I have had the weekend to process my thoughts about Day One of Blog Indiana.  First comment: Noah and Shawn once again put on a great show.  This years event was absolutely the best, and I am sorry I couldn’t participate for both days.

I have stacks of notes, (ok Megs of digital notes) lots to think about and lots to share.  Here are just a few of my key takeaways from the day:

• @JasonFalls – Social Media Explorer opened the conference with a presentation on making social media a conversation.  I have heard Jason speak on several occasions before this, and I always enjoy his sensible approach to social media.  Friday was no exception.  There was so much content  in his presentation, but the core was the idea that you need to build trust.  And the things you do to build trust on line is not all that different then what you do to build trust off line.  More from this session
• IU East is a small school, making big waves with social media.  Taking an integrated approach, tying their media together ( print and eResources) and getting everyone, even the Chancellor of the university involved they are one of the most engaged universities.  Sure IU Bloomington, has many, many, many more students connected to their fan page, but when you look at real engagement : Likes and Comments per post compared to the total number of fans, IUE outperforms Bloomington.  This session really made me  think about who are my peers and competition on line.   It may not be companies of the same size at all.
• Jeremy Dearringer, the CEO of Slingshot SEO, had some interesting information to share about what affects your online reputation.  What stood out most for me the most was how quickly negative information can spread.  70% of surfers will click on negative result first.  You have to have a lot of very positive information to combat a little negative press.   The other really powerful element was the fact that people search for company names more often then key words.  And when they do, the conversion is significantly higher.
• A look behind the scenes at Scotty’s was great.  While I was sorry I didn’t get to see @brewhouse himself, he was well represented by Bruce McClain.  And that was an important part of the message – To be successful, your social media strategy has to grow out beyond the owner!

That is just a start.  There are a few more longer posts in the works with themes inspired by other sessions.  And I can’t wait for the video to see what I missed.  what did you learn at BIN2010?