Some ideas are so good they don’t need much promotion or buzz to be successful, the buzz finds the event. I felt like our community-inspired Comcast New Media Exchange (social media training for non-profits) fit that bill. We were able to help connect our non-profit community members and our social media enthusiasts in an event that created networking opportunities and gave us all good ideas and motivation to connect with each other using grassroots new media tools.

I traveled from my home office in Seattle to Philadelphia to attend the event and help with logistics, tweet from the official @CNME account and even conduct some interviews with the speakers.

While I was there, I met quite a few interesting people, learned a few things and joined the conversation—both at the event and online via Twitter.

What was most interesting for me? I boiled it down here:

  1. The time to play with this stuff is gone, and it’s now time to get useful stuff done with social technologies. (Josh Bernoff)
  2. Take a long term look. What are the big moments in our org? How can we capitalize on those using social media? (Andrew Bleeker)
  3. The sites and tools change so fast. Instead focus on the underlying social trend. People are drawing strength from each other online and these technologies are making that easier and more powerful. (Josh Bernoff)
  4. On adding comments to a blog: You’re allowed to disagree but not denigrate. (Scott McNulty)
  5. Remember to use URGENCY in your campaign. (Andrew Bleeker)
  6. What you do to raise money on the Internet is integrated with your entire online strategy, your community building, your content, etc. (Tom Mattzie)
  7. "If you want to create a (blogging) community, you can’t be a summer home. You need to be open all year." (Chris Krewson)
  8. Building Community: Find people where they already spend their time. Fish where the fish are. (Andrew Bleeker)
  9. The most effective online advocacy and fundraising appeals from non-profits are part of a campaign, a larger story. (Deborah Rosen)
  10. We built a brand but realized we needed to build a movement. Tell the story. (Rene Bardorf)
  11. Find somebody in your organization who gets social media. Listen to them, and integrate it into your strategy. (Rob Gordon)

Information on the panelists, their discussion topics, and to view webcasts from each speaker, click here.

There have been a couple informative blog posts written about CNME on Comcast Voices: Gene Morris’s thoughts, Frank Eliason’s idea that spawned the event, and a quick video with tips from our speakers about how non-profits can use Social Media.

We’d love to hear from you. What was your favorite part or quote from the event or webcast? Got ideas for a future Comcast New Media Exchange or webcast? Tweet us @cnme @ShaunaCausey @JorgeAlberni or @ComcastVoices or email me at Shauna_Causey@cable.comcast.com and I’ll share your idea with the rest of our CNME team.