1 takeaway: When deciding what to track, ask “To do what?” after each metric. Examples: We want to track Facebook fans to do what? We’re tracking coupon redemptions to do what? Asking the question helps you focus on results and spending resources tracking what’s most important to you.

Were you at SocialFresh Nashville or another SocialFresh event around the country?  Please add your own thoughts and takeaways in the comments.

To find out how Moxley Carmichael can help you put these ideas to use for your business, contact us today.