If you’ve ever heard me speak, you know that I am a strong believer in talking to people offline. But, alas, I find myself tied to the office more often than not. But on Friday, I escaped.

If you’re in the area, you surely heard about BlogPotomac. It was billed as a “one-day event with nationally renowned speakers and advanced discussion of best social media marketing practices.” Sure, it was all that. But for me, it was a day filled with inspiration. I listened with attention and found myself getting new ideas for procuring, analyzing and understanding social data and content. I love that stuff. It’s just how I roll.

I was going to summarize the day, but Serengeti Communications did a nice wrap up already. And besides, I thought I’d just bullet my biggest take-aways:

• Make the time to follow the Society for New Communications Research more closely and contribute to the research arsenal!
• Companies that speak with only one voice are not taking advantage of the richness and opportunities online. Framework and culture are important considerations.
• Not every post/tweet/comment warrants a response.
• In social media, judgment is key. Like I tell my kids, “Make good choices.”
• Relationships online are real.
• Your network is a social media monitoring tool.

And the number one most repeated theme:

• It’s not about the tools.

Clearly, a lot more was said than that. There are a plethora of brilliant marketing and communications people online to read and follow. There is, in my opinion, no better way to dig deeper than to read them, follow them, and watch what the brands out there are doing.

Here are the folks who presented, you may want to check them out!

Shel Holtz (@shel)
Shireen Mitchell (@digitalsista)
Scott Monty (@scottmonty)
Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss)
Amber Naslund (@ambercadabra) and Aaron Brazell (@technosailor)
Shashi Bellamkonda (@shashib)
Doug Meacham (@dougmeacham), Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava) and Kaitln Wilkens (@catchuplady)
Co hosts: Geoff Livingston (@geoffliving), Jen McClure (@SNCR) and Viget Labs (Brian WIlliams , CEO is @barn)

-Wendy