The document summarizes the author's experience and key learnings from attending the Social Fresh conference in Tampa, Florida. The conference had over 300 attendees and featured presentations from influencers like Chris Brogan and Jay Baer. The author shares their top 3 takeaways from the event: 1) Social media is about real people, not just profiles; 2) Big data is increasingly important for social media insights and targeting; and 3) Mobile engagement is critical as people spend more time on their devices.

1. Getting Fresh…Socially. A Social Fresh EAST Recap.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Social
Fresh conference in Tampa, Florida (they have a West
Coast version coming up this summer – check it out!).
Besides basking in the Florida sunshine, the conference
had a tremendous amount to offer. With 300 attendees
and a range of presenters, including Chris Brogan, Ted
Rubin, Jay Baer and more, my mind was literally
exploding at the incredible social insights shared over
this two-day event.
Of course, we also skipped, had chocolate chip cookies
and sat through a blackout. Not necessarily in that order.
There was never a dull moment at Social Fresh, to be
sure!
Jennifer Buggica shared some great takeaways from the conference over at CopyPress.
Shall I try whittling down two days of insights into a blog post myself? Why not? Here
they are: my three key takeaways from Social Fresh EAST 2013:
1. What’s underneath those social personas? Why it’s real people!
With all the posting, sharing, pinning, liking, tagging, and favoriting that we see on
social media each day, it can be eerily easy to forget that being those handles and
avatars are…*gasp* real people! In fact, when Spike Jones of WCG spoke about word of
mouth marketing and how this “old fashioned” phrase is incredibly relevant in social
media today, he observed the following:
So, what’s the point of social media then? It’s to inspire customers to have on- and
offline conversations about your brand. Spike also shared 5 truths about WOM that ring
especially true to social success and the human element:
1. It’s not about your product or service – it’s about passion.
2. Don’t seek out influence, create it. Find people who are passionate about your
product and make them influencers!

2. 3. Your community is not for everybody.
4. Find your rallying cry.
5. Think about content differently.
2. Big data is making a big impact everywhere…including social media.
Big data is a hot topic in IT and just about every industry nowadays. Data =
tremendous insight and potential to reach and engage millions of people. The
possibilities seem endless. So when Tom Webster of Edison Research spoke about
lessons for social marketers from the 2012 election, the topic of big data offered
incredible insight.
Specifically, Tom touched upon the professionals using historical data to predict
results, and also about the data used after the election. You may have heard pundits
referring to obscure metrics to show “how” President Obama won re-election. Tom
offers this caveat:
There is data out there to support pretty much every conclusion you can come up
with…but that doesn’t make it right! When examining social metrics and data, don’t
look for what supports your ideas, look for what debunks them completely. There
you’ll find the true insights and useful data you need to make the right decisions.
Some more “quick hits” from Tom’s presentation:
Watch out for the dangers of “snapshot” data – the quick number can be
deceiving!
Data storytellers are the future of social media – understanding data and
looking at it from the right perspective are great, but you have to be able to
tell a story from the data to make a real impact in social media.
Seek out conflicting and dissenting views as much as possible – in our business,
you can’t afford to blow off millions of people.
3. If you’re not focusing on mobile, you’re falling behind.

3. Ian Schafer of Deep Focus gave an excellent presentation called, “How to Develop
Your Mobile First Social Strategy,” offering startling statistics and tips for engaging
your target audiences on the mobile platform. Here’s one startling statistic:
Yup, from 2011 to 2012, the percentage of time people spent on computers decreased
for the first time. So where are all these people going? Are they outdoors more?
Drinking more coffee? Skipping the ole interwebs altogether?
Hardly.
They’re accessing and digesting information on their mobile devices. And the trend
will only continue to increase. So, how can you keep up? Presenting, Ian’s four key
cornerstones to effective mobile social content marketing:
1. Produce – Start from scratch and figure out how to solve the challenges in front
of you.
2. Publish – Create a dedicated team working on shareable content optimized for
sharing via mobile social networking feeds. Time x content = relevance!
3. Propel – Promote your content organically, don’t buy likes – it only dilutes your
audience. It’s much more effective to have followers that look like your
audience, not falsely inflated numbers.
4. Process – Cross-trained content publishers should make the decisions about
which content to boost to mobile feeds – and when.
I know there was a lot of information in these three key takeaways – and guess what?
These are just some of the takeaways…and all of the presenters I just mentioned were
from day 1 of the conference! Keep up on the remaining Twitter conversation from the
conference by checking out #socialfresh.
Have a social media question for the ClearEdge team? Want to share you social media
success stories? We’d like to hear them! Feel free to shoot us an email or share your
questions and stories in the comments section below.