My time spent in Portland for the Social Fresh Conference was definitely time well spent! Jason Keath puts on one hell of an event.

Here were my highlights:

Social Fresh Pre-Party Sponsored by TMMPDX

It was during this event that I finally got to meet some people I have been waiting to meet for quite some time! I have this desire to help Girl Power Hour expand and open in the San Francisco Bay Area. So I was thrilled to meet their Marketing Director, Zong Her and Social Media Director, Jeanna Barrett. They were all the greatness I figured they’d be!

I also met one of my “idol” Twitter friends, Matt Singley. Matt says funny things like, “I’m considering not wearing pants to my panel at 4:15, just to liven things up a bit #sofresh.” And Matt does funny things like actually following through with it. Just kidding.

And finally that night, I met Josh Groth. Extremely intelligent at just 23. I like to call him “pink shirt.” He was probably the only guy wearing a bright purple shirt at Social Fresh. He said he was proud of it. I let him know pink may have been even better. And we agreed that “pink it will be” next time.

Matt, Josh & I made our Social Fresh debut compliments of TMMPDX and YouTube.

I woke up bright and early the next day – Monday, March 29th – day of the actual Conference. I headed downstairs to get coffee and was pleasantly surprised for my next highlight: Meeting Christopher Penn.

I was on my laptop, tweeting as usual when I heard someone say, “Twitter?” I introduced myself, he sat down and we talked over coffee/breakfast. What I appreciated most about Chris was his knowledge on analytics and true ROI of Social Media. As a matter of fact, I went to his presentation later in the day called, “Goal Focused Social Media Analytics.” What I learned from him – there is a way to track everything. It just comes down to getting educated about how to find and use those resources to their fullest potential.

G.R.O.W
Bryan Rhoads with Intel brought to live this acronym G.R.O.W (the way a social media pattern emerges) for me.

• G: Grassroots
• R: Results (pilots)
• O: Optimize
• W: Widespread Adoption

Bryan also shared with us this Intel masterpiece. Prepare to be “wow-ed!”

Peter Shankman: Intelligence meets Humor
We ALL know who Peter Shankman is! We know him as the HARO founder. But did you know that he is the one behind the Titanic T-Shirts, “It Sank, Get Over It?” This viral idea spread to the media, found huge success and landed him to the start of his own PR Firm, The Geek Factory.

My favorites from Peter Shankman:

• His Four Rules: Be Transparent, Be Relevant, Brevity and always keep in Top of Mind with your Customers/Followers.
• Learn to write. (And I especially appreciated this, since it gets really old to see – 4. lol. c u later. where ru. etc.)
• Take the time to just call someone. The simple things can go a long way.
• “We are moving to a Facebook that will be powered by nothing more than personal relationships.”
• Poken. Check them out. (And ps. Peter, if you have extras, click HERE for my contact information. I’d like one. If nothing else, so that we can link-up!)
• Social Media is Customer Service.

And last, but not least….”Hang up the phone and text me.” Peter Shankman coined it, I will just replicate.

So what did I actually learn? I learned the underlying theme: Social Media requires patience, persistence, engagement and a consistent, honest and genuine effort. Companies, people and brands that embrace this will find the success they are looking for. I was thrilled when I realized that these are all qualities and ideas that I preach through #swmbo. And this makes me confident that I am headed in the right direction for myself and my clients!

Oh, and one more thing we must all remember….”And then again if that doesn’t work, I take them out for coctails.” (Side Note: He likes the Makers) – Matt Singley