I’m finally back home after two weeks of vacation and conferences (and back to internet access that actually works!!) and I got to say – even though I’ve been working for the past week in a different location, it’s still nice to get away from the daily grind and get out of your zone for a bit.  I feel really renewed and I can’t wait to get back into the swing of things tomorrow.

Social South, in case you haven’t heard me talk about it, really changed the way I look at the business I’m in.  Number one, being a designer that speaks developer and marketer is a great thing to be – it’s almost like I’m the trilingual translator in the room – whether it’s CMYK or CPM or C++ (OK, so I don’t know C++ but I do know what it IS) I can usually hold my own in conversation.

But, beyond that, I have had a lot of my faith in humanity restored by what I saw this weekend.  Esra’a Al Shafei’s keynote was absolutely amazing.  Any review I would say wouldn’t do it justice.  My final takeaways, although not nearly as as profound, are still important to me.  They are:

1. There’s some amazing talent out there, both from Birmingham and beyond.  I’ve emailed a lot of people from here who do a lot of things – a truly diverse group.
2. Social media isn’t just about the technology.  Anything we do, whether online or offline, plays into our personality.  And having the offline is just as important as the online – there will never be a substitute for an in-face meeting or real interaction with real people.  Social Media enhances those relationships.
3. I really need to break out into the church space.  I never realized how passionate I am about it until the Saturday session about Church and Social Media – can’t wait for those slides to come out so I can pour over them again.
4. There are some great people in Birmingham.  If I had to choose another city to move to, it’d be that.

I’ll add to this list as I find more, and as people remind me of more, but after a vacation, I need a vacation (or at least a good night’s sleep).

Today was Day 1 of the Social South conference in Birmingham, and everything was definitely in full swing from the get-go.  Although it’s late, I do have some takeaways I want to talk about so I can get them out of my brain and onto the blog.

1. No one is an expert in Social Media – it’s too new of a medium for anyone to be an expert.  Calling yourself an expert only makes it apparent that you aren’t really an expert.
2. People seem to really love Robert Scoble here.  Apparently, in 10-15 years, all of us will be like him and will have our own spheres of influence. 
3. It’s not how many followers you have, it’s how many fans you have (and no, you don’t need 10K followers to have fans).
4. It doesn’t matter how much social media you use – if your product sucks, it will always suck.  Put out a better product.
5. Above average is the new average – you can’t do anything less online, because people expect the extra mile.
6. Being a designer that understands marketing in a room full of marketers is a fun place to be

Honestly, it all boils down to taking care of people by putting out great content.  By providing great content, you provide your readers with a reason to trust what you say. As that trust builds over time, they start to tell others, who tell others, who tell others still, until you can become one of the Rockstars that people talk about so much in this field.

Tomorrow’s going to be just as awesome, I can tell, so I’ll see you guys there!

Ever since I heard about SoSo back, waaaaaay back a year ago I’ve been looking forward to when it would come to fruition.  Well, tomorrow, that day finally arrives.  It’s been a while in the making, but the Magic City becomes abuzz with speakers, social media enthusiasts and others who are interested in learning or teaching their craft.

There are high level speakers (the keynote is Richard Binhammer & Lionel Menchaca from Dell and even a speaker livecasting from Bahrain).  And, there’s me, a not-so-high level (compared to some of the other talent that’s going to be there).  I’ll be doing a roundtable discussion with fellow WordPress enthusiast Andre Natta and Jeff Vreeland tomorrow afternoon.

I’m also going to (hopefully) be videoing myself interviewing my friends and coworkers there to see what they plan on learning, if nothing else for practice when I start doing the videoblogging on here I want to do.

So, If you’re coming, see you there, and make sure to hook up with me and say hello!