Today, I joined a couple hundred of my new closest socmed Charlotte friends for an all day conference called Social Fresh. Established and ran by former Charlottean, Jason Keath, this six-session event was packed full of topics that ranged from community development to corporate social policy.

I really enjoyed the conference, mainly because it was small and intimate. I met a lot of new people like @jakrose, @yarby, @benjamingetz, @CaseyLBrewton, @MCDolphens, @GenevieveJooste, @Mysticle, @arsbars, @RichTucker, @waynesutton and many, many more. The size of this conference makes it one of the most approachable, memorable and fun conferences I’ve attended in a long time. If you get a chance to attend a Social Fresh event in the future, do yourself a favor and go.

As I mentioned, a lot was talked about during the event, but I walked away with eight key takeaways that I thought I would share with you.

• Remember “You don’t need a social media strategy. You need a brand strategy that leverages social media.” —Chris Kirubi, Chairman of Coca Cola Nairobi
• You/me, we need to be paying much more attention to #LinkedIn
• Being there before the sale is marketing…at the sale is sales…after the sale is service. —@gregcangialosi
• Social media is a beast. The beast must be fed and it’s food is content. —@gregcangialosi (One of my favorite quotes of the day)
• Communicate internal social media policies frequently. Make it precise, efficient & frequent —@DavidBThomas
• Marketing in the socmed space requires more people than you think. —@bwdumars
• Quality, (story and creative) is more important with web video because it stands alone and has to be good enough to get noticed.
  and finally…
• Seriously, bacon gum balls are the best thing I never want to eat again. Thanks @masstransmit

To top it off, here are some new online resources that I found out about today:

• glassdoor.com —an inside look at what companies are paying their employees
• socialmediagovernance.com —A fantastic source for guiding social media use within your company
• Radian6.com – listen, measure and engage with your customers across the entire social web

Did you go to Social Fresh or have you been to a social media conference lately? If so, what was one thing you learned? Leave you thoughts in the comments below.